I believe the current consensus is that KPIs are communicated via pheromones. Both the location and density of pheromones are meaningful to the decision-making process of an individual ant. The large-scale behavior of the colony is a result of the totality of those decisions.

You make an unfair comparison, however. Numerous factors that constrain ant behavior (brain size, genetics, sterility, energy requirements, etc.) simply do not obtain for an organization of unrelated human beings.