Effective Change CommunicationsPreparing for ChangeChallenge the status quo. Use a pop-up Staff Quiz to challenge the status quo and make employees aware that the organization needs to change. This is an example of a question you might include: “In our changing industry, which will be the most effective way to do business in the future? A, B or C?” The Staff Quiz is delivered directly onto targeted staff's computer screens with recurrence options built in to ensure high participation. Gauge employee attitudes to change. SnapComms Staff Poll is an easy targeted way to to gauge staff’s attitude to organizational changes and how well they understand them. Snap Poll's unique format can ensure fast responses from up to 90% of the organization. Customize and Target Change CommunicationsCustomize and target messages to staff. The SnapComms Content Management lets you customize and target messages to specific employee groups in your organization. Ensure Change Communications Are TimelyGet message cut through. Use Desktop Alerts to draw employee ’s attention to important or urgent messages and updates. Pre-shedule messages. The SnapComms internal communications tools are easy to set up in advance to help your internal communications team prepare for, and respond quickly to, staff feelings and feedback. Use them to make sure that employees hear about changes at the same time that you advise the market or the media. Listen and Keep ListeningSnapComms' internal communications tools can be your ‘ear.’ They are effective ways to gather personal or anonymous feedback from employees. Since the tools are easy to use, you can set them up to ‘talk’ and listen to different stakeholder groups. This avoids the ‘one size fits all’ approach to change communication.
Keep your finger in the pulse.The SnapComms staff survey tool lets you keep your finger on the pulse and test that your change strategies are working every step of the way. It is an excellent way to measure progress. You can set up a survey to target specific groups of staff (e.g. to check whether you are making progress with a resistant group). Virtual meetings. Employee discussion forums let you run virtual meetings where people can share ideas and opinions and, if they need to, let off steam. The SnapComms Interactive Channels let people post ideas anonymously. This is a good way to find out what employees really think. SnapComms employee discussion forums are secure. You can moderate the conversations and target them to specific groups of employees, which can help to prevent negative feeling expressed on discussion forums from a resistant group from infecting the whole organization. Manage rumors. When employees feel unsure they may clam up or communicate in rumors. Use discussion forums to let them post their concerns and comments (anonymously if you wish) so that you understand and can address the rumors. that are circulating. You could even name a forum ‘the rumor mill’ and encourage people to post any rumors. they’ve heard. Collect feedback and report on it. Include a section in the Staff Magazine called “Great feedback we’re working with”. Highlight how you are using staff’s constructive comments to improve the business and the way you manage the change. SnapMag is a ‘user generated’ staff magazine that is pushed to the desktop and makes it easy to implement this feedback loop. Ensure Face-to-face is EffectiveEffective face to face communication. The RSVP invite tool is a meeting request that ‘pops up’ like a desktop alert. It is an ideal tool to make sure as many employees as possible attend face-to-face briefings. During times of change, it can be difficult to get everyone in a room at the same time as people still have jobs to do and they can be particularly busy. The RSVP invite tool lets you give options for available times and venues. When employees accept an invitation, the tool automatically enters the chosen date and time into Outlook calendars. Reporting tools in SnapComms Content Manager allow you to see which staff are attending which sessions. This helps you plan your logistics (e.g. room sizes, catering) and close off specific time slots and locations as they fill up. Reinforce face to face executive communications. Get respected managers to blog about the change. Encourage staff to ask questions and raise issues both before and after face to face briefings. This will help them buy into changes. Manager blogs will help employees realize that managers are human too: they are not forcing change on people to make life difficult. Measure and manage information cascade. SnapComms’ pop-up staff survey tool can help you measure how well your managers are communicating. Use a short pop-up survey to understand how well each employee understands the main messages about the change, and link the results back to individual managers. What gets measured usually gets focus and priority… Support Employees During ChangeProvide employee help desks. Snap Interactive lets you set up online help desks for when employees want quick answers to their questions. Pop-up desktop alerts can be automatically sent to moderators when a question is posted. Staff will see a quick reply as a sign that your organization. cares about them. By contrast, a slow reply may fuel dissatisfaction and anxiety. Explore ideas. Snap Interactive lets you set up a secure, interactive online forum quickly and at a low cost to explore ideas. Encourage staff to use it and you may build engagement by helping them to feel more involved with the wider business. Alternatively, staff can use it to have their say or ask questions. If they want to speak out against the change (i.e. are at the denial or resistance stages) without jeopardizing their future in the organization., they can post their opinions anonymously. You can measure and grade comments to gauge the current feeling in your organization. Use the Right Change Communications ChannelsUse the right channel and right tool for the job. Avoid adding to email overload or cluttering up your intranet. Use more effective ways of communicating during change. Video Alerts are a type of desktop alert that lets you deliver video directly to employees’ computers. So your CEO can’t be at the meeting? No problem. Use a Video Alert to let staff see the commitment and intent in your CEO’s eyes and hear the passion and empathy in his or her voice. SnapComms’ targeting features mean that you can deliver the video alert to different groups of employees at different times. Scrolling news feeds. Do you need to send updates or alert staff to relevant new information, but fear