“Good Communication is as stimulating as coffee, and just as hard to sleep after” – Anne Morrow Lindbergh
There have never been so many communication channels available to organizations and yet it remains challenging to get HR’s message across to employees. Whether it is essential information like a safety briefing, open enrollment messaging or news about a company family event – these emails will often get relegated to the bottom of a busy inbox. The intention is to read them later when there is “time” but before long HR’s email is so far down on the list it is easily forgotten. Spreading the message via social media or texts is seen as too invasive by some employees and is therefore not used. The age of the paper poster is also long gone. Although a company’s website usually contains huge amounts of useful information for employees it is hard to get them to visit the page regularly to view updates.
Digital signage provides the perfect solution to HR’s continuing headache. It is prime real estate placed in front of all employees and positioned in strategic locations to ensure the relevant messages are read, seen and absorbed.
The Evolution of Internal Communication
Traditionally digital signage has been used to engage customers but the benefits of its application as internal communication quickly became apparent. The digital signage format was developed to instantly grab attention with it’s dynamic screen and is perfect to entice employees to read the messages meant for them. One of the most important things with positioning digital signage in an office environment, is that the content needs to be fresh and constantly updated in order to keep pulling a person’s attention.
“The art of communication is the language of leadership.” – Bernard Baruch
You Company’s Daily Live Broadcast
The screens can be populated with important company information as well as traffic and weather updates and pertinent safety updates. When information is time sensitive digital signage steps in to broadcast the info in real time with visuals that pull focus to the message. If deadlines are looming reminders can be put up to keep personnel in the loop. These could take the form of countdown clocks to create the sense of urgency. Perhaps there have been some key benefit changes or altered KPI’s for a department and these corporate alterations can be quickly displayed. For employees who work on a shop floor type of environment and are not on company email, digital signage is the perfect solution to communicate with them on a daily basis.
The Great Motivational Driver
A digital signage platform can be the Tony Robbins style motivator that improves employee morale. HR can disseminate positive information about employee’s achievements like personal milestones, completion of certificate courses or landing a lucrative contract. These positive reviews and messages make the staff feel valued and this in turn acts a visual motivator. All of these efforts create a culture where people feel supported, which evokes a sense of company loyalty. The natural progression of these efforts is great employee retention which creates stability in the workplace. People feel valued and stay with a company that honors their achievements. The company gets the added bonus of saving on recruitment costs.
Improving Corporate Culture
HR can use digital signage as a way to re-enforce the company’s mission statement. Displaying the values and vision on digital sign boards can keep them top of mind and have a positive effect on corporate culture. Being able to communicate messages in multiple languages also creates a sense of inclusion and respect for the diversity of the staff complement.
“Communication leads to community, that is to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.” Rollo May
Managers don’t have to micromanage their teams when they have digital signage in their department. They can simply convey a message, concern or deadline reminder on the screen and employees don’t have to feel like the manager is breathing down their neck the whole day.
Extreme Personalization
You can get to know the personal interests of your employees and HR can choose to use digital signage to display relevant information pertaining to their hobbies. In an environment of multiculturalism, you can also honor the various cultures that make up your team by recognizing specific holidays, fun facts and other information that creates a sense of unity in diversity.
This highly personalized information can be targeted for different floors, departments or buildings so that the messages are given to the relevant parties and not necessarily the entire campus or office block. Information about maintenance being conducted in a specific office area will be displayed only to those who are going to be affected by it. You can target your message to the right audience with customized information.
Fostering Personal Growth
Digital signage can also be effectively used to promote personal development. Upcoming training opportunities or certification options can be advertised to increase participation. HR can really get creative with how these messages are displayed –they can use QR codes or quizzes to entice maximum engagement.
“Words are but the signs of ideas.” – Samuel Johnson
Finding the Perfect Balance
As people strive to find more of a work/life balance you can support this ideal by advertising specials related to gym membership, on-site day care perks and lifestyle activities outside the work environment. You can personalize these digital signage platforms to announce events like baby showers, end of year events, food truck specials at lunch times, birthdays and farewells. If HR is offering great weight loss programs or assistance with stopping smoking they can communicate these initiatives through digital signage that are clearly visible to the entire workforce. Wellness messages can be a constant feature on display. The applications are endless.
Wayfinding and Meeting Room Scheduling Application
Digital signage for wayfinding and meeting room scheduling have also been used successfully by HR to help people navigate around the building and to see who is using what meeting room and for how long. It vastly improves both visitor and employee experience where they can enable intuitive navigation. HR can use digital signage integrated technology that even handles meeting room reservations, showing which rooms are available in real-time.
Who’s Doing What in the Organization?
Digital signage also provides HR with a tracking possibility to show the number of employees engaged in various programs and how many have signed up for an activity, training session or social event. This kind of social proof generates further interest and engagement. Employees who participate in lifestyle changing programs can be congratulated via digital signage messages from the HR team.
Internal metrics can also be displayed that show success in production and sales. Everyone can be privy to how targets are being met and the overall performance of the company at that time. Being able to see stock prices and financial results can assist managers as they prepare for key meetings.
Simple, Entertaining and Highly Effective
There is no big procedure to update digital signage and new messages can arrive on screen instantly. They can pull in data from outside sources which can provide an entertainment element to the digital signage including videos, slides, positive social media mentions, RSS feeds, live data etc.
Memo’s can be lost, emails can be ignored but digital signage is eye-catching and gets the job done brilliantly.
Our Aurora Digital Signage team have the expertise and experience to set up a digital signage platform at your office. We can assist the HR department with options to keep employees informed, engaged and entertained. Give us a call today so we can walk you through your options.
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