5 Benefits of Well-balanced Employee Communications
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Employee communications are the lifeline of your organization’s success. Without it, managers wouldn’t be able to lead their workforce properly. The more effectively an organization can implement and execute an employee communications strategy, the more benefits it will obtain. We asked some of our customers about the biggest benefits of well-balanced employee communications.
Benefits of Employee Communications:
- Reach and engage a geographically dispersed workforce
- Increase interaction and connection between colleagues and branches
- Decrease information overload
- Increase employee engagement
- Improve employee experience
Benefit 1: Reach and engage a geographically dispersed workforce
Reaching today’s workforce requires employee communications tools that allow you to publish information and communication through multiple channels. Providing only one channel to spread information will not suffice any longer. Not only do employees want to choose their preferred communication channels instead of being forced into consuming information from just one channel. Often, not all employees have access to the same communication channels. Field staff, for example, don’t always have access to digital signage or a PC.
What Our Customers Say
Hertel Industrial Services, a full-service maintenance partner for industrial clients, reaches employees anytime and anywhere with a unique mix of communication channels. Jasmijn Stolk, Manager Marketing & Communication at Hertel Netherlands: “Netpresenter enables us to offer our news very quickly to everyone in multimedia format, so we can optimally reach every target group. Messages that are published using Netpresenter immediately appear on company computers as screensavers, on all large TV Screens, and on mobile devices in our Hertel app.” The app, especially, is vital for Hertel’s employee communications strategy. Jasmijn: “With the app, our employees who work at our customers’ sites can orientate themselves anytime and anywhere. That’s the beauty of this communication channel: it can be looked into 24/7.”
“Netpresenter enables us to offer our news very quickly to everyone in multimedia format.”
Benefit 2: Increase Interaction and Connection Between Colleagues and Branches
In many organizations, employee communications are still being handled as publishing efforts. Employee communications are viewed as a method to share information with or by employees – but it shouldn’t just be handled as the primarily one-way experience that publishing is. Treating it as a continuous dialogue helps to create understanding (of both employees and leadership). Communication, more than publishing, creates a sense of connection and engagement.
What Our Customers Say
Barenbrug is a family business that develops and sells grass seeds. Barenbrug has offices and research facilities in over twenty-two countries and more than eight hundred employees. The company was looking for an alternative to their monthly email. Mirella van de Sant, Global Marketing Director at Barenbrug: “With the newsletter, there was no possibility to respond, whereas we don’t just want to publish information. We genuinely appreciate our colleagues’ opinions and ideas and find interaction very important.” Nowadays, the app gives Barenbrug’s employees a platform to collaborate and to ask questions. It starts the dialogue and connects them, which humanizes the experience and increases interaction and connection between colleagues and branches.
Benefit 3: Decrease information Overload
Information overload is a serious problem in the workplace. The growing number of available channels enabled us to send around an abundance of information every day. While it might be easy for the sender to send a message to the entire company, receivers are overloaded with information, making it hard to digest what is genuinely relevant for them. To avoid information overload, you should smartly target your content. Targeting makes sure your employees will only receive content that is tailored to and relevant for them.
What Our Customers Say
The municipality of Sittard-Geleen in the Netherlands uses Netpresenter to spread relevant information among their employees. Remco Van Rijt, Digital Communication Advisor at Sittard-Geleen Municipality, explains how they keep information relevant using Netpresenter’s targeting feature: “We can target certain locations with information, so it isn’t the same for every employee. Practical things like ‘The window cleaners are coming today’ aren’t relevant to our colleagues in all locations, so we don’t show those everywhere. And in our ICT department, we also have a number of dashboards that show whether all the systems are still running as they should. For that department, we use Netpresenter as an information tool that’s specifically aimed at their work.”
Benefit 4: Increase Employee Engagement
It is a common understanding that employees are an organization’s most important asset. However, that is only truly true when most employees are fully engaged in their work and organization. Otherwise, they might be adding only minimal value. Employee engagement is driven by a sense of belonging: employees who are engaged in their organization support its goals and values. Employee engagement is based largely on communication: relevant information and communication will clarify the organization’s goals and values and show employees how they and their role fits into the organization overall, which increases the sense of belonging.
What Our Customers Say
DLL, a global vendor finance company, provides asset-based financial solutions in various industries. DLL reaches almost half of its 5,500 employees in 15 countries with Netpresenter Digital Signage, which DLL calls their Newscast screens. With Netpresenter, news items are now automatically extracted from the intranet and published on large TV screens. Employees are kept up to date on new partnerships, awards, workshops, department results, etc. A survey among 200 employees shows that a staggering 98 percent consume their information from these strategically placed screens. According to this survey, a majority of 77 percent admitted they feel more engaged: 77 percent of employees agreed with the statement ‘I feel connected to DLL as a company when I look at the Newscast screens.’
Benefit 5: Improve Employee Experience
Did you know that companies use an average of 88 apps and services? That means data is scattered all over the place, hampering productivity. That’s why we believe as much information as possible should be available in one spot that can be accessed 24/7. The ease of having access to all relevant information in one place will greatly improve employee experience. The experience will be even more seamless if you actively bring need-to-know information to your employees: they will have all the information they need readily available without extra effort.
“Netpresenter allows people to have a social media-like page of which they can feel proud.”
What Our Customers Say
Madelyn Swanepoel, Internal Communications and Employee Experience Specialist at BankservAfrica, was looking for a seamless experience to provide all their employees with the information they need with a click of a button. They now reach about 400 remote workers, non-desk employees, and office workers through the Netpresenter platform, effortlessly providing all employees with information. Madelyn: “Netpresenter allows people to have a social media-like page of which they can feel proud. It enables everyone to go in with the touch of a button and read the news whenever they like. It’s seamless, easy access to information. It adds to the employee experience. And I’ve learned that when you create the experience, you get the engagement.”
Does your organization already obtain all these benefits from your employee communications, or could your comms use some optimizations? Schedule a demo or get in touch with our consultants; they are happy to help your communications reach their full potential with an employee communications platform. Or download our free guide to find the right communication tools to reach your employees.
