Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
New York Digital Signage Week ended Thursday with a focus on all that was employee and corporate communications related with 80+ folks during the day, at the Digital Signage 4 Employee Communications Thought Leadership Summit and 35+ at an exclusive Bloomberg Tour that same evening (shown below).
During the day, speaker after speaker imparted knowledge on the role of digital signage for employee communications and how to achieve the best – as well as what to avoid.
While all speakers were superb, I was most impressed by the step-by-step program to build an employee communications display as outlined by Susan Heller, head of global digital signage for UPG, Thomson Reuters. I’m sure if anyone took her step-by-step method, which included errors that could happen, they could have a great display for their clients.
Chuck Gose, vice-president, SME – Corporate Communications at STRATACACHE, opened the day with ‘The Physics of Employee Engagement’. He said that technology now allows surveys of employee attitudes, that used to be done on an annual, semi-annual or quarterly basis, to be done daily or weekly, allowing companies to keep content fresh. That’s especially important considering that changes in management, company culture or other factors could affect employee attitudes.
“Disengaged employees cost companies $450 billion a year in the US,” said Gose. “They take more sick days; are late more often; miss deadlines and affect other employees. But when employees believe that they are appreciated, productivity increases and happy, engaged employees result in a 240% boost in performance-related business outcome.”
People resent change, he said, and the bigger the organization, the more force is required to make changes. The three drivers of engagement, he said, are:
- Engagement with the immediate supervisor;
- Belief in the senior leadership;
- Pride in working for the company.
Gose also noted that only 42% of employees can confidently say what their company does.
The Bloomberg team of Lisa Cohen, manager of environmental media, and Danielle Cerrachio, employee communications specialist, gave an in-depth look at how Bloomberg uses its signage to inform, entertain and connect employees and, in every case, to reinforce the Bloomberg brand to foster engagement with both employees and visitors.
Bloomberg’s Arcade system includes 3,500 screens which can be seen by all employees. Content includes: congratulatory and appointment notices, job postings, notes on current projects, community content, wellness notes, promotional quizzes, Bloomberg information, and allows employees to add their own photos and content such as vacation photos..
The Bloomberg Link (a 2012 DailyDOOH Awards Gala winner) gives both employees and visitors a visual storm of Bloomberg information that is 100% dynamic and made up of real-time data.
“It shows who we are and builds brand authenticity,” said Cohen. “It emphasizes the brand. It’s important to always be in alignment with the values of your company.”
Other signage includes the Cove, a two-sided structure that’s also geared for employees.
Cohen and Cerrachio gave seven strategies when looking at employing digital signage for employee communications. It must:
- Integrate with the architecture;
- Be dynamic;
- Add value;
- Further the brand;
- Share assets across chanenels;
- Build an experience;
- Be authentic.
Denys Lavigne, president of Arsenal Media, a Christie Managed Services company, focused his talk on digital signage content in terms of both being an environmental and experiential media.
“It should concern staff, clients and other business relationships and bring value to the company,” he said. “People in a company often miss what’s going on a corporation because they are so focused on their own jobs.”
Lavigne showed installations in the lobbies of Nielsen, Viacom, Christie, and the Gemological Institute of America to illustrate some of the various designs and content that can be used the engage both staff and visitors, and cautioned about the necessity of respecting the resolution of the signage for each location.
James Fine, president of Telecine, said that the employee should be at the top of the list when a company is planning its digital signage content presentation.
It’s not hard to find content, even in a firm’s own archives, said Fine, whose company can supply such information for companies in its footage2go service. It’s also great to leverage templates to help in putting together content.
Fine’s recent work included building a dollhouse-sized replica of London City Airport in its offices when Telecine was designing the Bloomberg City Hub launched there in May, 2014.
“It enabled us to fit and see how things would look in terms of placement and viewing in each architectural setting,” said Fine. “It also saved money in terms of a lot of trips and approval times.”
Fine designed the content for Radio-Canada’s lobby hall installation, much of which is interactive. But, he cautioned interactive is not right for every installation.
He also said, “Content that is most like art is the longest lasting. Keep the content current. The technology is important. And know your audience and your signage location. It’s best if you can design for the architecture. And above all, try to do it differently.”
The earlier mentioned Susan Heller of Reuters said that the single most important thing for employee communications is managing an ocean of content.
“Content is not king,” said Heller. “The audience is king/queen. What the audience needs and wants are important. That helps the strategy in designing a communications display. The content will serve the needs and wants of your stakeholders, as well as the organization’s culture and goals.”
Among her many points was the need for measurement. “If it doesn’t meet the wants and needs, take it down and change it,” she said. “But keep in mind that everyone is going to filter content according to ‘What’s in it for me?’”
And, she said, “Don’t try to do everything yourself when designing and managing the displays. Use style guide, templates, Graphicstock. But make sure to respect copyrights. Focus on getting the right animation or graphics to go with the messages. And network with others. They’ll help you find solutions.”
Scott Marden, vice-president marketing and research, Captivate Networks, spoke about work-life balance, and told companies to practice what they preach.
He then discussed the elevator and lobby network screens offered by his company and the Wall Street Journal Office Network now owned by Captivate, and the fact that employees in the buildings are encouraged to generate content for them. Further, it appears that Captivate is now moving towards putting employee screens in some companies’ offices in the buildings where it currently operates its networks.
Marden ended the day saying that he often gives prizes to help motivate client staff to participate in one-to-one research – and then proceeded to offer prizes to conference attendants who could answer questions based on his late-afternoon talk.
It was a fun way to end a rainy day of concentration and learning!
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