When organizations consider implementing a new intranet solution, employee engagement is often the primary focus. And for good reason – highly-engaged employees are significantly more productive, according to Gallup, and a well-designed intranet can be a powerful tool for connecting employees, fostering a sense of community, and driving engagement.

But engagement is just one piece of the puzzle. When it comes to quantifying the impact that an intranet can have on the bottom line, there are a range of “hidden” benefits that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Modern intranets can drive significant ROI in less expected ways, such as creating internal and operational efficiencies, improving business process agility, supporting better cost management, and enhancing customer relationships. For C-suite decision makers, understanding these additional areas of ROI is crucial for appreciating the full business value an intranet can provide. Similarly, for those making the case to leadership for a new intranet, highlighting these hidden benefits can be key to gaining stakeholder approval and buy-in.

By recognizing and communicating these undervalued benefits, you’ll have a fuller picture of the transformative potential a robust intranet can have on your organization.

Creating internal and operational efficiencies

A modern intranet platform can significantly enhance an organization’s efficiency by streamlining internal processes and optimizing operations. By serving as a centralized digital workplace, an intranet provides employees with seamless access to the resources they need, regardless of their role or location. This unified approach minimizes the time and effort spent navigating multiple platforms, allowing employees to focus on high-value tasks that drive business growth.

Several key factors contribute to optimizing employee experiences for peak productivity:

Accessibility

A user-friendly intranet ensures that all employees can easily access the tools and information they need to perform their tasks efficiently. Implementing single sign-on (SSO) and mobile optimization eliminates barriers to entry, enabling seamless access across devices and locations.

Integrations

Seamlessly connecting the intranet with widely-used enterprise applications, such as Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, creates a unified digital ecosystem and allows employees to access multiple tools and platforms from a single, centralized hub.

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Search capabilities

A robust, intelligent search function is the backbone of an efficient intranet. By leveraging advanced technologies like natural language processing and machine learning, the search tool can quickly surface relevant content from across the intranet and connected systems, saving employees valuable time and effort.

Personalization

Tailoring the intranet experience to each user’s specific needs and preferences is key to boosting engagement and productivity. By leveraging AI-powered recommendation engines, granular content subscriptions, and location-based services like geofencing, organizations can deliver highly targeted, relevant content and tools tailored to every employee.

Human-centered design

An intuitive, user-centric design is essential for ensuring that employees can easily navigate the intranet and find the resources they need. By organizing content logically, utilizing task-oriented navigation, and incorporating visual elements like clickable image links, organizations can create an intranet that is both visually appealing and highly functional.

Multichannel communication

Providing employees with a range of communication channels, including instant messaging, mobile apps, and real-time updates, ensures that they can access and recieve information in the way that works best for them. This flexibility promotes continuous access to critical information and reduces delays.

In addition to benefiting individual employees, a modern intranet also creates significant efficiencies for internal communications teams. A streamlined content management system (CMS) and targeted content delivery capabilities enable comms professionals to create and distribute messages more effectively. Advanced analytics provide valuable insights into content performance, employee engagement, and sentiment, allowing teams to make data-driven decisions and continuously refine their strategies.

AI-powered features like writing assistants and content recommendations can also supplement communication efforts by providing employees with writing support and personalized information. This not only enhances the employee experience but also frees up time for communications teams to focus on strategic initiatives.

Improving business process agility

Organizations that can quickly adapt to changing market conditions, customer needs, and industry disruptions are better positioned for long-term success. A modern intranet can be a powerful tool for improving business process agility, enabling organizations to pivot quickly and seize new opportunities.

One of the primary ways an intranet enables agility is through digital consolidation. With the intranet serving as a hub, organizations can offer consolidated access to HR functionalities, communication channels, knowledge resources, and more. By centralizing access to these resources into an intranet, it reduces the friction that can slow organizations down.

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Digital consolidation can significantly improve employees’ ability to work efficiently and be more agile by offering:

Simplified workflows

With fewer systems and tools from different vendors, employees can navigate their work processes more easily, reducing the time and effort required to switch between various platforms and interfaces.

Seamless integrations

Consolidating within an intranet allows for smoother data flow and reduces the need for manual data entry or transfer between systems.

Consistent user experiences

Having a more homogeneous set of tools and platforms leads to a more consistent user experience, reducing the learning curve for employees and enabling them to work more efficiently.

Faster problem-solving

When issues arise, dealing with fewer vendors means employees can quickly identify the source of the problem and get it resolved, minimizing downtime and disruptions to their work.

Enhanced collaboration

Intranets include built-in collaboration features, making it easier for employees to work together, share information, and communicate effectively.

It’s no surprise that almost every leader polled by CIO.com said that their organizations are working on digital consolidation. By breaking down silos and enabling cross-functional collaboration with features like project spaces, shared documents, and enterprise social networking, an intranet makes it easy for teams to work together regardless of their physical location or department. This improved collaboration accelerates innovation and problem-solving, allowing organizations to respond more nimbly to challenges and opportunities.

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By simplifying processes, facilitating collaboration, and enabling rapid response to change, an intranet helps organizations operate more efficiently and effectively. This can lead to faster time-to-market for new products and services, improved customer responsiveness, and ultimately, a healthier bottom line.

Cost management

By bringing together multiple tools and platforms into a single interface, organizations can also reduce the costs associated with maintaining separate systems. This includes direct costs like software licenses and subscriptions, as well as indirect costs like the time IT teams spend managing and integrating disparate tools.

Modern intranet platforms offer a comprehensive suite of features that extend far beyond the conventional perception of intranets as mere knowledge management systems. They incorporate functionalities like employee apps, pulse surveys, digital signage, idea management, and social advocacy, all seamlessly integrated with the intranet. A company that previously relied on separate platforms for internal communications, project management, and file sharing could potentially save thousands of dollars per year by consolidating these functions into an intranet.

The savings extend beyond just the cost of subscriptions. Each separate tool requires time from IT to manage user accounts, configure settings, and troubleshoot issues. It also requires time from end-users to learn and navigate each system. By consolidating to a single intranet platform, IT can streamline their management efforts and end-users can benefit from a more integrated and efficient digital workplace experience.

Other areas where an intranet could help save on costs include:

• Reducing real estate costs facilitating remote work and collaboration
• Reducing training costs and inefficiencies associated with tool fatigue
• Freeing HR and IT teams up to focus on higher-value activities by enabling self-service for routine support requests

There are also significant benefits to data integration and analytics when consolidating to a single platform. With separate tools, data can become siloed, making it difficult to gain a holistic view of the organization’s digital workplace performance. An integrated intranet platform can provide centralized analytics across all its features, giving leaders valuable insights into employee engagement, collaboration, and productivity.

When the NSPCC, the UK’s leading children’s charity, wanted to replace a 10-year-old intranet, it turned to Interact. Not only was the old system inflexible, difficult to search, and lacked social collaboration tools, it was also running on unsupported software. With Interact, they created a new, UX-led, brand-relevant intranet platform that enabled the decommissioning of costly, complex IT infrastructure and tech support, leading to significant financial and time savings.

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Of course, the exact cost savings will vary depending on the size of the organization, the specific tools being replaced, and the chosen intranet platform. But the potential for significant cost reduction is clear. By carefully evaluating their digital workplace ecosystem and strategically consolidating to a comprehensive intranet platform, organizations can not only save money but also improve the employee experience and gain valuable data insights.

Enhancing customer relationships

While the value of a great intranet experience tends to focus on its benefits to internal audiences, they can also have a significant impact on an organization’s ability to serve and engage external customers.

First and foremost, an intranet serves as a single source of truth for customer-facing employees. By centralizing access to the latest product information, service protocols, and customer insights, an intranet ensures that all employees are equipped to provide consistent, accurate, and up-to-date information to customers.

Improved internal collaboration and knowledge creates a domino effect that results in a better customer experience. When employees can easily connect with experts across the organization and access a wealth of institutional knowledge, they’re better equipped to solve customer challenges and provide insightful recommendations.

Consider a retail chain rolling out a new product line. By leveraging their intranet to distribute training materials, product specs, and sales scripts, they can ensure that store associates across all locations are prepared to effectively showcase and sell the new offerings. This consistency in messaging and execution enhances the customer experience and builds trust in the brand.

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An intranet also enhances customer relationships by empowering frontline workers with mobile access to the information and tools they need. With an intranet that’s optimized for mobile devices, field sales reps can access the latest competitive intelligence and product collateral on the go, allowing them to have more informed and impactful conversations with clients. Home healthcare workers can use a mobile intranet to review patient information and care protocols in real-time, enabling them to provide better, more personalized care. Or a restaurant chain can use their mobile intranet to push out real-time alerts that keep frontline staff informed about important updates.

