Benefits of Digital Metric Boards

Man once communicated by drawing his message on rocks, and sharing information continues to this day. While it’s more sophisticated and faster than way back when, there are still challenges and obstacles that arise when you try to get your company’s message seen, heard, and absorbed by your target audience.

With all the informational “noise” that pummels the average person in the world and on the internet today, companies must find new ways to get and keep attention. Digital metric boards are great solutions when it comes to sharing a variety of information.

Digital signage gives companies a mouthpiece to share a variety of information with their employees, clients, vendors, patients, and more. It is, at its core, a sign that is controlled by software on the backend. Adding and changing content is fast and easy, and it comes with powerful graphics, colors, and charting capabilities that enhance the reader’s visual experience. From real-time business intelligence data shared with the C-Suite in high level meetings to keeping employees informed about quarterly sales figures, digital metric boards are powerful tools that help companies communicate more effectively.

Digital metric boards fill a need for organizations in a variety of functions, resulting in a more transparent culture and more informed workforce.

They can be instrumental in creating positive results like:

• Displaying growth goals. Instead of long, boring reports emailed to each employee and board member, or just not sharing the information at all, keep everyone aware of the company’s goals and the progress on them. Graphics, charts, and real-time tracking make this information more exciting on a message board than it would ever be on paper or in an email.
• Showcasing sales figures. Get every department excited when a big order comes in, or when the quarterly forecast is achieved and passed. Up-to-the-minute sales figures that are shared via a digital message board help create a cohesive, cross-departmental team. Seeing the numbers shows everyone that they are part of the company’s success. If the figures are less-than-stellar, employees can work harder to help move the needle.
• Updating status of fundraisers. Happily, more companies than ever are forging a culture that gives back to the communities they serve. Company-wide fundraisers can be tracked by digital metric boards. How much money has been raised to build that playground? Who has raised the most money for the toy drive? Which employee has donated the most time to the coat collection campaign? Showing the figures on message boards creates healthy involvement and competition, because who doesn’t like to be recognized, while simultaneously strengthening the sense that each employee is part of something bigger than themselves.
• Visualizes safety performance. Safety is a huge initiative for many types of companies. Some use digital metric boards to show the number of days without an accident. They can also show the percentage of identified hazards that have been addressed in that particular month or quarter. This information encourages the team to be aware of safety standards, report safety issues, and understand the company cares about their safety.

Companies that decide to use digital metric boards for conveying important information are able to take advantage of several benefits.

• Increases motivation. Employees connect with transparency and authenticity. Sharing key data in an easy-to-digest way like charts and graphs shows every worker their contribution is valued. Understanding and acknowledging how a company is doing well, or how hard it’s struggling, increases an employee’s motivation and engagement. From there, companies can see greater productivity and creativity that drives higher efficiencies, better product development, and stronger sales. It might also have a direct correlation to reducing turnover.
• Maximizes efficiency. Being able to share communication in our daily lives is key personally, and it’s smart professionally, too. Instead of long-drawn-out meetings that unveil big numbers or endless emails with the information, employees are able to view and absorb this information on their way to the restroom, leaving for lunch, or while they’re waiting on their other work to print. The high visibility of a digital metric board makes disseminating key data points much more efficient than any other channel.
• Reduces outdated information. Emails, memos, signs, and reports start becoming obsolete the second they’re sent. That’s not the case with digital message boards. Content can be controlled, edited, and distributed in real time. Sales figures and company goals can be added as soon as they’re determined. Stock prices and dividends can be set to show in real-time, all the time. Employee performance can be loaded and changed as often as needed. The last thing companies want is for employees to be working from old data that’s no longer accurate. Sharing important metrics through graphs and other visually-appealing graphics via a message board helps everyone get and stay on the same page.
• Simplifies complex reports. One of the most distinct advantages stems from the fact that not all employees are CFOs. In fact, most employees probably don’t take the time to decipher number-heavy information like sales figures, profit margins, and statistics about new product sales. It’s confusing and can seem boring. Digital message boards makes understanding the information easier which levels the playing field for every team member. Visually compelling, highly-understandable charts and graphs showcase data in colors, shapes, and pictures instead of column upon column of numbers and ratios. Consistently designing the content in this way increases the company knowledge of every employee, assisting them in relating to each company initiative and their specific involvement in its success.

Turns out the cavemen had it right all along. Pictures, graphics, and charts are smart ways to make sure everyone sees and understands important information. No, you don’t need to stop emailing reports and sharing metrics in other ways, but digital metric boards offer up one additional way to ensure all employees are up-to-date. Sharing real-time information in a simplified way more efficiently than ever makes it possible to increase productivity, motivation, and employee buy-in. Make a plan to begin sharing important quantitative data via a digital metric board today.