The Five Fundamentals of Delivering Effective Internal Communications
Sunday, 19 April 2020 / Vaughan Reed
Sunday, 19 April 2020 / Vaughan Reed
I’m a firm believer that communication is the lifeblood of every organisation and the Internal Communications role is one of the most vital roles within medium to large organisations.
Globally, according to Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace, only 15% of employees are engaged at work. By and large, we put this down to key business units (i.e. Internal Communications, People & Culture, Health and Safety, Workplace Wellbeing and more) not having an effective communication channel to reach and positively influence behaviours within todays workforce. Businesses are still heavily reliant on text heavy, static methods of communicating business critical information, which are simply ineffective.
We live in an age where people are increasingly time poor and are constantly bombarded with information. On top of this, communication teams have the challenge of an age & culturally diverse workforce, non-deskbound workers and the trend towards flexible ‘at home’ working.
Businesses are now seeing Gen Zs entering the workforce and millennials make up roughly half of the current workforce. These are the digital generation, they are not wired to absorb text heavy, static information, and to be honest, who really is!
If businesses do not adapt the way they are communicating business critical information to match the habits and demographics of their workforce, their ability to influence positive behaviours will continue to diminish.
With 19+ years, helping clients with their digital strategies and more recently with 5 years specialising in internal communication, I’ve discovered that there are 5 fundamentals for delivering business critical information, if you want it to be seen, understood and remembered:
All 5 fundamentals are essential for the delivery of effective communication. As you can imagine, ticking all 5 boxes has a big impact on the type of communication channels available to organisations.
Vibe.fyi is a strong advocate for leveraging digital screens placed in common areas, such as lunch rooms and breakout areas. With the businesses we have worked with, this has been by far the most effective communication medium for getting vibrant messaging out to their workforce and displayed with a high level of frequency, without being intrusive or disruptive.
Just imagine pushing out a message via email or using collaboration software, such as; Teams, Yammer or Slack etc and sending out the same message 7 or 8 times. It would not only infuriate everyone, but repetitive messaging in this medium clutters the tool and becomes ineffective for what it was designed for.
For home and remote workers, I recommend leveraging a desktop screensaver and the ‘home’ page on your Web Browser. These two effective communication channels are simple but ideal for keeping the remote worker informed and connected with the office. Additionally, these two channels can be utilised within the office to reach desk-bound workers that may not frequent commons areas through-out their day.
Article By Vaughan Reed [LinkedIn]
Vaughan is the Managing Director @ Vibe.fyi. Making it easy for organisations to
communicate business critical information in a way that will inspire today’s workforce.
Vibe helps us get internal messaging to staff in a fun, graphic format.
As well as the serious stuff, slideshows of staff events are very popular. We also use Vibe to promote our outward-facing social media content inwardly to staff and visitors. Being a construction project we also use Vibe to show our office-bound staff what’s happening out on site which helps promote a greater understanding of progress and gives a feel of inclusion.
Excellent product, innovative company, the go to for digital signage
The ability to share general company information and specific site information to large groups of people
We have teams in different locations and a large number of contractors and it can be difficult to communicate with them.
With uncertain times, we have another communication channel to ensure our business key messages are been seen for those that com
This software is amazing
and there are some real cool features on here, easy to use, I wasn’t part of the integration process, but what I’ve learnt to date, has been really awesome.
The Vibe system is a great tool for bringing staff together and sharing news and event footage internally.
Great way to engage with the team, different to standard notice boards that the team don't look at it.
Keeps areas noise-free and are able to just have a tv screen with rolling information.
Really great for providing snackable and digestible content to the business.
Visually a great way to communicate and the impact when people see our big digital wall at reception is great.
[We can] easily share information to staff across New Zealand that isn't always available to them.
Different slide templates available - something always that works with what you want to share.
I find this platform very cool and a great way to communicate with and engage my non-wired employees.
The range of digital templates is extensive and the Vibe team support is outstanding. Vibe have customised a number of engagement campaigns far beyond my expectations. The feedback I get from my team tells me we are on the right track.
Vibe is a great internal communications tool that is user-friendly and customizable to your business.
Their customer service team is friendly and quick to get in touch if you have a query or issue.
Using Vibe is a really simple and effective way to help Ryman communicate key messages to all workers on our construction sites.
Rather than settling for basic posters that most likely do not get updated as often, moving imagery and fun colors and imagery catches the eye
This software has helped stop geographical office separation and team siloing.