For example, Domino’s needed a mobile-enabled solution to connect the company with frontline and office-based staff alike. Interact designed and launched a mobile intranet solution for their dispersed audience of employees, which in turn helped them more effectively serve their customers across thousands of locations.

In complex B2B sales and service scenarios, an intranet can be a key differentiator by enabling employees to draw upon a wide range of internal resources. Sales teams can leverage the intranet to access case studies, white papers, and subject matter experts that help them craft compelling solutions for their clients. Service teams can use the intranet to tap into a knowledge base of best practices, troubleshooting guides, and escalation paths, allowing them to quickly resolve customer issues. By providing a centralized platform for collaboration and knowledge sharing across departments and geographies, an intranet empowers B2B organizations to deliver a more integrated and responsive customer experience.

Ultimately, by equipping employees with the knowledge, tools, and connections they need to excel in their customer-facing roles, a modern intranet can have a profound impact on customer relationships. And in a business environment where customer experience is often the primary competitive battleground, this can be a significant driver of ROI.

Intranet ROI: the bottom line

From creating operational efficiencies and improving business agility, to enabling cost savings and enhancing customer relationships, intranets offer a wide range of compelling ROI opportunities. By considering the full spectrum of benefits an intranet can provide, leaders can develop a more comprehensive and strategic view of the platform’s potential impact.

The decision makers who will ultimately approve or veto a proposal to invest in an intranet platform won’t be moved by another comms platform that will provide a 1% uplift in open rates on internal messages; they’ll be more impressed by an investment in a consolidated platform that consolidates their workloads and helps them make tangible improvements to revenue-driving activities. By demonstrating how an intranet can drive efficiency, agility, cost savings, and customer value, communications and HR professionals advocating for intranet adoption can position the platform as a strategic imperative rather than just a “nice-to-have” employee engagement tool.

Of course, realizing these benefits requires more than just implementing an intranet and hoping for the best. To truly leverage the transformative potential of a modern intranet, organizations must take a strategic and user-centric approach to design, deployment, and ongoing management. This means involving end-users in the design process, providing adequate training and support, and continuously iterating based on user feedback and data insights.

With a robust, well-adopted intranet in place, companies can create a more connected, engaged, and empowered workforce – one that’s better equipped to innovate, adapt, and deliver exceptional value to customers and shareholders alike.

As the business landscape continues to evolve at a rapid pace, the hidden ROI of modern intranets will only become more important. By identifying and quantifying these benefits, organizations can position themselves for success in the digital age and beyond.

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Technology overload is a reality for digital workplaces across sectors, and construction is no exception. Today, construction employees are often faced with too many apps and platforms, which leads to overwhelm, inefficiency, low engagement, and more. 

Construction companies face several key challenges that are made worse by cluttered digital workplaces, including ensuring safety and compliance, serving the needs of deskless, desked, and on-the-move workers, and engaging employees in a tough labor market. Construction technology consolidation can address many of these issues and more. The right consolidation tactics will help companies get vital information in front of the right people, facilitate organization-wide collaboration, and work to engage every employee.  

But when your workplace is already so overcrowded with technology, where do you begin? This article covers the ins and outs of tech consolidation for construction companies and demonstrates how a comprehensive, full-featured employee experience intranet can make a huge difference to consolidation success. 

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Technology overload in construction today 

An overloaded digital workplace doesn’t happen all at once. Solutions are added over time and, little by little, companies amass a great deal of platforms that often have singular purposes.  

This is especially true in construction due to the nature of the sector’s workforce. With employees in both corporate and on-the-ground roles with varying responsibilities and differing levels of access to technology, it may have seemed necessary in the past to adopt different apps for different teams or departments. In reality, this leads to confusion and miscommunication. 

Common apps in the construction sector include: 

• Employee communication apps 
• Employee newsletter platforms 
• Apps to drive engagement through recognition, enterprise social networking, and more  
• Collaboration platforms such as Slack or Teams 
• “Shadow IT” technologies only used by one division or department 
• Document management systems 
• Idea management software 
• Onboarding and offboarding software 
• Workflow apps for tasks such as submitting expenses 
• Data analytics software to measure employee engagement and productivity 
• Survey tools 

This isn’t a comprehensive list, but it should provide a general idea of just how many solutions companies have in play. According to research by Okta, the average large enterprise has over 211 apps in its digital workplace. This is problematic for several reasons.

Implications for employees 

Employees confronted with too many apps face digital confusion. When the digital workplace is too crowded, they may forget which solution to use for which activities and where to find key information. Additionally, being expected to use too many different types of technology causes resistance among employees, making them less likely to adopt or regularly use the technology that’s necessary to keep the workplace running. Yet another issue is that having so many channels means workers may miss important updates due to the sheer volume of information and places to look for it.

All of these factors are especially compromising when it comes to employees who work on jobsites regularly, occasionally, or all of the time. These workers aren’t in front of a computer all day so they have limited time to engage with technology. They can grow especially frustrated when they can’t complete necessary tasks or easily find the people or information they need. This creates disengagement, and, with current labor shortages, companies can’t afford disengaged employees – construction technology consolidation is key to keeping them satisfied.

Implications for HR, comms, IT, and leadership teams 

Sharing company information and news is essential in construction. There’s typically a lot going on, with many different projects at different stages all at once, and employees must be kept informed. This is made even more challenging by the need to reach those workers who are deskless some or all of the time. Having too many channels for comms messaging and HR information increases the difficulty even more. 

Without a single dedicated tool for communication and knowledge management, it can be time-consuming to send and track communications. And when employees aren’t well informed about policies and procedures, leading to more inquiries to IT and HR. 

In addition, the cost and workload associated with maintaining many different vendors can be detrimental to business goals. Plus, more apps in use means more opportunities for cybersecurity breaches. 

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A path forward 

Issues for employees, teams, and organizations mean companies are pushing for tech consolidation in many sectors, including finance, franchise, healthcare, retail, and (of course) construction.  

One recent survey found that 95% of CIOs are planning for IT vendor consolidation within the next year. Another discovered that 90% of organizations are currently looking to consolidate using a unified IT platform. These leaders recognize the importance of consolidation to business success. 

But if you’re deciding whether to embark on the journey to construction technology consolidation, the process can seem daunting. It’s important to examine the specific industry challenges that construction companies face, and how consolidation can improve them.

Considerations for construction technology consolidation 

Construction companies experience unique challenges that make them especially vulnerable to the impacts of technology overload. These challenges are important to keep in mind during the construction technology consolidation process, as they help determine what you’ll need your streamlined digital workplace to do. Here are some considerations and problems that construction tech consolidation strategies should aim to solve.  

Safety and compliance

Construction companies must adhere to many laws and regulations that cover everything from jobsite safety and working conditions to equipment inspection schedules and building codes. These regulations can be on a national, state, county, or city level, and are frequently changed and updated. Companies also have to devise and enforce internal rules to protect skilled workers against accidents on the job. All this information must be kept updated and accessible to the teams responsible for compliance and easy to share with others across the organization. Too many different channels can cause confusion and oversights. 

Additionally, jobsite employees must know where to find information about their safety obligations and need to be notified promptly whenever rules and guidelines change. They also need to ensure they are up to date on any necessary trainings and certifications. With too many different platforms all of this may be hard to stay on top of, especially for workers who don’t use computers in their day-to-day roles.

Serving the unique needs of several types of employees  

In the construction industry, a digital workplace must serve the needs of several types of employees with very different experiences and responsibilities. One of these groups made up of the jobsite workers mentioned above, who don’t often have computer access at work and need an easy way to gain information and complete digital workplace tasks on the go. They also need to be notified of important alerts or changes, for example, if a jobsite is unexpectedly closed.

Another group is made up of the employees who divide their time between corporate offices and the field, including project managers, safety managers, project architects, and more. These employees are crucial to a project’s success, and they often work cross-departmentally, so it’s essential that they can tap into the entire company. This proves difficult when they’re on the go, especially with several different platforms to deal with. 

The third group of employees are the office-based workers who, like office-based workers in other sectors, need a comprehensive digital workplace to get things done. Construction office workers aren’t onsite at projects yet still need to be kept in the loop, so spaces to share information are critical. 

With such differing needs, it’s no surprise that companies have so many different tech solutions in play. However, construction technology consolidation is essential to truly support all employees.

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Bridging gaps  

Construction companies must bridge gaps, both operationally and culturally, to connect jobsite workers, corporate employees, and everyone in between. 

With a workforce distributed across project sites, offices, and sometimes working from home, with varying access to technology, it’s hard to find the right information or people – and utilizing too many solutions can exacerbate this. It can take a lot of digging and back and forth to answer even the simplest of questions, leading to frustration, inefficiency, and errors. 

An industry with so much going on needs a single platform on which to carry out team activities. The right digital workplace tools provide spaces for collaboration, including designated areas for employees to share information about projects and get in touch with coworkers with certain skills, in certain locations, or on certain jobs.  

