In recent years, digital signage have become an important internal communication tool in the workplace, complementing face-to-face meetings, email, messaging programs, intranets and paper posters. However, with more people working from home because of COVID-19, is digital signage still a relevant tool?
Work from home
For better or worse, working from home has become an inescapable part of our lives in the last months. This change, which was a concern for managers for many years, turned out to be a very positive experience in most cases. This transformation was initially a temporary measure; however, it will forever change our ways to work and live.
Of course, working remotely is not always ideal for many reasons: focusing on work is harder, workspaces are sometimes improvised, internet connexions can sputter, and distractions can be found everywhere. Also, some people simply prefer working in the office, or would rather use a hybrid solution. And for some companies such as in factories, working from home is altogether impossible (read: In these times of COVID, how can digital signage support employee health in factories?).
In other words, office spaces are still being used, and more people will use them as vaccination increases.
How can digital signage be used in the workplace in times of COVID?
The essence of communication remains the same. As such, digital signage won’t change much, but the most important content needs to be prioritized. Here are four types of messages to display.
Inform employees and visitors about health and safety measures
Of course, you can remind people to sanitize their hands and wear a face covering. You should also provide instructions on the new office configuration to adapt to social distancing measures. To ensure effective communications, displays must be clearly visible and should minimally be placed in high-traffic areas.
Greet customers in a personalized way
Sales and marketing teams can display welcome messages to greet their customers. As with other marketing communication channels, messages should be as personalized as possible and display the company name and logo. In that regard, it is always useful to go the extra mile and display the name of the people you are greeting as well as some of your achievements that are relevant to their needs.
Showcase employee and company achievements
Has one of your teams completed a project that went above and beyond expectations? Did an employee recently achieve a new certification? Did a colleague stand out during a competition? Did the company reach its goals? These are but a few examples of content that should be displayed on your screens. These types of content improve employee engagement and strengthen their sense of ownership.
Display messages from management and human resources
Management can use the displays to remind employees of departmental or company goals and help them focus on achieving these objectives. The HR department can also use these screens to welcome new employees, provide information about an upcoming vacation period, publish changes to polices and invite employees to a social event.
Workplace displays can also be interactive. Here is the example of an interactive project for Industrielle Alliance. Incidentally, this project has been nominated for the global Digital Signage Awards 2021.
In conclusion, workplace digital signage is still relevant, and will be more than ever when people return to the office. However, it will be interesting to see how this technology will adapt to the hybrid work from home/office model. The ITESLIVE content management software can already be leveraged to manage a digital signage network remotely and send information directly on any device (computers, cellphones, tablets, screen savers).
