If you want your workplace to bring the best results it has to run like a well-oiled machine. One of the best ways to do it is to make sure you have hard-working, reliable people working as a unit. How do you make a lot of people work as one? By making sure they’re always communicating as efficiently and transparently as possible. You might be surprised, but one of the easiest and simplest ways to enhance communication in the workplace is by implementing digital signage into it.
What Is Digital Signage?
To put it simply, digital signage is any digital installation that outputs video or any multimedia content for that matter, either for informational or advertising purposes. You’ve seen this everywhere around you – at airports, bus stations, fast food restaurants and more. In simple terms, that means a combination of hardware (a screen), software and the content that’s being broadcasted. Now that we got that out of the way for those of you that may not be familiar with the term, let’s jump right into how it can better the workplace communication.
1. Allowing Everyone To Freely And Transparently Communicate Their Ideas
Back in the day, it wasn’t necessarily easy for employees to present their ideas to their superiors. You had to make an appointment or tell it to the direct superior, such as department manager, and hope that your idea gets heard at the top.
With digital signage implemented, anyone could easily get their ideas out there. If implemented, this system could help the little guy spread his voice across the whole workplace, perhaps catching an eye of someone willing and able to do something about it.
This can be extremely beneficial by showing your employees you trust their judgment, you love that they care enough to try and bring something new to the table. It enhances the growth and prosperity of the company by showing that everyone’s an important cog in this machine.
2. It Helps People Get To Know Each Other
The vast majority of people nowadays is career-oriented and when at work, they focus solely on their job. Even though that might seem like a good thing – it does so at the cost of human relations and that dwarfs the growth of the company. You could use digital signage to showcase a condensed version of an employee profile. It could show a name, picture, department and job title and maybe a quick-little about me. That way, everyone has an opportunity to be noticed, create some relationships and that should lead to better cooperation between employees.
3. Keep Company Goals In The Spotlight
Every company has its milestones and goals. Keeping them visible will certainly get people motivated to work towards them. Naturally, before you hit the set milestones, firstly you have to accomplish some goals along the way. If those goals are shared and explained to everyone, it’s going to be much easier for everyone to be on the same page and keep that goal right in front of them.
The way you present these goals will also affect the way people feel and act towards them. If presented right, it will send the motivation right into overdrive. As you work towards accomplishing those goals, you can share constant updates and showcase the progress along the way, so everyone feels encouraged to keep up the good work.
4. Create A Platform That Allows Everyone To Directly Communicate To Each Other
In a traditional company setting, the interactions between the departments and in-between the hierarchy ladders are very limited. Everything feels disassociated and the only form of communication is a superior ordering something to their subordinates. That’s not an efficient way to exchange any ideas. It creates segregation, lack of trust or complete lack of effort.
By creating a free-flowing, social platform, where everyone could exchange information, you achieve this sense of everyone being equal. On top of that, people would quickly and easily message each other, would miss any important notifications or updates and you’d eliminate this ‘boss-looking-over-the-shoulder’ feeling that many employees dislike. You can view more on how to create and implement a platform like this – if this seems like the workplace could benefit from it. We certainly believe it could.
5. Advertise Internal Events
On average, over 60% of emails regarding company events never get opened. They’re usually instantly archived or sent to the trash can. If this is still the way you’re advertising company events, you should probably reconsider your strategy.
By implementing digital signage, you could make sure everyone within the company grounds sees the message in regards to the event that’s being planned. People tend to ignore these events, but they are very beneficial for business growth. Company meetings, training or team-building trips are a great way to improve internal relations and boost productivity, along with everything else.
6. Use It To Increase Transparency
A key component in successful communication is transparency. Nothing builds trust better than being transparent. Strengthening the trust between the company employees will not only greatly enhance communication, but it’ll boost productivity and moral as well.
Companies and business are always ‘in the middle’ of something. That often poses a lot of questions. If there are questions that need to be answered, perhaps about a new project or a new department, and those answers will contribute everyone – share them with anyone. That way, anyone with the same concern as the next person, will have their answer and will be at peace.
7. Add Humour Into The Workplace
You’d be surprised at how many companies use digital signage for the sole purpose of lighting the mood. Keeping the mood light is critical if you want to maintain a healthy work environment. The only thing about it is, you have to be careful. Humour is often misinterpreted and it could easily cause some backlash, especially nowadays.
8. Offer Training Videos
It can be stressful for new employees if they’re not sure how to do something. They could be anxious to ask for help out of a fear of seeming incompetent. If you show them you’re encouraging learning and growth, they’ll be more open-minded and relaxed in case they need some help.
As you can see, the benefits of digital signage are virtually endless. You can even use them as a modern piece of art if you’d like. To sum it all up, it can be a very useful addition to any workplace in more ways than one.