Construction companies have to unite not only on project-related activities but also culturally. It’s difficult to engage employees who aren’t in the same place, and it’s even harder when there are too many channels for communication and connection.  

This is especially important right now, as the sector is seeing both increased demand for services and continuing labor shortages. Retention issues make it more necessary than ever to keep employees engaged and on board. Organizations need the right mix of culture-building tools to ensure recognition, employee listening, belonging, and more, and they need employees to use them.  

Consolidating construction technology with an employee experience platform 

An employee experience intranet platform can help construction companies address the challenges laid out above by providing a single, comprehensive tool that meets all digital workplace needs. The right full-featured intranet will have everything employees need in a single place to maintain compliance and safety, and to help serve and connect employees across roles, projects, and locations. A high-quality option should deliver:  

• Personalized updates on company news and project milestones
• An organized, searchable home for essential policies, processes, and other documentation, including compliance and training information
• Mobile and desktop access to accommodate the needs of desk-based workers, jobsite workers, and workers who split their time between several locations
• A comprehensive people directory searchable by name, team, department, project, skills, location, and more, so that employees can find the right coworker to collaborate with right away
• Employee social networking features to boost connection and belonging across locations and roles, especially for hard-to-engage jobsite workers
• Features that facilitate appreciation and belonging for all employees, such as rewards and recognition tools or blog posts and newsletters that highlight accomplishments and milestones  
• Dedicated digital spaces for specific teams and projects to get everyone on the same page and promote visibility throughout the company
• Self-service capabilities for HR and IT tasks

A good intranet solution will provide these capabilities and more, and serve as the go-to location for all of your digital workplace needs.

Construction technology consolidation has never been more important, and it’s a crucial step to meet the challenges the sector faces today. The right intranet software can make this happen by removing roadblocks to safety and compliance, helping many different types of workers do their jobs more effectively, and boosting connection and collaboration across locations and roles. In taking this step toward consolidation, construction companies can improve their digital workplaces and better prepare themselves to meet the needs of the future.

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The post Construction technology consolidation: Everything you need to know appeared first on Interact software.

For franchise organizations, technology consolidation is critical. It’s challenging to operate efficiently with the differing needs of corporate and regional staff, the cultural and communication issues that stem from having many dispersed locations, and the high percentage of deskless employees. Technology overload can exacerbate these factors and must be addressed if franchise businesses want to remain competitive.

The sheer number of technology solutions has gotten out of hand across sectors, and franchisors are struggling with an excessive amount of applications, platforms, and software solutions. Now is the right time to consolidate and make the switch to a streamlined solution that offers many functions rolled into one. That’s where the employee experience platform comes in.  

Read on to discover why tech overload can be so detrimental to franchises, the unique considerations franchisors must make when consolidating technology, and how an employee experience platform can help.

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The state of tech overload in franchise organizations 

There’s no question that franchisors need technology to run their businesses. The right solutions can make things a whole lot easier, whether they facilitate collaborating within corporate headquarters, disseminating information to franchise owners, or keeping frontline staff informed, connected, and productive.

But technology needs to be added thoughtfully – and this is especially true for franchise organizations, which face unique challenges when transmitting information, constructing a digital workplace that serves all employees, and aligning regional staff with corporate values. 

Typically, as an organization’s needs change, whether due to growth, innovation, responses to industry and workforce challenges, or efforts to increase competitiveness, it tends to accumulate more and more technology. These apps and platforms often serve singular purposes, leaving companies with a burgeoning tech stack that is cumbersome and inefficient. Common single-use platforms for franchise organizations can include: 

• Digital signage to dispatch messaging to deskless workers 
• Collaboration platforms (e.g., Slack or Microsoft Teams) for corporate employees 
• Email newsletter solutions to communicate company-wide information to franchise locations 
• Idea management software to collect ideas from franchises that can be implemented organization-wide 
• Onboarding and offboarding software to serve a high-turnover workforce 
• Enterprise social networking to foster a unified culture across franchise locations 

This list just scratches the surface – research shows that larger enterprises can have over 200 apps in their digital estates. While many of these apps are necessary and useful, the sheer number of solutions in place is detrimental to their utility.

The impact of technology overload on franchises 

Technology bloat has widespread implications for an entire franchise organization, from frontline staff and franchise owners to corporate teams and executives. 

When employees are faced with too many technology solutions to facilitate their work, they suffer from digital overload and confusion. This is true for both deskless workers at regional franchises and those reporting to the company’s corporate headquarters. Regardless of the type of work they’re doing, employees grow frustrated when they forget which platform to use for which task, leading to frustration and fatigue when they’re expected to bookmark a new website or download yet another app onto their devices. This is especially true for deskless workers who are often expected to use their own mobile phones for work-related applications.  

Employees at franchise organizations may also find that an excess of technology makes it difficult to get the information they need to do their jobs. If they’re not routinely using all the platforms in the company’s digital workplace, they may miss key messaging, policy updates, and more. Franchise technology consolidation is essential to ensuring employees can easily find what they need to stay informed and up to date. 

For IT teams, having too much tech in the digital workplace means more vendors to vet and maintain, and more platforms on which to support employees who are having issues. It also increases cybersecurity risk – the more solutions a business utilizes, the more attack surfaces there are for security breaches. 

Internal comms and HR teams at franchise organizations feel the impact of too much technology especially acutely. It’s already challenging to communicate with a workforce that spans so many distinct locations and functions, but an excessive number of platforms and channels makes it even more of an uphill battle. The lack of a unified comms and knowledge-sharing platform increases the workload needed to send and track employee communications. It also increases the number of employee inquiries because workers aren’t aware of where to find things and complete tasks, especially if recent changes have occurred. It’s clear that to boost efficiency for these teams in charge of people and communication, something needs to change. 

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A shift toward consolidation 

Tech-related issues for employees and teams, operational inefficiencies, financial pressure, and calls to increase or maintain a competitive edge have all made technology consolidation an essential goal for today’s franchise enterprises. 

For such a relatively new workplace issue, tech consolidation is drawing a great deal of attention and landing high on organizations’ priority lists in every sector, from construction to finance to healthcare. Just look at what IT execs have planned – according to a recent survey of CIOs, 95% of organizations are planning to consolidate IT vendors within the next 12 months. A separate survey found that 90% of businesses are currently seeking a unified IT platform.  

Those beyond IT are feeling the same. For HR professionals and internal communicators, having multiple single-purpose solutions for onboarding, training, communication, employee recognition, and more, leads to inefficiencies and unnecessary use of resources. These teams are no doubt putting franchise technology consolidation proposals or plans into action. 

It’s clear that any franchise organization – or any organization in any industry, for that matter – that doesn’t prioritize streamlining technology will be left behind. But before consolidation efforts begin, franchisors need to understand the sector-specific considerations for franchise technology consolidation.  

Important factors for franchise technology consolidation 

Franchisors aren’t alone in experiencing tech overload. They do, however, face several challenges that make its effects more pronounced, along with some unique factors that require special attention during tech consolidation planning. 

Aligning a brand across multiple territories, digitizing standard operating procedures, and trying to engage employees who aren’t part of the corporate organization are all issues that franchisors and franchisees understand very well. Specifically, here are some considerations for franchise technology consolidation:  

Striking a balance between corporate and franchise-specific comms 

Balancing global and local communication is critical. While franchisees and their employees want to see content and communications relevant to their own regions, the organization must also make space for consistent brand messaging globally. 

Information cascades can also be a challenge because each area or region may require different campaign support or messaging, which means corporate teams must work harder to target individual franchise owners before the information reaches frontline employees. A lack of an intuitive centralized platform can lead to information delays, edits, or misinterpretations, impacting the effectiveness of messaging. 

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Working toward a cohesive culture 

Each franchise or franchise region may develop its own culture and norms, potentially deviating from the intended brand culture. Fostering a sense of belonging and shared values across geographically dispersed employees can be difficult.

Lack of digital and face-to-face interaction with colleagues from other locations or corporate offices limits opportunities for building personal relationships and trust among employees, potentially impacting engagement and collaboration. To counter this, social enterprise networking and community spaces are essential. 

Guarding against disengagement and turnover 

As with the retail sector, franchise businesses face a mix of challenges stemming from having high levels of frontline, often temporary, employees. As they typically have less access to internal communication channels, they may feel disengaged and alienated by top-down communications. 

High workforce turnover, poor operational efficiency, and a lack of employee buy-in all result from this failure to connect employees to the organization. 

Rather than implementing multiple digital solutions with limited efficacy, consolidating all communication and content in a unified platform with multiple communication channels can build a strategy that reaches a much wider audience without incurring the cost of extra apps.