Meetings are shorter and we can get immediate reporting to the whole business on performance without having to send more and more emails to get the data required.
Their customer service is exceptional.
From our very first introductory meeting, they have always been on hand to offer information, help and support... They proactively stepped in to help and found ways to make things work. They are all so friendly, knowledgeable and very responsive.
I would say using Vibe.fyi has been 100% effective!
Employees stop and look at the screens, our deskless workforce say they feel more informed as they saw something before their team leader told them
Vibe.fyi has transformed comms for our non-wired staff
The comm's tools we used for our non-wired employees weren’t up to the same level as those for wired. Vibe provides a way of supporting the key messages around safety, wellbeing, operational updates, employee recognition etc.
We’ve experienced a 20% reduction in volume of emails
...With an obviously more positive, interactive, connected and engaged workforce, who appear a lot happier!
Vibe has been a hit from the beginning! Better collaboration, visibility, sharing and accountability
We’ve also experienced a 60% increase in awareness of upcoming events in the business calendar and were able to celebrate at least five times more staff achievements than we could have using email.
Vibe.fyi has helped save time - increasing team efficiency and happiness!
Vibe.fyi has had a positive impact on team meetings – the duration of meetings has reduced by approximately 30% because of not needing to cover the tracking of core services.
The results have surpassed our own expectations
Around 90% of our key stakeholders have wanted to know how we implemented such a stunning platform and the CEO has been raving about it.
One of the most powerful solutions there is!
I haven’t seen a solution this powerful before! Our people absolutely love it and it’s helped us transform how we communicate
The Vibe team have been great to work with...
...super proactive, super helpful. Infact we haven't needed them too much because it's really easy to use and very simple and effective.
One of our favourite features is the ability to show social media feeds...
...and things like Yammer on our screens so our people can keep their finger on the pulse of what's happening and they don't have to be stuck behind their desks all day.
It saves time...
...it's a very modern solution and it helps engage and inspire our people.
If we took it away now, there would be a riot!
Being able to set all the screens up differently is fantastic. It provides a real 'feel-good' factor for residents.
It has helped raise awareness around services on offer
The screens have not only been a great visual aid for residents, they have also been an excellent marketing and sales tool
Vibe.fyi has helped the team improve resident engagement
They are hugely popular with residents who don’t have to leave the comfort of their own room to access up to minute information about what’s going on in the village.
The flexibility of the Vibe.fyi solution impressed our project team
Some screens show events; others display news, weather and quizzes; and others a ‘personal touch’, with birthdays and anniversaries.
The Vibe system is super easy to use, requiring minimal input.
It’s easy. I’m not an IT person at all. I think (the screens) are fabulous. They have been a great tool for improving the accuracy and recency of information, removing a lot of frustration around the village.
Vibe.fyi ticked all the boxes
When choosing a product, Vibe was head and shoulder above the rest, because it offered "The best and simplest application"
Our people love the wellbeing program content!
Our people are impressed that we are providing them with communication that is timely and will help improve their safety, health and wellbeing.
Vibe helps us visualise data
We have found Vibe very effective for some of the dashboard content we are promoting. Overall, it’s a great system and I would recommend it.
Vibe has worked during lockdowns; and beyond
We are an essential service, so we needed Vibe in all Distribution Centres during the first COVID-19 lockdown to provide H&S (COVID-19) information. It’s been the solution we needed to reach all of our staff in a timely manner, and we will continue to use the service to its full potential.
Vibe helps us drive engagement
It has enabled us to display life-saving rules, incentive tracking and information that hasn’t been available to non- wired staff previously. Definitely a very positive tool!
Vibe gets cut-through
Vibe is now officially part of our channel mix and is becoming one of our main channels of communication (and has the potential to become the main channel).
Vibe offer great technical support
Site leads have appreciated the support offered by Vibe.
We're using Vibe for EVERYTHING
We started with COVID messages, but by mid-Nov we were communicating other business events on site; Facebook groups; café menus; surveys (with a QR code); internal videos; welcoming our summer interns; Christmas messaging from our CEO + more!
Seeing the Mana Moana Program on my computer screen saver!
When I first saw the Program showing Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana, I happened to have a family member (and customer) that saw it aswell, and we wanted to say "thank you'. We are from Ratana Paa, so it is a very big deal for us to see this on a company screen saver which goes a very long way towards normalising it as part NZ history.
People love Vibe
VIBE has been 100% effective! Employees stop and look at the screens; our deskless workforce say they feel more informed.
Let's connect! You'll see we have a good vibe
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