Utilizing Internal Communication Strategies on Digital Signage
Your employees are key stakeholders in your firm similarly as they are representations of your company. With that, it’s critical for businesses to prioritize workplace satisfaction for employees.
“Ghost resignation” has become a new trend with employees. This term means employees have not filed for a resignation, but are mentally checked out in their position. Possessing ghost employees in your business can result in a lack of productivity and overall ROI loss. In fact, disengaged employees can cost your company more than $450 billion annually. With this realization, more business leaders are taking necessary measures to ensure their employees remain happy and satisfied at the workplace.
Effective internal communication might be what you need to increase employee engagement and productivity. Discover effective internal communication strategies in this article and learn how digital signage is the solution to achieving these strategies.
What Is an Internal Communication Strategy?
An internal communication strategy is a guide that helps you achieve internal communication success by implementing the internal communications plan. Your internal communication plan outlines the steps you will take toward ensuring better communication within the firm.
Benefits of Possessing Effective Internal Communication in Your Business
An effective internal communication process has tremendous benefits for your firm. These benefits include:
Increased Employee Engagement and Retention
Transparent and timely internal communication ensures employees feel valued by a company. Open communication channels ensure that employees can also contribute to the company’s growth. Indeed, employees stay in an organization where they feel their contribution matters.
Increased Revenue
Employee engagement can increase your company’s profitability by 21%. Therefore, better internal comms will keep your employees engaged and increase revenue.
Customer Satisfaction
A well-informed employee serves a client with reduced delay. Additionally, they don’t have to keep sending the client from one staff to another as they have the information they need.
Reduced Confusion
Effective internal communication ensures that employees receive company information promptly. Therefore, you can eliminate the ‘I wasn’t aware’ excuse responsible for the chaos in your office.
Utilizing Internal Communication Strategies with Digital Signage
Once you understand internal communication better and its benefits, the next step is implementation. You will need an effective internal communication strategy to help you achieve your internal communication goals.
Begin by asking yourself the following questions:
- What are the objectives of internal communication?
- What tools have you been using for internal communication?
- How effective have those tools been?
- What other internal communication tools do you need in your organization?
- What internal communication strategies can you implement, and what is the timeline?
- How do I measure and monitor the effectiveness of these internal communication strategies?
Answering these questions will help you draft an effective internal communications strategy. Furthermore, while answering these questions, include your employees in the discussion instead of having a top-down approach.
Digital signage is an effective communication tool that will help you implement your internal communication strategy. Here are ways to use digital signage to actualize your internal communications strategies for your corporate business.
1. Incorporate Visuals into Your Communication
Interestingly, 90% of the information your brain receives is visual. Visual messages are easy to digest and have a long-lasting impression on readers. Therefore, one of your internal communications strategies should be using graphics to communicate with your personnel.
You can have visuals for your company newsletter, new product information, new hires, and promotions through digital signage. Images on your display screens stick longer as the employees will remember what they saw on the screens.
2. Update Employees on Industry-related News
Effective internal communication has a responsibility to inform. A well-informed employee serves your customers well. Through digital signage, you can ensure your staff is up-to-date on industry-related news that will enhance their operations.
For instance, tourism information would be helpful to employees working in the hospitality industry. This way, such employees can offer beneficial advice to customers backed by credible proof.
3. Display Your Key Performance Indicators
What can be measured can be improved. When you’re transparent about the firm’s KPIs, your staff sees how their actions affect the company’s growth. Consequently, you experience less resistance when introducing growth strategies as employees understand why those strategies are essential.
Undoubtedly, you need to keep your personnel in the loop if you want them to identify with your big picture. Other than your office intranet, use your digital signage as an internal communication tool that displays your metrics through applications like the Power BI app located on content management software. This way, your employees remain motivated to contribute to the company’s mission.
4. Social Media Communication
Usually, most employers believe that social media is a distraction in the workplace. Inevitably, your employees will always find a way of checking their social media pages, even while at work. As a result, you could use social media to your advantage instead of resisting it.
Social media is a tool that you can use for company exposure and employee communication. Your staff can take pictures working, during meetings, or at company events and post them online. Encourage them to tag your company when they post company photos.
This way, your employees show their pride in being members of your company. Besides, such posts on social media give a face to your company. Consumers can see who they’ll meet when they visit your offices. You can display trending company hashtags and the best photos on your screens.
5. Employee Recognition
63% of employees receiving recognition at their workplace seldom look for other jobs. Your internal communication strategy should also focus on recognizing and appreciating outstanding employees. Part of employee satisfaction stems from feeling that one’s contribution to a firm has value.
For instance, your digital signs can celebrate employees of the month, birthdays, creative employees, and those with the best customer service. Such recognition increases employee retention rates and productivity.
6. Encourage Employee Feedback
Communication best practices demand that effective communication is a two-way channel. Your internal communication plan should also focus on encouraging employee feedback. A company culture that encourages employee feedback leads to employee satisfaction and retention.
Apart from face-to-face communication, have communication platforms where employees can communicate freely. This way, you will collect valuable ideas from your employees that could tremendously boost your company’s productivity. For example, you can use employee apps like Slack and Microsoft Teams to receive employee feedback.
Moreover, display the creative and beneficial ideas on your display screens to show employees that their ideas and initiatives are appreciated. Your employees will know that you hear them and implement their ideas.
7. Fun Communication
Your internal comms strategy should have fun as one of your communication goals. Happy employees are more productive than grumpy ones. Therefore, consciously create a fun work environment and improve the employee experience at work.
Digital signage can ensure you have a fun business environment. During random times in the day, display a funny work-related meme. During lunch breaks, have funny videos that will lift your staff’s mood as they prepare for the afternoon.
Moreover, have fun competitions once a month and display the progress and winners through your digital screens. A little fun will go a long way in motivating your employees to achieve your business goals.
8. Cross-Departmental Communication
Corporate communication requires cross-communication amongst the different departments in a firm. An employee may encounter a client who needs services that demand knowledge about other departments in the firm. Usually, this is a common occurrence in the marketing department.
Consequently, you will need to open up the communication channels between your departments. Digital signage will help you streamline and encourage company-wide communication. Your display screens can communicate information about the operations of each department.
Besides, if a department has essential information that affects other departments, they can display it on your digital screens. However, ensure you avoid information overload by communicating what affects everyone.
9. Real-Time Communication
Successful internal communication requires real-time updates. Outdated information causes delays, confusion, and frustrations. Therefore, you need a communication tool that ensures employees receive notifications promptly as the events occur.
Digital signage allows you to display real-time updates about events in the office. Actually, real-time communication is crucial, especially since the pandemic introduced the aspect of remote work. Remote workers need updated information about new products, meeting rooms, and company announcements.
Some digital signage software connects to Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook, which remote workers can use to stay informed about company events.
Internal Communication Strategy Template
Utilize the internal communication strategies listed above to enhance your company’s internal communication. Digital signage isn’t just an advertising tool, but, additionally, a communication tool. Your digital screens significantly contribute to your internal communication’s success and will improve employee retention and satisfaction.