While it can be challenging to strike a balance between centralized control and local autonomy, employee experience and communication tools with wide-ranging functionality (without the need for multiple platforms) can help. 

Franchise tech consolidation using an employee experience platform 

We’ve covered why technology consolidation is essential for franchises, and how franchise tech consolidation can help solve common issues for franchisors, franchisees, and employees. But once franchisors understand what must be achieved and what types of functionalities they require, they need to figure out how to make consolidation happen. 

A unified employee experience platform can provide the features franchise organizations need in their digital workplaces, giving them the ability to prune their tech stacks. The right solution allows franchisors to: 

• Improve employee communication by providing both regional and corporate messaging on a single platform, making it easy for workers to stay informed with all essential updates on policies, processes, and company news in one place 
• Facilitate better communication between corporate teams and franchise owners to reduce fragmented information cascades 
• Give deskless, frontline franchise employees a single, accessible digital workplace for knowledge sharing and task completion, decreasing the digital overwhelm that stems from too many apps and increasing technology adoption and use 
• Forward a centralized company culture by providing employees from all franchise locations the opportunity to connect socially through enterprise social networking, community forums, and more 
• Boost employee engagement – and retention – through identification with the organization’s mission and values, as well as a dedicated space for recognition and employee listening 
• Increase efficiency and effectiveness of HR, internal comms, and IT teams so that they can better serve employees and organizational goals 

An intranet solution that serves as an employee experience platform can accomplish all of the above and more, allowing any franchise organization to consolidate its technology with confidence. But bear in mind that selecting the right solution makes all the difference. 

Finding the right platform for franchise technology consolidation

There’s no question of the pressing need for franchise technology consolidation. Franchises face unique challenges that are exacerbated by the presence of too many apps and platforms in their digital workplaces. These challenges include balancing organizational comms with franchise-specific ones, facilitating connection and collaboration across franchise locations, counteracting higher-than-average turnover rates, and maintaining a cohesive corporate culture among all employees. 

However, tech consolidation can seem like a huge undertaking. It’s a big leap to break ties with many existing vendors in favor of a new, multipurpose solution. But the right employee experience franchise intranet software can make all the difference.  

Look for a solution that goes above and beyond the capabilities of a typical intranet to serve as a single source of truth for frontline staff, franchise owners, and corporate employees, with features that allow for self-service task completion, improved internal comms, and increased employee engagement (think enterprise social networking, employee listening, recognition, and more). The right platform will allow you to replace the individual apps that are cluttering your franchise’s digital workplace with a one-stop shop for employee needs, and an indispensable tool for forwarding organizational goals. 

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With the volume of apps and software businesses use today, digital consolidation is a key strategy for every sector. For the retail industry, it has become a necessity to ensure employee engagement, retention, efficiency, and business success.

When it comes to engaging and disseminating information to employees, retail enterprises face several unique challenges, including high turnover rates, a large number of deskless workers, and an audience with widely varying roles and functions that is often distributed geographically. Retailers must be intentional about technology choices to create a unified company culture and a digital workplace that enables efficiency and strong performance.

Consolidation of technology solutions can help retail companies engage and support every employee while meeting business goals, but with the typical organization’s tech stack so overloaded, it can be difficult to know where to start. This article dives into the importance of retail technology consolidation and explains why adopting a unified, AI-powered employee experience intranet allows businesses to streamline their IT solutions.

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An industry grappling with digital overload

Currently, most retail organizations utilize a combination of solutions for communication, knowledge sharing, collaboration, task completion, and more, resulting in an overload of apps and platforms. A few examples of frequently used retail solutions include employee communication apps, digital signage, data analytics software, “shadow IT” technologies such as WhatsApp, and employee idea management software. One survey found that large enterprises have an average of 211 apps in use by employees.

Digital overload can be problematic for the entire retail organization, impacting all employees from cashiers to distribution staff to the C-suite. Staff who work in an environment with too many technology solutions may experience confusion – they aren’t always sure what app to use for what purpose, which website to visit to complete an HR task, or where to locate key policies and information. Retail employees often have to download apps on their personal devices, and the more solutions they’re required to use, the more resistant to software adoption they become. Communication can suffer as well. Employees may not receive key company updates because they’re unsure of where to look for them, and information can become siloed as deskless and desked workers gravitate to different platforms.

Internal comms, HR, and IT teams at retail enterprises all suffer from the effects of digital clutter. The lack of a single platform for communication and information hosting makes dispatching, tracking, and analyzing employee communications much more complicated. Having multiple independent solutions for functions such as onboarding, training, and employee recognition leads to duplicated work and wasted time. And with many different types of software to support, IT’s work multiplies.

A lack of retail technology consolidation can damage a company’s bottom line with the increased time and resources required to manage many different vendors, reduced operational efficiency, and even greater cybersecurity risks (each independent solution presents its own opportunity for a breach).

In response to these issues, retail enterprises are increasingly prioritizing technology consolidation. Research shows that 95% of organizations are planning for IT vendor consolidation in the next year, and over 90% of organizations are actively searching for a unified IT platform. This push to optimize technology is due not only to the drawbacks of utilizing too many solutions, but also to a need to adapt to the current landscape. In an industry where efficiency, reputation, and retention are paramount, enterprises that aren’t thinking about technology consolidation risk getting left behind by competitors. Retailers are facing pressure to reduce costs, optimize processes by harnessing Generative AI, and improve the employee experience. A powerful all-in-one solution that has the functionality to advance all of these goals at once is a win-win.

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Addressing challenges with retail technology consolidation

Every sector, from finance and franchise to healthcare and construction, has its challenges when it comes to tech consolidation. The retail industry grapples with several unique communication, employee experience, and operations factors, many of which can be addressed by consolidating retail technology into a single platform.

Organizations in the retail sector typically have a complex mix of employees working in corporate offices, regional locations, stores, and shipping. It can be difficult for centralized internal comms and HR teams to reach and engage a workforce with diverse personas and varying levels of access to digital devices and accounts.

Many (or most) retail employees do not have access to a computer, company-issued mobile device, or even a corporate email account, which forces corporate communicators to find alternative ways to connect with them. 

Additional challenges that make retail technology consolidation a necessity include: 

Turnover

Retail organizations typically experience high turnover rates due to workforce factors such as seasonal employment, part-time work, and entry-level positions. Constantly hiring and training new employees can create difficulties in maintaining consistent communication channels. Employees may miss important updates or training sessions, leading to gaps in knowledge and productivity.

A diverse audience 

Retail businesses often employ a diverse workforce, including individuals of different ages, backgrounds, languages, and education levels. Communicating effectively with such a diverse group can be challenging, as messages may not resonate equally with all employees. Misunderstandings or misinterpretations of communication can occur, leading to confusion, disengagement, and decreased morale among employees.

Widespread locations and regions 

Retailers operate multiple store locations or have remote employees working in different regions. Communicating with dispersed teams can be challenging. Information may not reach all employees in a timely manner, leading to inconsistency in messaging and alignment across the organization.  

Retail technology consolidation can address the above issues by streamlining experiences for communicators, HR teams, and employees. Reducing the number of channels and platforms in use through the adoption of a single, all-encompassing employee experience solution can help retail companies better reach, engage, and inform their workforces.

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Consolidating retail technology with an employee experience platform

Retail businesses need clear communication and a streamlined employee experience, or they risk inefficiency, low engagement, decreased productivity, and increased turnover in an already high turnover environment. Having too many apps, platforms, and channels can cause several issues, including:

• An inability to consistently and effectively update all employees with the essential information they need to do their jobs, whether they’re working in offices, stores, or warehouses 
• Frustration on the part of employees, who are overwhelmed by the number of solutions and channels they’re expected to use and lacking a go-to location for communication, information, and task completion
• Inefficiencies in internal communication, HR, and IT that stem from teams tasked with managing too many tools

Retail technology consolidation can solve these challenges, and a comprehensive employee experience intranet solution is an effective way to achieve it. Retailers will want to look for a platform that goes beyond the functionality of a traditional intranet to encompass employee experience and internal comms, and serve as a one-stop-shop for employee needs. The right solution can break down silos, keep communications consistent, improve staff experiences across a diverse and dispersed audience, and even boost ROI.

Using a high-quality employee experience intranet as part of a retail technology consolidation strategy can be transformative, especially considering the industry’s unique challenges and hard-to-engage workforce. The integrated communication, information management, and personalization that this type of platform can provide will help to create a better digital workplace, better employee experiences, and better overall performance.

Your roadmap to digital workplace consolidation

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The post Retail technology consolidation: Why it matters and how to achieve it appeared first on Interact software.

You are not about to learn any new slang

This article isn’t a glossary of Generation Alpha lingo so your CEO can look hip. And capturing the attention of Gen Z isn’t as simple as putting your HR policy into TikTok. Intergenerational communication is complex and reducing people to stereotypes is bad practice. 

