Tips to Reduce Internal Communications Email Overload

“The average information worker spends 13 hours per week on email at an average cost of US$21k per employee.”
IDC

Aggregate Internal Communications Email Updates

Eliminate “mass internal communications emails”. SnapMag allows any employee (or nominated people within departments) to submit messages or articles into pre-specified formats. The Administrator sets up the layout of each e-magazine and simply reviews and approves appropriate articles prior to publication. Hence SnapMag can help significantly reduce email overload. For example, rather than IT sending an email update about a planned outage, or marketing sending product information updates and HR sending their staffing updates out via ‘mass email’, with the social club organizers utilizing the same medium, all of these messages can be consolidated into the same electronic staff magazine as quickly and easily as sending a group email.

Deliver Important Messages a Different Way

Cut through for important messages. Use a Desktop Alert to ensure that employees receive important messages and to track who has read them. The SnapComms Desktop Alert tool allows you to deliver messages directly onto the computer screen of targeted employees, with full reporting facilities on who has read the message and/or followed links to further information.

Recurrence. For important messages, it is possible to specify message recurrence and escalation options based on the user's response to the message.

Can you get your message across in a single headline? SnapComms’ Scrolling News Feed tool delivers information to an on-screen scrolling alert. There's no need to set up RSS or understand XML. Simply write your own headline, include a quick summary and hyperlinks or message boxes if required, then specify the target employees. If employees see a headline of interest, they can click through to read more there and then, or make a mental note to review their news feed history at a later time. Recurrence options can ensure that unread news feeds achieve cut through.

Worried that users won't /don't know how to opt in to intranet RSS feeds? Push out important RSS feeds to specific employee groups via a scrolling desktop ticker bar.

Visual communication by screensaver. SnapComms’ Screensaver Messaging tool allows administrator(s) to turn employee screensavers into a series of interactive sequencing billboards. This format is ideal for messages that may not be urgent but are important from an employee ‘awareness’ perspective. For example:

  • New technology implementations
  • Service change and upgrades
  • Security policies
  • Compliance education
  • Virus and safe computing announcements
  • Disaster recovery / business continuity policies
  • Benefits communication
  • Dashboard indicators
  • Support channels available
  • News and events
  • Training opportunities
  • Brand messages
  • Event updates
  • Product launches
  • Sustainability messages
  • Reinforcing key elements of staff training
  • Etc.

Employees who are suffering from email overload are unlikely to notice these types of messages if they are sent as emails. Screensaver messaging however can act as a subtle but very powerful way to raise awareness and communicate key themes.
Where appropriate, specific screensaver messages can be targeted to specific employee groups. Also, employees can click links on the screensavers to interact or navigate to further information as appropriate.

Target your Audience and Make Messages Relevant

Targeting. One of the key benefits of all of the SnapComms Internal Communications solution is that every communication can be easily targeted to specific employee groups. You can target employee groups via existing Active Directory network structures set up by IT (e.g. Marketing, Finance etc) and/or you can set up you own internal communications targeting groups.

Know what is hitting the mark.The SnapComms content management consol provides reporting options that allow you to see exactly what employees are reading and what is being ignored.

Deliver staff surveys and quizzes another way. The SnapComms solution provides the means to push interactive employee surveys and quizzes to the desktop, so they do not add to email overload. Recurrence and escalation options, if used, can help drive participation.

Get feedback. The SnapComms desktop survey tool allows you to easily run short opinion polls to find out which internal communications are working and which are not. It also allows you to gather views and insights into business processes and infrastructure.

Train Staff

Train staff on the effective and appropriate use of email. If you do, remember that, in 30 days, people typically forget 80% of what they've learned. An easy way to reinforce training is to use the SnapComms pop-up Staff Quiz tool. The tool allows you to:

  • Reinforce training
  • Measure the effectiveness of training (e.g. 6 months after attending training, have behaviors changed?)
  • Benchmark and set standards (e.g. “How clear and concise are the messages sent out by Marketing, Finance etc?”)
  • Enhance knowledge by testing regularly (e.g. “When you are running a meeting, is it better to… A, B or C”)
  • Influence attitudes with 'scenario' quizzes (e.g. “Under what circumstances is it appropriate to ‘cc’ a colleague / manager…A, B, or C”
  • Create competition. Inspire staff to reach high standards
  • Engage in fun initiatives. Motivate staff with fun competitions and prizes (e.g. include a silly answer in multi-choice questions to make people smile)

You can also reinforce key training and messages using the Screensaver Messaging tool.

Manage Data Storage and Document Version Control

It is possible to expire SnapComms messages from employee computers after a defined period of time and to make information available via a central searchable repository. This can help ensure that out of date messages and/or old versions of important documents do not sit in employees email boxes.

Use the Right Channel for the Job

Avoid adding to email overload by using other more effective internal communications channels:

  • Digital signage on screensavers – For raising awareness (e.g. brand, product releases, corporate responsibility etc)
  • Scrolling news feeds – Targeted information updates, sign posting new and relevant information resources
  • Desktop Alerts – Urgent and/or important messages that need high cut through
  • Staff Quizzes – Measure and build capability, raise awareness of key issues (e.g. email etiquette)
  • Staff Polls and Surveys – Measure, benchmark, gather feedback, involve people
  • SnapMag – Collate general news and admin updates into a one stop, easy to read format

Delegation of Administration Rights

The SnapComms solution allows multiple administrators to create and target messages with specific rights. For example, the types of channels and target groups accessible can be specified per administrator.

Low Cost Pilot / Free Trial

The SnapComms solution is available as a free trial for up to 30 users. Low cost pilots are also available for larger implementations.

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