Effective Electronic Signage for Employee Engagement

There’s no more powerful tool than electronic signage for communicating a vast range of relevant information. We’re not talking about electronic billboards, which are used for advertising to the general public, but electronic signage displays (usually flatscreen TVs) that use a Content Management System (CMS) to deliver messages to employees throughout the day at multiple locations in a building or on a campus (or even in different geographic locations).

There are dozens of electronic signage systems, each with their pros and cons. But once you’ve chosen the one that’s right for you, you have to actually get media up on your screens. You can subscribe to various content subscriptions and curation services to get some of your content, but you’re also going to have to create messages of your own.

So, what kind of information should you show to your employees?

One way to approach this task is to go as far outside your organization as possible, and then come back inside, step by step. You just have to make sure that everything you put up on your digital signs is relevant to that specific group of employees in that particular environment.

Bring the World to Your Electronic Signs

Start as far out as you can – the world at large. A news ticker or news-in-pictures subscription will be enough to appeal to at least some of your audience. The next level in would be industry news. Your organization is probably not the only one of its type in the world, so why not share messages that let people see what’s going on in their business sector?  This helps remind people that they’re part of something much larger than just their specific tasks in their specific job at their specific company.

Promote Company Culture on Electronic Digital Signs

Coming another step in, there’s the company itself. Any news or updates worth sharing? Is there a new CEO? Is there an update to the benefits package? Are there job openings? If employees learn of something important from an outside source before they get it from their own organization, it can feel a little alienating. So, anything that affects the company as a whole should be shared internally before being sent out in a press release.

Standards, procedures, training requirements or opportunities, and other aspects of working life that affect a large number of people would also be useful items to share. If your company is invested in being eco-friendly, remind people. In production environments, safety reminders have actually been shown to reduce accidents.  

Boost Participation with Electronic Event Boards

Event messages would come next, whether they be fullscreen promotions for upcoming events or an event schedule showing the day’s meetings. Getting a system that easily integrates with scheduling systems can make it a simple process to ensure that everyone knows what going on. Workshops, team and townhall meetings, visiting VIPS, office parties – whatever it is they need to know, they can get from your electronic signs.

Service announcements would also be welcome if there’s a planned outage of something like electricity or internet because of maintenance. It’s best to let people know pretty far in advance (so they can plan) and frequently, perhaps increasing the frequency of the reminder messages as the appointed hour approaches. You’ll want to target just the displays of the affected areas unless it’s important for people in other places to know about these things as well.

Motivate Teams on Electronic Sign Boards

Focusing in even closer, there are updates on team progress, status of projects, how different departments are performing against one another, and so on. KPIs are always a great engagement tool, and data visualizations shown on electronic sign boards are a great motivator.

Most enterprise content management systems include some form of data integration so that as sales figures, roadmaps stages, fundraising goals and the like are met, that information automatically feeds to your screens. This keeps everyone in the loop on things that are broadly important to the company, and very important if it impacts their own team.

And since you can target specific displays with specific message playlists, you can make sure that, for example, the sales team always has their most current numbers, while other departments might get a summary message once a day.

Recognize Employees on Electronic Message Boards

You can even single out individuals for recognition on electronic message boards. Has someone gone above and beyond recently? Mention it in a message. And when new employees join the team, a quick welcome message helps everyone identify them, makes them feel included, and hopefully helps reduce those first day jitters.

But you don’t have to wait for someone to excel to put them on screen. Employee profiles help build community and culture within the organization. You can ask employees to provide their own images, take selfies, or do a “guess who” with baby or yearbook pictures. You can even ask employees to supply other content – pictures of their pets, fun days out, hobbies and so on. Your goal is always employee engagement, so the more you make them a part of your digital signage content, the more they’ll respond to it.

Get Started with Electronic Signage for Business

From the anonymous world-at-large to the specific individual, electronic signs for business provide one of the most comprehensive communications tools available. It helps remind everyone that the organization is made of people, and that those people have a reliable source of information that’s relevant and engaging to them.

As fewer and fewer people use email regularly, companies like Blogin are helping modern organizations transition from the old newsletter to a more dynamic system like an internal blog. This is a great tool if you need to share more in-depth information than just short messages on screens. This also allows employees to share their knowledge with one another, as this Blogin article explores.

21st century employees deserve 21st century communications. That’s why it’s time to transition to electronic digital signage. Get started today with a demo of our software.