However, age can be a useful driver of effective workplace communication. 

There are five generations of people still working and research shows that there are broad differences in their interests and preferences. 

Creating an internal communications strategy that engages everyone means being as alert to these differences as to location or role. 

Based on that, this article outlines how to build a multichannel comms strategy that accounts for generational differences in the workplace. You can succeed by balancing push and pull, increasing intergenerational contact, and giving people more options—all without resorting to emojis or memes.

Age diversity is relevant for communicators, part one

A pillar of (top-down) internal communication is that effectiveness is measured by how widely a message is received and understood. Making communication more granular and personalized helps to increase how likely this is.

For example, when a hybrid workforce is dispersed across different locations, the communications team may create different messaging strands for retail stores and corporate offices. This ensures that all the relevant people will receive the messages pertinent to them, their role, and their location, through a combination of the intranet, email, digital signage, manager cascades, and more.

Location, role, and seniority are all great, but to create more granular and personalized communications, generational differences in the workplace can be an added factor that increases the chance of comms success.

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How should you begin to think about generational differences? You start by offering more choices.

Deloitte has identified distinct variations in the channels that different generations use to consume news. This is relevant because a lot of top-down internal communication takes the form of news too.

Source: Deloitte – Are younger generations moving away from traditional news sources?

Deloitte’s analysis shows that younger generations prefer social media over traditional news sources such as broadcast and print media. Older generations still rely on those sources for news.

The insight here, however, is not that organizational news should only take one form or another. The takeaway is comms preferences do vary but they are not exclusive. If you want to reach the widest possible audience, choice is key.

Offering people a blend of communications will be more effective than only sending an email or Slack message.

Age diversity is relevant for communicators, part two

Another pillar of internal communication is that it should be inclusive and engaging. To that end, professional communicators should cater to the needs of different groups.

There are good examples of this for neurodiverse communication and accessibility standards, but less for age.

Research by PwC found that only 8% of organizations include age within their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategies. Caused by the unconscious bias of senior leaders and communicators, ageism – and comms that exclude generations – may in some cases result simply from key figures having the “privilege of being the right age”. 

Although we may want to take the preferences of our audiences into account, when time and resources are limited, it’s not unusual to restrict efforts to those most comfortable to the creator. 

And ageism is more than the exclusion of older people from the hiring process. 

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During the rise of remote working in 2020-2021, many younger people living in house-sharing arrangements battled for space and internet bandwidth with roommates. 

Inevitably, this was less of a problem for senior leaders with home offices, so company comms were more focused on their preferences and privileges.

For communicators to reach everyone in a way that also shows that inclusion is a top priority, meetings and other company communications should also be diverse enough that no one feels excluded.

Bridge generational differences with these comms strategies

If you want to create an age-diverse comms plan that engages more people, consider these ways to create a level playing field for everyone from Zoomers to Baby Boomers. 

1. Research employee communication preferences  

If you want to connect with people, avoid making assumptions without evidence. 

You may already perform an annual (or more frequent) internal communications survey. And, although annual polls are useful for a broad view, they rarely get 100% engagement. 

Using a combination of frequent, shorter pulse surveys, focus groups, manager feedback, and social listening can all deepen your understanding of what people want to hear about, how often they want to be contacted, and through which channels.  

We’ve spoken a lot about age as an important factor, but it’s possible that you may not be able to easily access generational data. 

Some HR teams store anonymized age data for the purposes of DE&I reporting, but this is not universal. 

If you don’t have access to that information, adding a voluntary question about generational ranges to your internal communications surveys adds context to individual and group preferences. Generational age ranges are: 

• The Silent Generation – born 1925-1945 
• The Baby Boomer Generation – born 1946-1964 
• Generation X – born 1965-1979 
• Millennials – born 1980-1994 
• Generation Z – born 1995-2012

2. Take a multichannel approach

If you’ve already researched your organization’s internal comms preferences, you’ll know that different employees (and groups) have different needs. It’s important to meet these through comms campaigns that use a range of channels. 

Fortunately, whether employees want to receive all-company emails or prefer sticking to Slack, it’s now easier than ever for communicators to create a single source message on the intranet and set up instant alerts issued to email, digital signage, Teams, Slack, and more. 

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By drawing everyone to a single source of information on your intranet, you can honor those generational differences in the workplace without having to set up a wide range of unmanageable channels that few people read. 

Learn more about creating a multichannel communications strategy here. 

Ultimately, incorporating a mix of push and pull approaches will help to broaden the reach of different internal messages.

3. Develop channels and content for different age groups

Channels aren’t the only thing that should be diverse in order to involve the various generations. 

Again, it’s important not to assume that stereotypes are correct. There is no simple correlation between Generation X being interested in 401 (k) planning and Generation Z only favoring stories about professional development. 

The important thing is balance. Focusing solely on one type of content may naturally reflect implicit biases and organizational norms, so rotating content that varies from celebrating success to highlighting CSR programs can help to make all generations feel valued. 

If people haven’t indicated preferences in your research, some social listening in intranet forums or on relevant social media platforms may illustrate broad content themes to include. 

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4. Focus on inclusive values

Organizational culture and company values don’t change frequently, but if you are going through a rebrand or restructuring, think about whether your vision and values are as diverse as your workforce. 

Values that touch on customer-centricity or kindness, for example, may be a better fit for intergenerational harmony because they have universal appeal. Focusing solely on being an expert, however, may freeze out more junior people who are developing their careers and experience. 

Universal values can become a rallying point that unites people and fosters interpersonal connection.

5. Increase intergenerational communication

Peer-to-peer communication is important for building strong ties and driving company culture. That’s less likely to happen though if generational differences at work allow people to hold ingrained biases. 

Comms and HR professionals can all help to improve the connections between different age groups by: 

• Creating opportunities for informal interaction: Coffee breaks, lunch-and-learns, and team-building activities allow employees to connect and break down barriers. 
• Encouraging bilateral mentoring: This shouldn’t be a one-way process. Each generation has different skills and life experiences to teach others. 
• The “manual of me” approach: Many teams now encourage employees to set out their own communicational preferences and learning styles. This clarity helps people to connect in an authentic and productive way.

Look beyond the date of birth 

Our goal as communicators is to increase engagement and awareness. There are many strategic and technological tools to help us do this; age can be one of them. 

Ultimately, we want to respect the differences between people without following unfounded assumptions about what they like or can easily access. 

Create a greater choice of content and channels and you’ll drive engagement and foster inclusion.

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The post 5 Communication Tips to Bridge Generational Differences in the Workplace appeared first on Interact software.

OK, so it’s still summer but Starbucks’ PSL season is about to begin (August 24, for fans). As we all know, that means fall is almost here. Fall brings an event that every internal communicator is well-versed in…open enrollment.

Whether 2023 is your first open enrollment or you’re more seasoned than spiced cider, there are a few ways you can use a modern intranet’s features to effectively communicate your open enrollment announcement.

What is open enrollment?

For anyone who doesn’t know (mainly our internal comms peers outside the US), open enrollment is the annual period when employees can enroll in or make changes to the benefits they receive from employers, including health insurance.

It’s also a time when employee communications teams use every tool they’ve got to ensure that important messages and announcements reach every employee at the right time. For benefits beginning in 2024, most organizations in the US will schedule their open enrollment period to last between two and four weeks, from November 1, 2023.

Open enrollment can be a challenging period for internal communicators because in addition to hard deadlines, many employees will be unfamiliar with healthcare terminology or the language and principles used in different benefits options.

So, how should comms, HR, and other employee communications professionals best inform employees about their choices? What are the best ways you can help employees navigate open enrollment season?

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Keep your open enrollment announcement top of mind

You won’t get out of an OEP without drafting at least one article explaining the process, deadlines, and overall importance of this event.

Save yourself from fussing with publication dates or worrying that new content is going to push it out of sight by marking that article (or articles) as a key page on your intranet. This will keep it top of mind AND pin it to the top of category listings and content widgets for as long as you’d like. 

You can also keep an open enrollment announcement reminder at the top of your site for the duration of the enrollment period using a Broadcast banner. Since most enrollment periods run over several weeks, employees could become desensitized to the message over time. In that case, I would recommend sending two or three multichannel Broadcasts over the course of the enrollment period to remind your users that action is required.

Using a range of different communication channels will mean that employees are more likely to receive and engage with your announcements.

Read more about how to create a multichannel communications strategy here.

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For companies with access to internal communication via digital signage, that is an extra tool that can be used in work locations where desktop/laptop computers may not be easily accessible. This includes warehouses, retail stores, or storage facilities.

Pulling content from your intranet software and displaying it on screens, along with an automatically generated QR code that users can scan to access the intranet content, means more eyes will see that important message and you can track the clickthrough rate.