the message will get buried? Use Scrolling News Feeds to push updates to the computer screens of your target groups. Desktop Alerts help ensure that urgent or important messages get the attention they need. Use SnapComms’ reporting options to make sure that messages ’cut-through’. Staff Magazines. SnapMag makes it easy to collate general news and simple updates into one place. Use it to avoid confusing staff with 20 or 30 ‘mass emails’ received at different times from different parts of the business. SnapMag collates the information into an easy-to-read one-stop format. It’s also a good way to involve and engage people in your change project by letting them have their say. Employee discussion forums can act as a blank canvas that you can use to let everyone air their views. The SnapComms plug and play staff social media tools make it easy to put internal discussion forums in place. Use StorytellingPaint the picture. Include articles in SnapMag that show how employees are modeling new values or putting in place new strategies. Digital signage on screensavers. A picture paints a thousand words. Use interactive screensaver messages to show a positive picture of the future. Broadcast them around your organization. to capture employee’s imagination in an appealing, visual way. Scenario quizzes. Help staff visualize the change working for them. Ask scenario questions. For example, “The new XYZ technology will help me do A, B, C, or D or all of the above?” Offer prizes to encourage staff to take part. Include humorous or trick questions and answers that make the staff quiz fun. Online help desks.Use interactive online helpdesks to let employees ask questions about how the change will affect their role. Make it Easy for Managers to Communicate EffectivelyEmployee Discussion Forums and Interactive Help desks. These tools let managers meet online to discuss strategies, share ideas and plan in an asynchronous way. This is especially useful when managers work in different locations. Scrolling news feeds. Setting managers or their PAs up as administrators in SnapComms Content Manager lets them target and send their teams scrolling news feeds. This is a good way to make sure teams get information that is directly relevant to them as soon as it is available. SnapMag is an electronic magazine that’s easy for managers and staff to contribute. Encourage senior managers to share ideas with their staff. SnapComms Video Alerts deliver video directly to employee desktops. Work with managers to make messages as relevant as possible to different groups of staff. Use the reporting options to see which employees have watched the video. Provide advance notification. SnapComms’ targeting and scheduling features let you update managers before their teams receive certain types of new information. This gives them time to plan how they will react when their team hears important news and to prepare answers to their questions. Ways to Build Employee Engagement During ChangeInvolve staff. Use the pop-up Staff Survey tool to involve employees by asking them questions and finding out their views. Consider letting employees respond anonymously for maximum candor. Every problem uncovered is a problem that you can address. Get your managers involved. Support your managers by getting them information before it goes to their teams. This gives them time to think about how the message applies to their staff and how they can support them. The SnapComms Interactive Channels are great ways for managers to share ideas and help each other in a secure, interactive way. Celebrate new beginnings. SnapMag is an electronic staff magazine that lets employees contribute their own articles quickly and easily. Use SnapMag to signal a radical change or celebrate new beginnings. Since anyone can contribute, it is a good way to involve staff. Encourage them to tell their own stories about how the changes are working for them. Inject fun and involve people with a pop-up Staff Quiz asking them to name new ways of working (e.g. new systems, projects) or suggest improvements. Offer prizes for the best ideas and recognize them using Screensaver Messages and articles in the Staff E-Magazine. Keep the Focus on SuccessRepeat key messages. The SnapComms internal communications tools let you repeat your main messages in a range of ways that can appeal to staff, without their becoming boring or seen as ‘wall paper’. Paint a vision of the future. Screensaver Messages are a great way to portray a vision of the future and celebrate small wins in an engaging, visual way. Profile success stories. Use SnapMag to profile stories of success and feature staff who have reached the 'hope' and 'commitment' stages of the change curve. Scrolling on-screen updates. Deliver Scrolling Desktop Updates directly on to the computers of selected employees. Keep staff up to date regarding the latest milestones reached. Measure Results and Celebrate SuccessBenchmark and track trends. The SnapComms pop-up staff survey tool is an effective way to assess what’s working, measure attitudes and understanding and track trends. Monitor the tone of conversations. Monitor comments in employee discussion forums. This can provide valuable, qualitative information that measures how employees are feeling and how well they are engaged in the organizational change. Highlight and celebrate success. Screensaver Messaging is a visual, engaging way to highlight and celebrate success during the change. SnapComms’ targeting features mean that you can use Screensaver Messages to celebrate company wide successes as well as small local wins too. Profile success stories. Use the SnapMag user generated staff magazine as an engaging way to document success. Encourage employees to submit articles that talk about what they have achieved (e.g. simpler ways of working, important milestones met). You can distribute the finished magazine across the whole organization or to specific employee groups. Sound Like Extra Work When You Are Already Flat Out?The SnapComms Internal Communications system allows delegated administration rights. So you can delegate some change communications functions to others in the organization and hence remove bottle necks in the internal communications process. For example:
|
 
Change communications survey
Desktop alert for message cut-through
Change management survey Click here to Try a Free Trial
RSVP staff invite for managing change
Change communications blog
Change discussion forum
Screensaver communication
User generated staff magazine
Measure change communication
Tools for Effective Change Communication |
|||||
