Notice board concepts have been available for years but few businesses work collaboratively to communicate effectively with your staff? What does yours say?
People have less time in a noisier world so how do you ensure your messages get across to everyone.
Notice boards offer company wide messages that improve morale and publicly support employee recognition and appreciation. In this digital age how has your business embraced this very simple idea. How can you ensure your message has been received?
This article explores the pros and cons of internal communication and what a digital notice board can do for your business.
- Internal communication
- How teams can use digital notice boards
- Where to start
[read more=”Read more” less=”Read less”]
Internal communication
The Communications Pyramid
For any business the following diagram holds true
The question is who is internally talking to the staff. There tends to be three groups who need to use this channel.
- Human Resources
- Marketing
- Operations
Each has a different focus and set of messages they need to get across.
Touch Points
There are a number of tools which can be used to deliver messages
- Meeting
- Phone call
- Newsletter
- Social media
- Advertisements / Public notifications
- Notice board
The business must ensure the person gets the message and understands it.
You lose the message if everyone speaks at the same time.
When messages pass from one person to another they can become distorted. Fidelity of message is also important.
Getting the message out
Having a meeting is one approach. It requires people to stop what they’re doing consequently you can audit attendance. Meetings are time consuming but offer the chance for feedback. The host must stick to message. Not showing up or not fully participating may mean the meeting repeats.
Emails enter a world of other emails in most people’s inbox. Clicking the “Important” flag does not guarantee your email will be read. Security often turns read notification off in email. People set up rules on their inbox which can result in wrong filing or even deletion of your email.
A phone call is very personal and effective but en mass communication and collaboration is tough.
Newsletter’s require someone to pull it together. The newsletter also enters the realm of email or adds the cost of printing to the challenge.
Social media is very public and often too public for sensitive business discussions. Advertisements also enter into this very public category.
The last option is the notice board. A physical one requires physical presence and suffers from the same challenges as a meeting.
There is another option… a digital notice board.
A Digital Notice Board
A digital notice board is a tool which provides the same effect as a physical notice board. It also suffers from some of the same challenges. It can also offer a host of features that are far more effective than other touch points for mass internal messaging.
You can buy large dedicated touch screen tvs for it or there are simpler ways to allow users see it on their own smart devices or computers.
Messages on the noticeboard can be filtered as a result users only see what they need to see.
The messages can have read tracking and also “I have read and accept this message” tracking.
Digital messages can have images, sound, video and links to other systems and training.
They can also lead to forms, brochures and other information resources.
How teams can use digital notice boards
Human Resources
Here are some examples from Pintrest of notice boards in action.
What are the bank holidays of this year? Instead of many answers, a single central central source can save managers many hours of debate and back and forth emails.
Letting people know about a new role in businesses is often controversial amongst staff. The civil service must legally advertise roles internally but that does not necessarily apply to private businesses. To avoid the difficulty of this a notice board either in an Employee Self Service tool or a general notice board work just as well.
HR informs managers of roles and of changes in the business and as a result managers are responsible for passing the message on. Messages can get lost in the mix. In some cases delivery fails as managers do not want to upset, distract or lose key team members.
Notice boards easily deliver notification of availability of training and support requests for training.
Changes in company policy and raising awareness of staff compliance obligations is easy to manage with a single click.
There are also many ideas on the internet as examples.
- https://smallbusiness.chron.com/fun-bulletin-board-human-resources-73325.html
- https://officeninjas.com/how-to-make-an-office-bulletin-board/
- https://www.citehr.com/49735-hr-notice-board.html
Marketing
A lot of time and money goes into making customers aware of the products and services the company offers. Marketing’s ability to communicate internally is rarely ever direct to staff.
New offers and how to get the ideas across to customers can benefit from a digital notice board. Morale incidentally also increases as people see growth and development going on around them.
Marketing can build belief in the brand and help morale over all for the business. A digital notice board takes the pressure off managers and trainers to get the message out.
How do you feel when you see something before others as opposed to seeing an ad on TV you never even knew your company did.
Posting on a notice board has a lower time cost than pulling together a newsletter and doesn’t require as much polishing as people appreciate the speed of delivery over the visual.
Operations and Managers
Legally there are changes to operations, procedures, products and services for many businesses. For you to ensure delivery of a consistent message to all in a timely fashion is a challenge. A notice board negates this challenge.
Senior management can effectively communicate rosters, shifts, opportunities and reminders. If someone misses an email this can lead to real confusion whereas the community notification effect can ensure people share more easily than direct email conversations. It also stops versions of emails as there is only one central source for reference.
“You did a great job. I’m proud of you.” This should be broadcast and communicated widely where you are proud of your team.
Getting a simple report that people have read and understood what is expected of them instantly fills a lot of legal obligations for heavily regulated industries.
Where to start
There are only two steps.
Firstly you decide on the structure of your organogram which clarifies how your company breaks up into teams, groups and departments. A person can be in more than one team. These groups allow you decide how you’re going to be able to filter your messages by group.
With that now all you need is an easy to use digital notice board piece of software. There are many on the market including free solutions.
For me, finding a logged into daily solution is more effective than yet another system people would have to log into.
There are also ERP solutions which combine learning platforms with operational tools and HR tools directly into the notice board.
https://www.bxpsoftware.com/wixi/index.php/Module_-_Information_Centre
[/read]