Remind everyone of important deadlines

One phrase no communicator likes to hear is, “No one told me about that.” Using Mandatory Reads for your open enrollment announcement gives you the ability to require action from your users, while providing you with data to follow up with line managers or department heads who can cascade communication within their teams.

An important event like open enrollment has a natural call to action, but you can also remind users of key actions using tools like Interact’s ‘Blocking Notification’. This kind of notification is great for getting eyes on the message. Users must click out of the notification before they can proceed to the intranet. With Interact, you can also track and collect data on who has seen, not seen, or acknowledged messages.

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Tie it all together

Open enrollment is never a one-and-done communication. It’s more like a full-on internal communications campaign that can include HR updates, process documents, FAQs, and a whole assortment of additional content to support this event.

Using intranet features like topic personalization or a ‘related content’ tool, you can tie all these pieces together to provide a seamless content journey that uses a range of multichannel options.

Recommended content is a particularly good intranet feature because it can surface related content based on user behavior. Once the recommended content has been identified (other parts of your open enrollment announcement, for example), it can then be brought to employees’ attention when it is pinned to the pages they regularly browse. If you have a related content feature in your intranet software then you can curate your own content list and display it prominently. That way, users who view the article announcing open enrollment can also easily find related FAQs, insurance overviews, process documents, and more.

Now is also a great time to start using a topic specification tool, if you aren’t already. This can be as simple as creating an open enrollment ‘topic’, which you then assign all your content to. Users can easily subscribe to the topic to be notified about the latest information or any time information changes. This means they don’t miss any of the available material or important deadlines.

Whether you decide to implement one of these ideas or set out to build your own cornucopia of communications, I am sending wishes for effective communications during this upcoming open enrollment season for 2024.

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The post How to Communicate Your Open Enrollment Announcement appeared first on Interact software.

The push for better DE&I in our workplaces has expanded in recent decades. Race, sex, and sexuality all remain central to the discussion of diversity, but the conversation has also widened to include factors such as age, disability, and social class.

Despite this increase in activity though, DE&I principles do not always translate into action. In a damning 2019 study of “flawed” DE&I initiatives, the Boston Consulting Group found that although 98% of organizations have implemented diversity programs, only around a quarter of employees felt they had benefitted.

Neurodivergent individuals are high on the list of those who are yet to see much in the way of greater inclusion. The Center for Neurodiversity and Employment Innovation suggests that unemployment among neurodivergent adults may be as high as 40%; three times the rate of people with physical disabilities and eight times the rate of neurotypical adults with no physical disability. Incomplete reporting on neurodiversity in the workplace means these figures are partial though, and that millions more neurodivergent individuals may lack meaningful work or supportive work environments.

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How can employers make work more attractive and fulfilling for neurodivergent employees? Better communication may help. By adapting your employee comms to individual needs and using a multichannel strategy, you can drive positive change at the level of everyday experience and make your workplace more inclusive.

After all, it’s not enough to launch a new DE&I program and wait for good results. Change has to be implemented and then embedded across every touchpoint, including employee experience platforms such as intranet software. This article contains communication tips from neurodiversity experts and organizations. Use them on all your comms channels to upgrade your DE&I experience for an even greater range of people and even better neurodiversity in the workplace.

What is neurodiversity?

The cognitive abilities and pathways of humans differ widely, and this should be viewed as an asset rather than a limiting factor.

In the past, it was common to stereotype people with autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), for example, and to see them as somehow deficient because their ways of thinking and communicating differed from neurotypical norms.

It is now more commonly accepted, however, that as with neurotypical people, neurominorities also have specific strengths and weaknesses and that their neurocognitive abilities are variations rather than forms of disability.

Rather than excluding anyone from work based on neurocognitive predispositions, it is better to understand the whole person in context and to find ways of organizing and communicating that work for them so they can flourish too.

Data suggests that 15% of the population are dyslexic, for example, which has an important impact on communication at work because it can potentially cause frustration with written comms and limit the amount of engagement.

Rather than excluding or frustrating this 15% in favor of the 85% who find written communication less stressful, a thoughtful comms strategy may account for this neurodiversity in the workplace and accommodate it. If we look at the number of dyslexics who have added significantly to culture and entrepreneurship, we can easily see the potential value in ‘thinking differently’. Wouldn’t you want Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Richard Branson, Walt Disney, Thomas Edison – and many more people believed to be dyslexic – on your team?

Promoters of neurodiversity at work, Genius Within, note some of the types of neurodivergent profiles that can be positive when individuals have access to circumstances that accentuate their strengths. Examples of neurominorities include:

• Autism
• ADHD
• Dyspraxia
• Dyscalculia
• Dyslexia
• Tourette’s Syndrome

The benefits of neurodiversity in the workplace

Not every organization is actively pursuing neurodivergence as part of their DE&I strategy. In many cases, this may be either because the benefits of neurodiversity in the workplace are not well understood or because hiring practices are geared towards a single type of candidate with neurotypical transferable skills, such as verbal communication or project management.

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By stating these skills as expectations for a role, neurodiverse individuals may be deterred from applying, let alone succeeding through to the final rounds of the hiring process.

Examples from companies with neurodiversity programs, however, suggest that when people with different skills and abilities are given a platform for success, the expansion of the talent pool has led to unanticipated successes. While some neurodiverse people may exhibit non-typical social behavior or require accommodations – such as noise cancelling headphones or different positioning of desks – the returns from their work can be significant too.

Companies noted for pushing for more neurodiversity in the workplace include SAP, Willis Towers Watson, Ford, and Ernst & Young (EY). Examples of positive neurodiversity in different organizations include:

• Neurodiverse software testers at Hewlett Packard helped a customer to redefine their launch protocols in a way that was less tolerant of disorder. These neurodivergent workers recognized a pattern of disorder embedded within the customers’ processes and supported them to streamline.
• One of SAP’s neurodiverse analysts identified an opportunity for customers to self-serve, which led to the creation of resources that benefitted thousands of users.
• Australia’s Department of Human Services (DHS) instituted neurodiverse testing teams that were up to 30% more productive than neurotypical counterparts.
• An Intelligence unit of people on the autism spectrum exists within the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). This unit is said to have proven superiority over neurotypical colleagues at analyzing aerial and satellite imagery because of the group’s pattern recognition abilities.

Communication and neurodiversity in the workplace

The neurodiversity gap can be narrowed by understanding that small adjustments in process and communication can have positive results for individuals and organizations. Adjunct professor Theresa Haskins told Bloomberg:

You have a lot of very capable people who communicate differently, who may approach work differently, and therefore they’re not getting the jobs and are not able to retain the jobs, but they’re very capable in performing.

But what can communicators and people-focused teams in HR do to improve the inclusion of neurodivergent people? Below are some tips and best practices drawn from individuals and organizations. Their work is worth visiting for more information, and although general guidelines can help, people should be treated individually and not communicated with according to stereotypes.

1. Think outside the (in)box

Whether you’re aware of it or not, your workforce is already likely to be neurodiverse. It’s estimated that 15% of the population have dyslexia, a condition that causes difficulty in reading and spelling, but which can also affect memory, organization, time-keeping, and concentration.

Sticking rigidly to email-only comms on important company updates may create extra stress for dyslexic individuals and lead to misunderstanding of key issues. While you may not have the budget or time to create professional-grade videos, recording short voice and video notes on a phone is now easy and fast. Audio content won’t always be possible (for long blog posts or company reports), but it can be a helpful addition to emails. Using your CMS intranet to post comms also means you have a permanent place to add audio or video media, directing staff there for additional details.

Of course, email can still be an important channel for sharing that media, so ensure any CMS intranet you consider implementing also functions as internal communications email software.

2. Communication: the thing humans forgot when we invented words

Far from seeing dyslexia as a disability, the billionaire businessman Richard Branson believes it has driven his success. Branson has suggested that the condition strengthened his ability to delegate and to appreciate the strengths of others. In a well-known quote, the Virgin boss also called communication “the thing humans forgot when we invented words”.

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Adding images, flow charts, mind maps, and other visual aids to your internal communication can be a way of expanding your message. It can make comms more accessible and less work for co-workers, resulting in greater engagement and a less stressed team.

3. Map and publicize your workplace

Neurodiverse people have a wide variety of preferences, but one that is often noted is a tendency toward order and routine. This is especially true for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), for whom “Set routines, times, particular routes and rituals all help to get order into an unbearably chaotic life.”

Hybrid workplaces may be challenging in this regard because the physical locations of individuals and teams change often. How can communicators help? One customer of ours has worked with a third-party app to add an interactive office map to their intranet software. Giving people a way to understand and plan their interactions with other workers (in a format that is updated as the team changes) may help to improve their employee experience.

