Cost constraints combined with the effectiveness of employee engagement are driving the move of internal communications from traditional to digital media. AV News examines the trend and the business opportunities that it creates.
It’s not so long ago that the much derided ‘memo’ was the linchpin of day-to-day internal communications, sometimes supplemented by a regular company publication with production values approaching those of commercial publishers. Seldom read, and more often binned than filed for future reference, the abandonment of print was prompted by a mix of cost and doubts about effectiveness.
While the periodical all-employee publication isn’t making a comeback, niche uses of print, that are based on achieving measurable objectives, are making a comeback in many companies. Hospitals, for example, are returning to print to get messages to nurses and other staff who don’t have continuous access to the intranet. It’s costly and it also works – but delivery of a message in this format is far from instantaneous or dynamic.
Engagement
Today’s mantra for internal communications is employee engagement. Levels of engagement have decreased to alarmingly low levels. Gallup estimated that only 13% of employees worldwide are engaged while at work. Employees generally don’t care about the issues that keep senior management awake at night, unless these issues are expressed in such a way that they impact on particular employee groups.
Engagement also depends on the media used for communicating the message. According to one study, 72% of internal communications teams are planning to increase the use of video as a means of communicating with employees. More and more companies are adopting a YouTube-like approach to video, introducing video libraries that let employees search for videos, comment on them, tag them, embed them and upload their own as a means of sharing information and knowledge.
Likewise, engagement levels and interaction with images scores significantly higher than text in internal communications. Visual communication also lends itself to the latest internal communications technique – ‘garnification’. This is the technique of making activities and content often seen as boring, fun. Examples include content elements borrowed from gaming or a rewards-based programme, where employees benefit from watching internal communications content. Examples include quizzes on the content, with the leading participants ranked on the display.
Delivery
So, internal communications has to be engaging, dynamic, visually rich, interactive and fun. Two delivery channels commend themselves. In the workplace, digital signage has emerged as the leading delivery channel, with mobile as option where a significant number of employees work off-site, or want to consume internal communications content when out of the office. In an ideal world, the content would be available, in a similar format though both channels.
As an example of how digital signage can be deployed with the flexibility to satisfy a number of different stakeholder groups within an organisation, we can look at a recent installation by Siemens UK. The company has implemented digital signage throughout a number of UK offices to improve the delivery of their internal communications.
Eclipse Digital Media was asked by Siemens’ marketing and corporate communication teams to efficiently and effectively deliver messages to the right areas of their business at the right time. Eclipse Digital carried out a period of consultancy with Siemens to establish the goals and chose to install a network of ONELAN digital signage hardware to provide them with the tools needed to communicate efficiently.
As the project evolved, Siemens Industry, Siemens Global Shared Services and Siemens UK Corporate Head Office departments all required their own internal communication solution. The network provides the flexibility needed to allow different employees to access and update content locally for their department. It also provides the Siemens corporate marketing and communication teams the ability to distribute content to all departments across multiple sites as well as being able to specifically target messages to certain departments.
The Digital Signage network has so far been installed in several UK office locations including Manchester, Leeds, Handforth, Congleton, Worcester and Poole with the Frimley Head Office next on the installation list.
Communicating with the desktop
Where important safety and operational messages are part of the internal communications content delivering these messages to employees in operational roles can be a challenge. The Port of Felixstowe is Britain’s biggest and busiest container port, and one of the largest in Europe. The port handles 3.7 million TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) and welcomes over 3,000 ships each year, including the largest container vessels afloat today.
Around 75% of employees carry out operational roles including driving plant and supporting vessel operations, without regular access to PCs. The Port needed a way of providing consistent information to those in frontline roles who are delivering service to their customers every day.
The ‘Media Screens’, the Port’s digital signage project, provide an alternative source of information for employees in operational roles. After researching a number of options, A+K PADS was selected to manage content and deliver information to numerous locations across the Port. 26 screens have been installed in canteens, break areas, reception and other communal areas.
The Media Screens are used to communicate a range of information including progress against customer service targets, vessel and train information and changes to operational procedures as well as non-operational information such as weather, traffic and canteen menus. A+K also supported the Port to build bespoke widgets to graphically display multiple data elements in a format which is easily understandable at a glance.
Without dedicated resource, a small team have been able to support the development and scheduling of content across the Port. The Port has pushed the boundaries of PADS in terms of the range of content types, data sources and file formats they use. The Media Screens are one aspect of the Port’s wider communications strategy aimed at supporting the focus on helping employees understand industry changes and customer service priorities
Move to mobile
The Port of Felixstowe example highlights the advantages of digital signage where employees are scattered across a large site, organisations that employ significant numbers of remote staff face the challenge of providing consistent messaging over a wide area network. Here, mobile personal devices provide the platform and one of the solutions to the need port content across both large fixed displays and a mobile network has been developed by Piksel. The company’s Digital Signage platform, DS4, is said to empower global organisations to deliver information to their workforce instantaneously, including the delivery of corporate news to the connected devices of remote workers.
“The rise of remote working has created an unprecedented communications challenge for global companies, who need to be able to share information with their staff in a quick and reliable way. Increasingly, organisations are looking to implement digital signage solutions, which enable them to reach their entire workforce with a unified message,” explained a company representative.
Demand for such systems grew in almost every market segment in Europe in 2013, and a recent report from IHS predicted that the corporate sector will account for 704.7K displays in 2014. Piksel has developed DS4, an end-to-end digital signage offering that enables organisations to design, manage, store and broadcast branded multimedia content. Piksel’s DS4 can deliver content to a wide range of mediums including digital screens, directional signs, corporate Intranets and remote staff’s Android or Windows mobile devices.
The solution is available as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or as an on premise platform. It can be combined with Piksel’s Online Video Platform (OVP) to streamline the managing and publishing of media assets. Able to integrate with existing architecture, Piksel’s DS4 provides a one-stop platform, which allows the delivery of live, VOD and OVP content to multiple devices.
Mark Christie, Chief Technology Officer, Piksel explained: “The flexibility of DS4 enables organizations to harness the power of video to deliver targeted corporate content to fragmented workforces, whether on local displays around the offices or on remote workers’ mobile devices. The market is primed for a fully integrated solution which can deliver content to every screen, and the launch of our DS4 solution will provide European companies with the ability to make their internal communication resonate with their employee base.”
Internal communications: digital signage strategies
Digital signage can offer a solution to those organisations investing in long-term employee engagement. Digital screens can reach all employees from cleaners and chefs, to engineers and security guards, and ensure that the key drivers are consistently emphasised and acknowledged.
The principle capabilities of digital signage in internal communications applications include:
- · Highlight core company values and cultures
- · Make employees feel part of the “bigger picture”
- · Recognise employee and company achievements
- · Inform about training & development opportunities
- · Communicate long-term company strategies
- · Share success stories
- · Reward staff with incentives
- · Reinforce employer branding
- · Educate staff with key health & safety messages
- (Source: amsreen.eu)
