Digital Signage Done Right

Employee Surveys - Dos & Don'ts

EPISODE 69 | Guests: Elizabeth Williams & Andrew Brown, founders of the Academy of Business Communications

Employee surveys are a longstanding tool in the management and communications arsenal. By getting direct feedback from your workforce, you can find out what’s working, what’s misunderstood or unclear, and what improvements your employees feel you need to make. But asking vague questions, crowding surveys with lots of junk and not updating your surveys to reflect current realities can do more harm than good. Also, if your surveys are too infrequent or employees don’t see any action afterwards, you can weaken the employee engagement you were trying to boost.

In this episode, employee communications experts Elizabeth Williams and Andrew Brown walk through the potential and pitfalls of employee surveys, what can happen when they’re done well and the dangers of doing them badly.

- Find out when employee surveys are a good idea, and when they’re not

- Learn how to focus surveys and avoid "might-as-well-itis"

- Find out how often to survey employees (it's more often than you think)

- Understand the importance of focus groups and middle managers

- Discover how to set and meet employee expectations around surveys

Get the full transcript HERE

Get more advice and free tools on the Academy of Business Communications website

7 Ways to Keep Remote Workers Engaged

EPISODE 68 | Guest: Sean Matthews, president & CEO, Visix, Inc.

What’s the difference between remote workers and in-office workers? Not much, it turns out. Every employee wants to feel motivated, connected and engaged, and every employee requires good communication from all levels of their organization. Remote workers need the same guidance and encouragement as in-office staff, and they can be just as productive (or more so) than the employee sitting in a cubicle if you evolve your mindset and your communication channels to deliver what they need.

In this episode, Sean Matthews talks about the realities of a growing hybrid workforce, specific challenges that Visix has faced and how we addressed them, along with some concrete advice for anyone struggling to engage their remote workers.

- Learn about the myths and mindsets that pose a barrier to remote engagement

- Hear how Visix adapted to an expanded remote workforce

- Understand the benefits of remote work for both employees and the bottom line

- Get seven practical tips on how to keep your remote workers engaged

- Explore technologies and techniques for hybrid office communications

Get the full transcript HERE

Get more advice in our free Guide to Engaging Remote Employees

Campus Signage - Why Digital Is Better

EPISODE 67 | Guest: Dave Leo, region sales manager (North Central) for Visix, Inc.

Universities and colleges of all types and sizes are adopting digital campus signage. And they all have the same needs and the same mission, which is educate, inform and alert their students, staff and visitors. But it’s not enough to just put some screens up in hallways. You have to understand what types of messaging appeal to different viewers, and where and when to publish that content. You have to give your signage managers the tools they need to succeed and always think about the viewer experience.

In this episode, Dave Leo walks us through how higher education clients are using campus signage to engage their audiences, some of the dos and don’ts for a successful system, and some real-world examples of campus content.

- Learn about popular types of screen content for different audiences

- Understand the unique challenges for higher ed content managers

- Explore menu boards, donor boards, wayfinding and other interactive options

- Discover how digital signage ties into mass alerts

- Get advice and best practices for campus signage systems

Get the full transcript HERE

Get content ideas for campus signage in our white paper: Student-Centered Digital Signage for Colleges & Universities

Best Digital Signage Widgets for Different Users

EPISODE 66 | Guest: Ellyce Kelly, professional services consultant for Visix, Inc.

Choosing the best digital signage widgets starts with good user management. Different software users need access to the tools they feel most comfortable with, but they don’t necessarily need to see everything. Deciding what they should and shouldn’t interact with all stems from having a solid plan for your user hierarchy, content and workflows. This podcast can help get you started.

In this episode, we go through the main user types who create, schedule and manage content, and which widgets are best for them.

• Learn why and how to organize user profiles

Get the full transcript HERE 

Find out more about widgets on our webpage at: Easy Digital Signage Widgets

12 Tips for Better Employee Communications

EPISODE 65 | Guest: Debbie DeWitt, marketing communications manager for Visix

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IT’S OUR TWO-YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!! Thanks to everyone who tunes in to DSDR. We hope you’ve found our episodes fun and valuable. If you have any suggestions for topics, email us at [email protected]. And don't forget that you can subscribe to this podcast and also our YouTube channel.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

**

Better employee communications take work. It’s not enough to create a PowerPoint slide or fill in a template with some text. You have to have a strategy behind your messages, or your employees will just tune out. That goes for every channel – email, digital signs, social networks, collaboration apps, etc. And the need for purposeful, well-thought-out messaging is never more important than for internal communications.

Today’s employees need transparency into your mission and the outcomes of their actions. They want a voice in your operations and how, when, where and what you communicate. If you want to drive and deliver better employee communications, we’re giving you 12 tips that you can put into action today:

- Hear how better employee communications affect engagement and experience

- Learn about best practices for design, content and frequency

- Understand context, clarity and brevity all work together

- Explore how to measure understanding and effectiveness

- Discover how surveys can do some of the work for you

Get the full transcript HERE

Use our infographic to take these tips with you.