4. Consider the power of external motivation

In an article about the impact of ADHD on her work history, Gili Malinsky offers some of the ways she manages the need to “plan, focus and juggle multiple tasks simultaneously” made difficult by ADHD.

One of the things Malinsky learned was that every time she began a new job, her ADHD resulted in an eventual lack of internal motivation caused by a feeling of being overwhelmed. As part of her set of strategies to boost performance, she learned to ask for praise when doing a good job. This is another area where internal communications technology can support workers. Rewards and recognition programs – whether they have monetary value or are purely symbolic – are an instant yet low-stress way of publicly showing employee appreciation.

We Interacters award each other digital ‘donuts’ in a way that adds gamification and social media awareness to our praise for one another.

5. Eat the elephant one bite at a time

According to the British Dyslexia Association, “Too much information, such as a list of instructions or directions, will be hard for the dyslexic brain to process and remember.”

When considering how you set out the content of messages or the design of intranet pages, therefore, it may be helpful to think bitesize. Rather than having long, uninterrupted blocks of text, your CMS intranet should have a content editor capable of using design tools such as accordion-type displays.

This will encourage content authors to break up information and shift from long explainers into more consumable FAQs where appropriate.

Considering accessibility principles may also help to produce comms that support neurodiversity in the workplace rather than hindering it. This may include using simple language and having multilingual translation as standard, but if you are designing guides and HR policy documents, it will extend to page setup and structure.

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Using wide page margins and justifying text to the left are common accessibility considerations, as are equal spacing, (large) font size, and always finishing sentences and paragraphs on the same page they start on.

6. Provide guidelines for leaders

We all know the power of messages when they’re delivered by senior leaders in an organization. Whether it’s through a blog, email, town-hall meeting, or vlog, those big announcements can boost or damage company morale.

For neurodivergent staff who may not respond in a typical way to nuance, sarcasm, or other forms of humor, there is even greater potential for these events to be isolating. Creating an engaged organization means communicating with everyone on an even playing field, so simple guidelines for leadership videos and other messages can also be helpful.

Advice from the trade union, Prospect, focuses on the need to be clear at all times. They suggest:

• Avoiding sarcasm or ambiguity
• Being clear and using short, concise sentences
• Incorporating a visual element, such as diagrams or org charts, when appropriate
• Using closed rather than open questions to provide clarity
• Providing regular updates, especially when announcements concern changes to ways of working that may affect staff on a daily basis

Final thought – neurodiverse communication must be…diverse

As with all of your co-workers, individuals with neurocognitive differences have varying needs and communication styles. There is no single answer for how you should communicate with a neurodiverse workforce, just a process of listening, learning, and developing together. Monitoring data analytics on what works well (and doesn’t) and asking people through employee surveys can help to refine your approach, but ultimately being open to different forms of communication will remain key to creating an engaged and inclusive workplace.

The post Communication best practices and neurodiversity in the workplace appeared first on Interact software.

For as long as I can remember, one of my favorite activities has been sitting down with pen and paper (yes, I am still a fan of good old-fashioned handwriting) and planning. Over the years, I’ve taken several different approaches, but in recent years I’ve been inspired by one of my favorite podcasts (Happier with Gretchen Rubin) to create a list of things I want to accomplish based on the current year. So, earlier this year I created my own 22 in 2022 list of goals.

Once I finished my personal 22 in 2022 list, I felt inspired to continue creating. In the spirit of helping our customers build and optimize their internal communications, I started thinking about the 22 things that internal communicators could do to improve their intranets this year. Hence the list below was born.  

Whether you’re building a full-scale intranet and communications strategy plan for the year to come or are planning a new intranet entirely, this list gives you 22 tips on how to improve your employee experience platform.

Improve intranet awareness: Gather data and make a plan of action

1. Get clear on your goals

What are your overall communication goals for the year? You must have a clear picture of what success looks like before you begin planning how to get there. With an internal communications plan in place, you can decide what role your multichannel tools will each play in creating and distributing comms.

2. Gather user feedback

When was the last time you solicited feedback on your intranet? Understanding user sentiment is important for ensuring that your intranet is delivering what your users need, in the format that they need it.

Multichannel communications: How to plan and execute a strategy

Improve your intranet success with multichannel communications strategies for the most common business scenarios.

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3. Review your intranet success plan

Is your intranet success plan up to date? Do you even have one? This is only relevant for those of you who work with an intranet software vendor (if so, connect with your Customer Success Manager), but even if you don’t it’s worth creating a strategy to develop your platform. Once you know your organizational communication goals, a success plan is the next step in determining how you will make progress towards those goals. There are lots of metrics that you will want to track, such as pageviews, so make sure to include what you would like to reach and how you will get there.

Go back to basics: Establish a firm foundation

4. Revisit your operational governance

When was the last time you reviewed your governance plan? Intranets need guidelines, standards, and processes for good long-term maintenance, so now is a great time to review and update your governance document. Ensure that it aligns with the best practices you have identified for your organization.

5. Review your intranet team roles

Have you identified the right people in your organization who play a key role in supporting the intranet? Though it may sometimes feel like it, managing an intranet is not a one-person job. Ensure that the people you need to improve intranet performance are clear on their expectations and responsibilities.

6. Re-engage your stakeholders and improve intranet adoption

Are all the members of your intranet management team still aligned and invested in the success of the intranet? Recirculate your intranet success plan and operational governance to ensure there is alignment.  It’s also good practice to find out what information your stakeholders need access to in order to support you in running a successful intranet.

Content is everything: Develop compelling intranet material

7. Do some spring cleaning

A platform is only as good as the intranet content ideas it houses. Create a plan for auditing your current intranet content for timeliness, relevancy, uniqueness, and overall general best practices. Use intranet analytics to find pages that haven’t been viewed in the past three months and review page quality scores to determine areas of focus.

Multichannel communications: How to plan and execute a strategy

Improve your intranet success with multichannel communications strategies for the most common business scenarios.

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8. Recruit or re-engage your content authors

What does your cadence of communication look like with current content authors? Do you have the right subject matter experts in place to keep content fresh? Are your teams engaged and aligned, or could they use more training? You should regularly evaluate your content authors to ensure they still fit their roles and if there is a need to recruit new authors from across the business. 

9. What gets recognized, gets repeated

Is there a content author who writes compelling content or an employee who actively participates in discussions? Find a way to recognize those who contribute to your intranet’s success, and you’ll see that those behaviors get repeated.

Knowledge is power: Arm yourself with the latest tools

10. Explore a new feature

Interact is constantly introducing new features and improvements to current features. Check out our recent launch of what we think is the world’s easiest intranet content editor!

Whoever your intranet is with though, identify one new feature on the intranet that you want to try out, then dedicate time to learning all you can about how to use that feature.

11. Join a webinar

Interact offers free informational webinars throughout the year, with topics ranging from Interact features to internal comms best practices. You can see the list of all our upcoming webinars here. Go ahead, sign up for some and subscribe to the calendar so you don’t miss events in the future.

12. Attend a community meet-up

There’s a special kind of magic that happens when you get together with peers from your own community. While in-person gatherings are sadly on hold during the pandemic, we’re still offering virtual meetups for networking and the exchanging of ideas. Make sure that your intranet software provider offers the same.

Multichannel communications: How to plan and execute a strategy

Improve your intranet success with multichannel communications strategies for the most common business scenarios.

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13. Share the wealth

Whether it’s learning about new features or best practices, it’s important to share the knowledge with your content team. Make it a regular part of your communication with them to share tips, tricks, and best practices to raise the expertise level of everyone who contributes to your intranet’s success.

It’s all about the (user) experience: The easier, the better

14. Start from the top

Review your top menu navigation to ensure it makes it easy for users to find what they are looking for. Use search analytics to determine the terminology your users include when they are looking for content and incorporate those terms into your navigational naming conventions.

15. Make it personal

What is the intranet experience like for users from different areas of your business? Are you serving up content based on where they sit in the organization and what they need? Creating a personalized experience for your users on the intranet will continue to build their trust in the platform. Consider targeting content in your homepage widgets or simply providing guidance on how your users can adjust their own personal notifications to suit their preferences.

16. Bring it home

Is the information you are sharing on the homepage supporting your intranet’s purpose and compelling users to visit the site regularly? Make a plan to evaluate your homepage content, including gathering user feedback, then use that data to decide what changes you can make to improve the experience.

17. Stick the landing

When was the last time you evaluated your landing page layouts? Landing pages are a great way to visually introduce users to the types of content they can find within that particular area of your site.  Using landing pages to highlight a mix of static and dynamic content can increase visual appeal while keeping them populated with fresh content that drives users back repeatedly.

It’s a numbers game: Assess your analytics

18. Define your KPIs to improve intranet measurement

If you already know what you want to achieve, the next step is figuring out how to measure it. Use your success plan and feedback from your stakeholders to understand which metrics you should use this year to show progress and measure success.

