As digital signage becomes more commonplace throughout businesses, the opportunities to use in-office screens are nearly endless. Digital signs are a great way to communicate within your office by removing the burden of checking internal portals, social networks, and emails to gain access to important in-office information. As teams arrive in the office and get sucked into meetings, work, emails, projects, and even client communications, inner-office messages can easily fall to the bottom of the “must read” list.
For example, it’s often hard to find the time to learn about a new hire via their personal biography or LinkedIn page, or to log into the internal portal to read the latest human resources update. This is where digital signage can play an important role as the new (and maybe even improved?) corporate water cooler.
Digital signs make it easy to share bite-sized nuggets of information and to help excite employees about upcoming change. Ruthlessly digestible images, video clips, and tickers allow your team to absorb information quickly and with minimal effort, allowing them to focus on the things that matter most to your business.
While in-office digital displays may have been reserved for only the fanciest of offices in the past, that’s no longer the case! Today’s monitors are low-cost and high-resolution and quality, making them perfect for the lunchroom, highly trafficked hallways, or at major entryways. Since your team will see the messages multiple times each day, your messaging will be reinforced on a subconscious level.
While selecting the right type of screen for your office will depend on your team and office needs, all-in-one solutions are plentiful and come at attractive price points in today’s market. An all-in-one smart TV gives you the ability to connect to Wi-Fi, use Bluetooth, and stream your content without the need to purchase external hardware. Whatever screens you choose, here’s how you can use digital signs to boost productivity in your office, today.
Be Practical
Perhaps the accounting department has a new way to submit expense reports using a new mobile app. An email blast to all employees is sent, and a communication is uploaded to the internal portal. If most people don’t submit a new expense report as part of their daily workflow, chances are good the message will be forgotten. But, by adding a digestible notice to your in-office digital signs, you can reinforce your message throughout the day on an ongoing basis to ensure it remains fresh in your team’s minds.
As new hires arrive, posting a photo along with the hire’s name, title, and phone extension or email address can help the team become familiar with a new face more quickly. This makes the team more likely to recognize and engage with new team members, supporting a smooth on-boarding process and highlighting your new hire as an important member of your organization.
You can influence or reinforce behavior through digital signage by posing messages on screens instead of sending multiple email communications. Projects like month-end reports, computer updates, or office-wide documentation reduction tactics can be communicated in bite-sized messages that highlight deadlines on in-office screens.
Boost engagement
Dynamic content in the office is as important as in your external marketing mix. Employees can feel overwhelmed by the volume of resources and information sent around, which can make it hard to zero-in on the most important messages. Digital signage throughout the office can cut down the noise, delivering messages through a medium where everyone feels comfortable and little effort is required.
As leaders, simply program your message and make it go live. As with external signage, add a call-to-action for your employees — like visiting the internal portal — and watch engagement rise.
Display real-time analytics
If your company has monthly, quarterly, and annual sales goals, real-time analytics can be displayed across in-office screens to give your team insight into how the organization is doing and even inspire teams to exceed their goals.
If your organization participates in regular sprints, real-time updates showing the number of points completed each day during a sprint period to encourage and keep team members updated on their progress.
Celebrate victories
Here’s where it gets fun! You can limit victories to business wins – like landing a new client or surpassing a sales goal – or you can extend well beyond the boardroom and celebrate your people. Celebrating team and individual professional and personal victories helps to foster a positive working environment and boosts employee engagement.
Whether a team member just ran a marathon or finished an MBA, sharing these milestones in common areas is a lovely way to recognize accomplishments and tell your team how proud you are of their accomplishments. By reinforcing positive news on your signs, you can keep your team focused on wins psychologically instead of worrying about downfalls.
Communicate beyond office walls
If your team is scattered across the country or even the world, digital screens paired with a webcam and microphone can help connect you despite the distance. Leverage your digital screens for company-wide town halls or hold regular sit-downs with your remote team members.
Promote continuous learning
Turn your Friday lunch hour into a learning hour by streaming educational content such as how-to videos in your corporate cafeteria. Allow staff members to choose whether or not they wish to attend. The best part is you can program the screen you use to show the video to promote the Lunch and Learn event all week! These sessions can help guide your team in creating new processes to boost efficiency and create better processes, thus improving overall productivity across the organization.
