Effective Engagement Messaging Via Digital Signage

Every organization wants a workforce that is productive, motivated, and energized about the role they play. Unfortunately, in many instances, that’s not the case. Most studies show that, regardless of company size, location, or industry, many employees are somewhat or actively disengaged from their jobs. A recent study by Gallup showed that only a paltry 34% of employees are fully engaged, which means 66% are not.

This news is not necessarily a shock. Issues with engagement have been at the forefront of manager concern for years, or even decades. Unengaged workers can mean trouble for organizations. Companies suffer in several ways because of a disengaged workforce.

Productivity Decreases

If workers aren’t interested or passionate about what they do or how they perform, chances are good they aren’t giving 100 percent effort. This decreased effort can lead to employer expectations not being met. Even small downturns in productivity can cost businesses money, delay deliverables, decrease working capital, and cause companies to miss goals. Productivity is such an important aspect of a company’s success that, with two companies where everything else is identical, the one with higher productivity will flourish, while the one with unengaged workers and lower productivity will likely suffer.

Customer Service Declines

Employees who are not putting their best feet forward may let customer calls go to voicemail, fail to send out timely product updates or promotions, or fall short of rectifying big issues. It takes five times more dollars to land a new customer than it does to keep an existing one! If a business begins losing customers because disengaged employees aren’t meeting their needs, the results could be not meeting sales numbers, losing the competitive edge, and having to deal with negative online reviews.

Company Culture Crumbles

If there are a high percentage of disengaged employees working at an organization, they are not going to contribute positively toward the company’s culture. Over time, the culture will degrade. Employees may not feel supported by their teams valued by management or concerned about the welfare of the company as a whole. Once this happens, it’s difficult to get the culture back on the right path and build it to where it needs to be.

So, what do businesses need to do to combat the negative effects of disengaged employees? One idea is to invest in digital signage software as a tool that helps engage and interact with employees in a simple, consistent way.

Deliver Company Announcements

Feeling “out of the loop” is one variable that can make employees feel unengaged with their work. Digital signage software makes it possible to share news frequently and easily. Instead of boring meetings or long emails that they may or may not read, share rich content about various company happenings. Announce press releases, company meeting information, employee birthdays and anniversaries, birth announcements, upcoming company events, and fundraising activities, for starters. This helps each employee feel involved in and interested in the daily happenings within their workplace.

Recognize Employees

Craft customized content and share it through digital signage to highlight the employees who go above and beyond their jobs. Pick one a week who has showed the company core values, thank the top salesperson, applaud the marketing person with a killer idea, and give kudos to the IT person who figured out last week’s email issue. Sharing this information in a public way like digital signage helps everyone feel like their efforts matter to the company.

Increase Workplace Safety

All companies want their workplace to be safe, but some of them are naturally more dangerous than others. Knowing they are being provided a safe working environment can make employees feel appreciated and grateful, which can increase their engagement. Digital signage software can help consistently promote safety measures, convey reminders about safety best practices, as well as sharing real-time data of how many days the facility has gone without an accident. The messages should address both what employees need to do better and what they are already doing great.

Drive Home Company Goals

If employees don’t connect their jobs to the overall company goals and initiatives, it can make them feel like their contribution doesn’t help anything. Believing this can hurt morale and cause them to become disengaged. Sharing broad goals via digital signage so that everyone can relate to them is key to helping everyone see their role in making the company successful. Reminding everyone of the goals, showing real-time data of the progress so far, and listing the ways every department contributes to the goals are all smart ways to use digital signage to achieve goals.

Improve Company Meetings

Frequent, endless meetings where nothing seems to get accomplished can suck the life out of even the most positive, engaged employee. Take the boring out of meetings with digital signage software. Rich video can help captivate the audience and make them pay attention to the messages. Real-time graphs and charts can bring otherwise hum-drum report analytics to life so the data will sink in. Laying out plans and initiatives will be easier to understand by unfolding them with digital signage. The possibilities of holding meetings that are productive, foster creativity, and inspire interest in every employee is endless.

It’s definitely a challenge to keep employees engaged with their jobs. But it’s too costly not to try. Disengaged employees are drains on productivity and hazardous to the company’s culture. Digital signage software can be used in a variety of ways to connect with employees and help them feel like they are part of the inner workings of the company, and that their contributions matter.