4 trends driving the digital transformation of internal communications  

The workplace gets digital upgrades

Outdated notice boards, physical town halls and complicated intranet systems have had their days. Internal communicators need to rely on agile and wide-reaching modern corporate communications to reach the entire company — especially your deskless workers in the warehouse or frontline retail staff. This creates an open and transparent work environment where your team feels respected and cared for. For your business, this translates to greater workplace satisfaction and higher employee retention rates. 

Going digital in the workplace and how it impacts your internal communications teams

Going digital allows you to instantly attract your employees' attention and track the impact of your employee communications. 

For instance, if you're anything like Foodstuffs North Island, you'll have multiple communication channels and your workforce spread across offices, warehouses, stores and trucks across New Zealand. Foodstuffs North Island used Vibe.fyi's digital signage software to communicate with their team – wherever they are in Aotearoa. 

Whether it's real-time notifications, corporate social media or digital signage software, look to upgrading your suite of tools to effortlessly connect with your workforce. 

Sustained focus on the workplace and wellbeing

In the Workplace Wellness Report 2021, Southern Cross reported more than half of the surveyed businesses believed their role in health and wellbeing increased, and reported a correlation between wellbeing and productivity. 

Internal communications play a critical role in making employees aware of available support, whether that's sharing H&S guidance, reminding them about Employee Assistance Programme services, or promoting financial wellbeing programmes.

How your internal communications team plays a role in promoting healthier and happier workplaces 

Feeling supported and connected is always great news for employees but don't forget about your deskless team. Being meaningfully connected plays a large part in how loyal your employees are, and how high your turnover rate is.

In fact, 54% of deskless workers will resign if they're in a negative environment.

Learning & Development Manager at Fletcher Steel shares that wellbeing and community building go hand in hand. “We use Vibe.fyi to show messages about financial wellbeing, resilience, step challenges and healthy eating." This gets the right information to the right people when and wherever they're working so they don't need to spend time searching.

For the internal communications team, sustaining focus on wellbeing initiatives can mean:

• Dedicated sites for wellbeing initiatives and training resources
• Targeted communications to boost engagement
• Opening feedback channels using pulse surveys

Internal communicators need to battle the noise 

As any good internal communicator will know, being able to send messages instantly isn't the same as it being received. When your workforce faces a constant stream of notifications, instant chat messages, video calls and more, internal communicators have the tough job of cutting through the noise to get vital messages through to staff. 

Ways that your internal communications team can cut through the noise

Whether you're trying to share health and safety guidance or promoting wellbeing benefits there are some key things to help modern corporate communications cut through the noise:

• Identify your best performing communication channels. Which channels will your workforce respond best to? The best option will be to minimise barriers and provide a choice of channels. Email blasts can only reach a few people quickly. Why not couple it with reminders on screens in the break room, screensavers, or browser home page. This allows you to target all your staff in a timely fashion.
• Deliver targeted, relevant information. Different areas of the business will have different needs — adjust your messaging based on your audience. 
• Don't rely on guesswork. Measure your employee engagement communication plan with metrics such as reach, engagement rates, employee satisfaction scores.

Using technology to build employee trust

When you have important messages to communicate, don't leave it up to chance. Digitising your internal communications, gives you total control over delivering a unified message to your workforce, no matter where they are. 

Deskless workers tend to be harder to reach for internal communicators. This leaves them vulnerable to rumours and misinformation. When your workforce doesn't have good access to the information and can't trust the messages, it leads to higher disengagement and disconnect.

The role of internal communicators to build trust in the workplace

You'll have to think beyond the desk and switch up your communication channels to reach and engage your deskless staff. Here are some ways you can build trust with your deskless workforce:

• Frequent communications. More than just deliver transactional corporate information, use this opportunity to create meaningful engagement. Use your communication channels to share town hall live streams, give kudos to top performers, showcase team projects  and more
• Unify your messaging. Communicate effectively using one platform to transmit the same message across geographical boundaries 
• It starts from the top. Deskless workers don't get enough direct communication from top management. Align internal communication strategies with leadership to give employees direct visibility and foster deeper connection with top managers