A Modern Guide to Manufacturing Signage

EPISODE 64 | Guest: Chip Kepner, region sales manager - West Great Lakes for Visix, Inc.

Just as factories, warehouses and assembly lines have embraced technology to help them do their work, manufacturing signage has evolved to modernize communications with a fast-moving, far-flung workforce.

When workers can’t get to a computer to check email, or there’s no good internet in the area of the plant, how do you keep them engaged, informed and safe? In this episode, Chip Kepner walks us through how modern facilities are using digital signs to unify communications across their facilities – both in the office and on the floor.

- Get lots of content ideas for manufacturing signage

- Learn how signage affects employee engagement and productivity

- Hear best practices for HR and safety messaging, KPIs and more

- Discover how to unite messaging across jobs, teams and locations

- Understand what not to do on screens

- Explore some best and worse real-world examples

Get the full transcript HERE

Get more content ideas in our white paper: Drive Change and Improve Safety with Digital Signage for Manufacturing

Experiential Design for Digital Signage

EPISODE 63 | Derek DeWitt, Communications Specialist for Visix, Inc.

Immersive experiences are being pioneered in a number of fields using experiential design concepts. Though digital signage is mainly a visual medium, there are ways to engage the other four senses as well. Yes – hearing, touch, smell and even taste.

The more ways you can get someone’s attention, the better chance you have of attracting them and giving them an experience that they’ll remember for a long time. And that means they’ll remember your message and your brand longer. This is more than thinking outside the box, it’s thinking outside the eye.

- Learn how much each sense influences how we process information

- Understand the importance of high-quality visuals and motion

- Explore ways to use audio and music effectively

- Consider using scent diffusers to add a smell element

- Don’t forget about haptics to engage the tactile sense

- Surprise people by offering a way to engage their taste buds

- Hear examples of how experiential design elements can work independently or together

See the full transcript HERE

Get more content ideas in our Masterclass Guide 3: Digital Signage Content

Designing Good Digital Signage Templates

EPISODE 62 | Guest: Melissa Sartin, creative content artist for Visix, Inc.

Using templates for digital signage messages and layouts helps you save time, streamline workflows for content creators, and keep control over what people put up on your screens. No matter who’s making and scheduling messages to your system, you can rest easy knowing that everything fits within your brand and design standards.

In this episode, we talk with the designer who created over 900 templates for Visix about why using templates is a wise choice for many organizations. We look at best practices for specific template elements like background, images (and where to source them), font types and styles, and the various options available in AxisTV Signage Suite for template creators.

- Find out how templates can improve your signage

- Learn what backgrounds to use, and when

- Understand how to use images and where you can get them

- Explore font options and the psychology behind them

- Hear some real-world examples and use cases for different template elements

- Discover the difference between message templates and layout templates

See the full transcript HERE

Get more design tips with our Masterclass Digital Signage Design Guide

Feeding the Face-to-Face Channel

EPISODE 61 | Guest: Ray Walsh, communications consultant & author of the book Localizing Employee Communications

You work hard to manage digital signage, emails, intranets and other communication channels, but you might be neglecting the most important one of all: the face-to-face channel.

In this episode, we talk with internal communications expert Ray Walsh. He gives us practical advice on how to prepare managers and team leaders to share your campaigns so that they generate buzz and word of mouth. We walk through a real-world example and how to lay the groundwork for your internal communications to make your messaging much more effective.

- Understand why digital channels aren’t enough

- Hear why managers and team leaders are critical to success

- Explore why context is essential for engagement

- Discover how to make your communications sharable

- Find out how to be an active recipient

See the full transcript HERE

Get more communications advice from Ray's website and blog. Check out Ray’s book Localizing Employee Communications at Amazon or direct from XML Press.

Internal Communication Trends for 2021

EPISODE 60 | Guest: Debbie DeWitt, marketing & communications manager for Visix, Inc.

A new study by Gallagher on internal communication trends gives insights into the changing landscape of reaching employees and keeping them engaged. We take a look at a few of the findings – the good and the bad – and discuss possible reasons for why respondents said what they said. Along the way, we examine what organizations can do in the near future to improve their messaging, and how IC is changing in the coming years.

- Examine new priorities for internal communication (IC) and employee experience (EX)

- Hear how IC, HR and the C-suite are using new tools, tech and training

- Understand the growth of digital, interactive, multisensory and omnichannel comms

- Consider how new technologies, channels and content will impact IC strategies

- Learn how to expand measurement beyond reach to evaluate outcomes

See the full transcript HERE

For more IC stats from the study, see our infographic: 30 New IC Statistics

You can also read the entire Gallagher study here: State of the Sector 2021: The definitive global survey of the internal communication and employee engagement landscape.