Multichannel communications: How to plan and execute a strategy

Improve your intranet success with multichannel communications strategies for the most common business scenarios.

Download now

19. Find a focus

What is your most important intranet KPI? While you may have several metrics that you use to measure your performance, focus on the most important KPI and spend the next few months homing in on what actions or efforts influence it.   

20. Add another layer

Do you want to dive even further into analytics? Consider incorporating Google Analytics within the data you already receive. This may give you an added layer of data to incorporate in your reporting and should be easy to set up.

Share your story: We are all learning and improving together

21. Connect with your Customer Success team

Our teams love connecting with customers and helping them build amazing intranets. We also love being able to connect organizations with each other, in an effort to continue learning and growing. If you are doing great things with your intranet, your Customer Success Manager wants to know (and that goes for every company). They can help you find outlets for sharing that story with others who may need that dose of inspiration.

22. Apply for intranet awards to showcase yours

Every year there are lots of intranet awards that celebrate innovation – we even have our own, the Interact Excellence Awards. Keep an eye on events like the Inspiring Workplaces Award, so you can show the world your great work too.

The post 22 ways to improve your intranet right now appeared first on Interact software.

As employers and employees alike adapt to dramatic shifts in how and where work is done, the idea of an internal communications career is also developing.

Throughout the pandemic, communicators have been asked to work harder than ever to deliver key messages. From crisis comms to mental health resources, employee communication has been indispensable in maintaining employee experience (EX) and supporting a widescale transition to hybrid working.

14 steps to great internal communications

Improve employee experience and business performance through the power of internal communication.

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This recent demonstration of the importance of internal comms may have stemmed from circumstance, but a general understanding of the profession’s centrality to business operations has been building for years. Back in 2018, PRWeek wrote: 

“Internal communications is no longer the poor relation of PR and marketing and as digital capabilities progress it can offer a career that appeals to creative mindsets and those that have a great grasp of the written word.” 

Some of you working as internal communications managers might agree with me that it was never a poor relation.

Either way, comms is now more visible than ever and an internal communications career path may become something more people wish to pursue.

I knew from an early age that writing and communications were my passion (I have my first blog from 2001 to prove it!). During my tenure as a communications professional, which spans over a decade, I’ve led internal communication efforts for several organizations, including small nonprofits and national retailers here in the US. I have also experienced first-hand the evolution of communication channels over the years.

From printed newsletters to email to intranets, each channel presented a new opportunity to craft compelling messages that resonated with employees. In 2019, I joined Interact because I want to support other communicators to build an intranet that helps them inform and engage with their employees.  

Work has changed; internal communications roles have changed

Although the pandemic has a lot to answer for with regard to the acceleration of technologies and remote work, the increased visibility of communicators and the changes to the work they do, also stems from a broader set of circumstances. 

Factors here include the increased importance of DE&I, ESG, and the emergence of employee experience as a key indicator of employee satisfaction and company performance. Communicators contribute to all of these critical work-related topics, which has resulted in their skills being highly valued. At the same time, the continual flow of change means that communicators need to adapt quickly to new technologies and new messaging.

With all these changes, how should you continue to develop your internal communications skills? 

14 steps to great internal communications

Improve employee experience and business performance through the power of internal communication.

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Darcy Eikenberg is a leadership coach and the author of the new book, “Red Cape Rescue: Save Your Career Without Leaving Your Job.” As a former principal and communication leader at a global consulting firm, she has worked with many internal communication professionals and speaks at events for groups such as IABC and PRSA. 

Darcy’s advice is that during this period of increased visibility, IC professionals can deploy three key strategies to help their own career development.

Internal communications career tip: redefine your job

Darcy believes internal communication professionals who want to develop their own careers and support those around them need to consider their importance.

“Today’s internal communication role is significantly different than it was even five years ago. But many companies—and even some in the roles—have never stepped back to assess what the role really is and why it matters. In a time of great change, you need to take the lead on this conversation. Start by answering questions such as: 

• What problems do you solve? 
• Where do you make things simpler? 
• What happens for the better when you do what you do? 
• Where do you make a difference — and for whom?

Once you understand what your real job is (and in my experience, it may be as an integrator, negotiator, or facilitator), you can communicate that better and help others understand the contribution you really make.“

Internal communications career tip: connect your work to bigger goals

After a period in which virtually every aspect of life changed, most of us recognize that work is different. Regardless of whether you work remotely, in-office, in a retail store, or at some other kind of location, there were significant changes in our routines – some of which have returned to their pre-pandemic states, some of which haven’t. 

During the time when they were changing though, an important thing happened: the Great Discontent.

What is the Great Discontent?

Also known as the Great Resignation, the Big Quit, and a few other names, the Great Discontent refers to the record number of employees who have voluntarily left their jobs in 2021. Why? The best analysis suggests that as stay-at-home orders confined people to their homes, many of us re-evaluated our work-lives. 

Difficult commutes, time spent away from family, unappealing workplaces: as technology enabled remote work—and some people were given financial aid—the urge to find new, more amenable jobs created a mass wave of employee turnover. 

As in other fields, for your internal communications career to remain meaningful and motivational over the long-term, it needs to remain anchored to what motivated it in the first place. If you’re anything like me, those original motivators were about helping people and improving the employee experience than anything task-specific. If you’ve gotten stuck, Darcy Eikenberg thinks it’s time to step back and see your value again. 

“Too many communication professionals are trapped in the execution of low-value work. They’ve let themselves become a commodity by focusing on the outputs (the newsletters, videos, digital assets, etc.) instead of focusing on—and talking about—the broader goals those things contribute to.

The game has changed. Creating ‘stuff’ is now a commodity; outsourceable and replaceable by anyone who can use the tools. 

If that’s all anyone thinks you’re doing—no matter how strategic you believe it to be—you’ll never get promoted or rewarded.” 

A final career tip: invest in your skills and yourself

The pandemic generated an urgent need for fast, multichannel communications. If communicators weren’t already in-the-know about Slack, Teams, video content, and emergency broadcasts, they soon developed their understanding. 

In terms of professional development, this highlights the ever-present need for communicators to stay on top of changing trends at a strategic level and to understand the best practices of how and when to use certain channels. Throughout the pandemic, instant messaging and video became channels of note, while face-to-face (unsurprisingly) and email may have been quieter. 

Digital signage is a good example of a communications channel whose value was seen throughout the pandemic. While remote and temporarily teleworking employees were easy to reach via email or notifications, frontline workers and those in locations that remained open had a different experience. Communicating with those lacking constant access to messages was made easier through SMS, push notifications on mobile apps, and digital signage. 

By creating eye-catching, short copy that connected back to longer intranet content, communicators could attract on-location staff to important messages and ensure they stayed safe and informed. As with every other kind of communication format though, digital signage has its own best practices. By investing time in researching and understanding these new channels, communicators can enhance their own career skills. 

You can find more on digital signage best practices in our downloadable guide. 

However, while the channels may be changing, the communication skills they built on are not. These most valuable skills, many of which IC pros learn both as Communications majors and on the job, remain sought after and should also be developed through personal investment. 

Darcy Eikenberg’s advice is to take control.

“When we wait for our companies to invest in us, we give up our power and reinforce the idea that we’re a commodity. 

Go to an industry conference, even if you have to pay for it on your own. Volunteer for a professional association. Hire a coach to help you strengthen a skill, map out tough conversations or clarify what you want next. 

When you use these strategies and invest in your own professional and personal skills, you break away from the commodity pack and start adding more value. It will not only benefit your career but your colleagues, company and community, too.”

The value of internal communications is high

It can’t have missed the attention of alert senior business leaders that reaching and engaging millions of dispersed global employees fell on the shoulders of skilled communicators. In fact, according to the Gallagher State of the Sector report for 2021, 66% of respondents said their level of influence on senior leaders has now increased. 

Likewise, McKinsey’s nine tips to improve employee experience recognizes the value of communications. Getting employees to feel that they are seen, valued, and full of purpose are all tasks traditionally supported by comms teams.

If improving EX and keeping organizations connected and engaged wasn’t enough, there’s also the data that shows that organizations with better communication pathways also perform better financially. According to Towers Watson, “companies with highly effective communication practices enjoy 47 percent higher total returns to shareholders compared with the firms that are least effective at communicating.” 

Why? Because in companies with better communication, staff are more engaged, more aligned with the mission, and more productive. 

Communicators should feel positive about developing their skills in a world which relies on them more and more. And for those looking to pursue an internal communications career path, now may be a good time to discover how connecting people can give purpose and meaning to a job role.

14 steps to great internal communications

Improve employee experience and business performance through the power of internal communication.

Download now

The post 3 strategies to develop an internal communications career in a hybrid workplace appeared first on Interact software.