Building a Culture of Transparency and Open Communication with Workplace Digital Signage

Ping-pong tables and pizza parties aren’t working anymore!

Your employees are entertained. But not necessarily engaged.

Employee values have vastly evolved. They don’t want to be another resource stuck in the hamster wheel of work, earn, repeat. They want to feel included and valued.

You could offer hundreds and thousands of perks. But they will stay disengaged if they don’t feel part of a vibrant and positive work culture that acknowledges and motivates them.

Did you know that disengaged employees can cost you as high as $3400 for every $10,000 annually.

That’s alarming!

So, what’s the solution?

Say hello to digital signage― an employee-facing digital asset that can be disruptive when utilized well.

Effective strategies for digital signage can reinforce your corporate culture and accelerate engagement, resulting in the following:

• 41% fewer quality defects

• 41% fewer safety accidents

• 25% increase in productivity

• 37% lower absenteeism

Workplace digital signage solutions can set a culture of open communication, inclusivity, and contemporary outlook. Let’s explore how.

7 Ways Digital Signage Enhances Your Workplace Culture

The global digital signage market is expected to hit $29.8 billion by 2024 . After retail & advertising, corporates are the next biggest beneficiaries of the modern digital signage solutions.

That’s because sleek displays at the workplace not only fulfill your short-term corporate communications and internal branding goals, they also help set the standards of your corporate culture.

Listed below are 10 ways your workplace digital signage can help:

1. Promotes company culture & core values

While your employees are aware of the core values and principles of the company, audio-visual reinforcement always works magic. Many companies are implementing unique ways to engage employees via digital signage.

Imagine a comic relief in the middle of a hectic day when your employees look up to see all the office TVs showing: “Let’s take a dance break!”

Wondering how that might work?

Remember the KitKat dance challenge that went viral a few years back? Here’s a video to jog your memory:

Now imagine this being replicated in your workplace digital displays!

Is there an easier way to promote a happy and lively work culture that appeals to the millennials and GenZs?

In the era of diversity and inclusion, your corporate TVs can also bring people from cross-cultural teams together

With a rich combination of interactive media, they offer the cultural pivot your company’s work environment needs.

A great example is organizing monthly cultural heritage events. This binds people from different ethnic groups together as they learn more about various traditions and cultures.

2. Fixes communication silos

The top management may not be aware of it, but communication silos often creep into your company culture without your knowledge. While there are different types of silos within an organization, a few can be fixed with simple adjustments, such as by democratizing information through your workplace digital signage.

For example, you can use your corporate TVs to show a company-wide calendar that highlights important dates and events, such as team meetings, training sessions, and company-wide events. You can also host virtual inter-department seminars and peer-learning sessions to bring together your remote, hybrid, and on-premise employees.

3. Amps up productivity

Your human resources are social beings first. When they connect better, they perform better.

HR managers & operation managers can use their workplace digital signage system to engage employees and boost their productivity by:

• Giving weekly/monthly shout outs (for example, putting up the employee of the month on a digital wall of fame)

• Highlighting quarterly achievements

• Announcing rewards, work anniversaries, milestones, etc.

• Making information readily-available by presenting real-time KPIs & other dashboards

These small changes in the workplace leave a long-lasting impact. It shows your staff that you don’t just expect the best out of them, you also support them the best possible way so they can deliver their best.

4. Collect feedback and opinions

How often do your employees get the opportunity to air their concerns and convey valuable suggestions? Employee-focused organizations are constantly trying to address concerns and improve the experience of their people.

However, most of these activities are done during annual feedback surveys. The right way is to keep tabs on the pulse of your organization by collecting feedback in real-time.

Digital signage software like Pickcel can be integrated with your company intranets and other private databases, allowing you to frequently launch surveys, polls, and internal feedback campaigns and share the responses live on your office TVs.

This will help you:

• Identify minor issues before they escalate

• Measure employee satisfaction consistently

• Collect feedback on suggested changes or opinions on particular topics

• Keep tabs on employee morale year-round

Replace annual surveys with daily, weekly or monthly polls. Your digital displays can post short and snappy questions like how your employees feel about a particular program. For example:

• Do you like the new company logo?

• Are you happy with washroom hygiene?

• Are you satisfied with the company’s healthcare benefits?

5. Reduce attrition

A Gallup study shows that voluntary employee turnover costs organizations a shocking trillion dollars annually.

Much of this is self-inflicted.

The same survey says that 51% of departing employees mentioned they would’ve stayed back if the company cared to communicate more.

This is the need of the hour. Communicate everything.

Company news, the growth opportunities, upcoming events, social service activities, acquisitions— everything should be communicated to the employees. This creates an inclusive environment and makes people feel they are a part of the ecosystem.

Installing digital signage in the workplace is only the first step. You need to utilize it well to improve the company culture.

Presenting a few tried and tested approaches:

• Recognition

It’s only human to desire recognition and acknowledgment. Your people are no exception. Digital signage displays in workplaces can use appealing audio-visuals to congratulate “employee of the month” for their contribution.

