Are you noticing dwindling workplace productivity? It may be due to a suboptimal internal comms structure. Watch out for these 11 signs indicating it's about time to invest in an employee app.
We all know that effective internal communication is essential for sustaining employee engagement, enhancing productivity, and improving revenue figures. However, ensuring that actually happens is another ball game. Research suggests that 74% of employees do not understand what is happening within the organization, especially concerning company updates and news.
If you’ve ever wondered whether it might be time to invest in an employee app, we’ve compiled 11 warning signs indicating it’s about time to consider it seriously! 😉
Do your employees repeatedly seek clarifications or ask what needs to be done and how? Are they not sure where to find the documents they need and are often not up-to-date with changes? If these situations are frequent, it could signal a gap in your internal communication processes. While occasional questions and clarifications are typical if you notice the frequency is getting high, this is most likely a deeper problem.
Do you notice important messages getting lost or misinterpreted due to unreliable communication channels? For example, situations like your customer-facing cashiers simply receiving a generic email detailing a new customer loyalty program. When this happens, essential messages end up getting buried amongst other promotions. As a result, the crucial details on points redemption get missed. The outcome is frustrated customers and wasted points. If this happens regularly, it highlights the need to introduce a more direct communication channel for your frontline staff.
There is a kind of deliberate miscommunication you need to be wary of—rumors. These spread quickly when communication is opaque and unofficial channels are rampant. For example, say you announce a new employee appreciation program at a meeting. However, its details are fuzzy. Confused employees turn to breakroom gossip, fueling rumors and frustration. By the time you share official information, you realize much negativity has already spread. If these happen, you must introduce something to ensure clear, upfront communication to avoid the rumor mill.
A study by Microsoft found that employees waste an average of 2.5 hours per week searching for information due to fragmented tools. Not only does it disrupt their workflow, but it also increases the risk of errors. If that’s the case in your organization, you must address this. With too many applications, you’re left with information silos & important messages get overlooked. At best, it’s time to implement a unified source of truth to streamline this constant juggling.
If you notice frontline workers not getting an efficient two-way communication channel, it signals potential communication gaps that you must address. Signs of this include their inability to share feedback, not receiving your input on time, and so on. When this happens, the quality of work can suffer. Without a tangible communication option, your workers can feel dissatisfied and frustrated. Therefore, fixing this is vital.
Tracking the progress of internal comms strategies & campaigns is essential to ensure they work in your favor. If you realize you lack a way to track how effective your internal comms are or if your employees are engaging with your content, it might be - drum roll - another sign you need to invest in an employee app. Employee apps like Speakap offer rich analytics features, allowing you to measure and track the impact your comms are making.
Community building is essential to make employees feel valued and a part of the organization. This keeps them motivated and ensures they feel validated, resulting in lower turnover rates and higher productivity. However, solid community building in a large organization that’s spread out requires using technology to your advantage. For instance, if you cannot make company announcements or implement recognition or appreciation programs that reach everyone concerned, you might have a problem that needs dedicated technology to resolve.
Do you notice your employees aren’t aware of essential policies or are not following the basic protocols you’ve asked them to? The information is there..somewhere, but it often gets lost or goes unnoticed. This might be because messages are delayed or sent across multiple channels, which can be challenging for your employees to track. If this happens, it’s serious, as it can increase confusion, chaos, and risk.
If your employees regularly need help accessing training materials to learn and upskill effectively, perceive this as another sign of an internal communication gap. It might mean that despite your best intentions and adequate investment into training, the desired resources aren’t accessible to all. Here, you must also acknowledge training and upskilling requirements of workers are different. For example, you can expect your frontline workers to access training during a busy lunch at a restaurant, compared to your in-office group, who prefer to consume it from a desktop. For the former group, ensuring practical training is a lot more about the availability of tech on demand. So, ensure you pay adequate attention to proper communication to get the desired results from your training programs.
Another red light - your IC team constantly feels tied in terms of time or budget to plan and implement effective internal communication. We know that getting budget and resources for IC initiatives is hard, and ensuring comms efficiency is not child's play either. However, if you constantly struggle with this, it’s time to look for efficient alternatives that don’t drain resources but make your job easier. Exploring a centralized employee comms app is a good idea as it will help you create and distribute content efficiently from a unified interface while simplifying measuring impact.
Looking closely, you may realize that different teams in your organization find it hard to communicate. For instance, say you’ve got restaurant employees serving customers out of various retail locations and one central office They’re unable to collaborate and share information regarding new discounts or policies. This could lead to customer complaints. Moreover, in such cases, with the lack of collaboration, one team could make the same mistakes as another. This would have been easily avoidable with accessible communication and regular collaboration. Say, for instance, on mobile devices.
As an organization, facing some communication challenges is natural. However, if your data is getting trapped in silos or workers are unable to communicate or collaborate effectively, your performance is at risk. So, if you identify with any of these 11 warning signs, we reckon exploring using a centralized comms tool to maneuver various internal communication and engagement strategies.
Speakap's employee experience platform is designed to consolidate communication and maximize engagement on a centralized platform. It works for both in-office and frontline workers and can be tailored to your organization’s communication needs.