Even a simple “thank you” works magic when displayed publicly on digital screens. Deserving employees who go above and beyond to get tasks done feel grateful when they see these gestures.

Here are some more employee recognition ideas that you can explore.

• Customer reviews

When your teams receive excellent customer reviews, go the extra mile and make it public. The impact those congratulatory words can make on company-wide digital screens is incredible. Casting the spotlight on your people instils a sense of pride and makes them push the boundaries to achieve milestones.

• Celebrate milestones

Your employees are more than target metrics. They are your people first. Celebrating non-professional milestones such as birthdays, anniversaries, graduation, the birth of a child, and more makes them feel attached to the organization. Digital signage provides the ideal platform to achieve these. You can also use it as a forum to welcome recruits or hail a new client visiting the office.

6. Better Health & Safety Regulations

Your staff needs to be occasionally educated on the health and safety protocols. Digital signage, once again, becomes one of the most effective internal communication tools.

The last two years have seen a steep rise in the usage of corporate signage to maintain COVID protocols. Companies could safely communicate mandates such as:

• Social distancing & wearing masks

• Washing hands and contact surfaces

• Disinfection of shared spaces

• Stay-at-home reminders

Besides physical health, there is also a growing concern about mental health. An interactive digital signage campaign by Suicide Prevention Charity R U OK Day grabbed the spotlight. Nearly 971 million people suffer from some form of mental illness worldwide. R U OK Day partnered with Australia-based outdoor advertiser JCDecaux to launch a campaign asking, “R U OK?”

The key attraction of this campaign was the use of VR digital signage that lets users interact with the screen.

Watch the campaign in action:

Corporates can take cues from such examples and install interactive digital signages in their facilities.

Besides health, the workplace safety of employees is also a major concern. In emergencies that mandate complete evacuation of office buildings, digital displays can direct employees to the nearest exits and assist by showing emergency protocols.

7. Learning and development

Interactive digital screens are the best for learning and development in modern workplaces. They make it easier for team leaders and managers to offer support and guidance with ongoing jobs. Interesting training modules in engaging formats can help desk-bound and deskless employees learn on the fly.

Learning and development teams of top corporates can use digital signage in the workplace to boost employee experience in different ways:

• Training videos: Digital signage can be used to display learning and training videos in common areas with high footfall. This lets your employees access them conveniently and on demand. They can cover a wide range of topics, such as software training, product training, safety training, etc.

• Gamified learning: 70% of Forbes Global 2000 companies use gamification to improve staff engagement and employee retention. L&D departments in most of these organizations use digital signage to develop quizzes and interactive games related to their training materials. This enables employees to learn new things in a fun way and stay motivated.

Siemens Industry has set a great example of gamified learning. They launched “Plantville,” a gaming platform to educate about plant operations and create brand awareness.

Plantville engaged users in an immersive and interactive environment. People could place themselves as plant managers and learn new things in a fun setting.

Digital signage was used for displaying leader boards and other elements. This method was far more effective than handing over simple instructional documents and videos.

Gamified learning with digital signage can also help share real-time industry news and updates. Pickcel’s RSS feeds app can help display any website’s RSS feeds instantly by using its RSS feed URL.

Will Digital Signage Solve All Your Workplace Issues?

Short answer: no. It’s no silver bullet.

Simply installing digital screens and displaying content leads you nowhere. Your employees need to live and breathe the culture you are trying to establish.

The possibilities with digital signage are endless. Only if you determine the best approach and strategy for your organization will it be a short-term solution. Your plans should evolve.

For example, when applauding your employees via digital signage, you should develop content that’s not heavy on text. Instead, it should have rich audio-visuals. Use pictures, videos, and other compelling formats to capture your busy employees’ attention.

Again, there’s a discipline to stick to. Your content queue should never be empty. You should commit to updating the content regularly. Automate as much as you can. And, of course, personalize. A lot. If it’s easy for people to get glued to new information, it’s even easier for them to lose interest if the content appears repetitive, generic, or boring.

You need to keep it real, relevant, and riveting.

While digital signage is disruptive, it is not a replacement for your holistic communication medium or strategies. It is an extension of your current corporate communication approach.

Before investing in digital signage, ensure your internal communication teams revisit their strategy and goals. This will help them figure out how to advance multimedia communications through digital means and support the company’s overall vision.

Only then can you maximize the benefits of this medium.

Are You Ready To Lift Your Office Culture With Digital Signage?

A recent study revealed that 82% of workers in the age bracket of 18 to 29 say they perform minimal work required to sustain their jobs. “Quiet quitting,” as we call it, is not a fun situation.

Another study found that 74% of employees fear missing out on important company information.

While modern digital signage can reinforce company culture and create an inclusive environment, it is more of a catalyst—a business asset. The onus is on companies to leverage these as communication tools and instil brand values in their employees.

Want an efficient digital signage solution for your workplace? Hop on a call with us.