Communicating With Frontline Staff

8/14/2019 Communicating With Frontline Staff

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Innovative Internal Communications Solutions. 1

Hot Tips for Internal Communicators

Communicating With Front Line Staff

How do I engage front line staff as a highly productive and comm itted partof an organization?

There is little doubt that customer service impacts a company's brand identity. There is also little doubt

that happy, satisfied employees translates to happy, satisfied customers.

Effective, two way employee communications is a key factor in ensuring that staff are motivated andeffective. However, this sector of the workforce is usually remote from main offices and may experiencehigher staff turnover than other parts of the business. These factors can have several implications:

Training is a constant and on-going challenge Staffdont always know where to go for the right information Establishing effective feedback channels can be difficult Engagement is constantly being built from the ground upTo make the situation even more complicated, staff may be employed indirectly, for example via a

franchise, and therefore even harder to reach.

Top t ips to communicate w ithfront line staff

1. Simplify the message read more2. Reduce information overload read more3. Find ways to listen and gather feedback read more4. Provide appropriate support channels read more5. Find ways to achieve cut-through for urgent messages read more6. Maintain levels of capability and knowledge read more7. Make senior managers accessible read more8. Engage staff by involving them read more

Please note) this article is targeted at organizations with connected employees, i.e. staff who usecomputers from time to time during their working day.


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Simplify the message

Use simple, easy-to-remember, messages. Make sure that there arent volumes of messages alreadyouttheretalking about the same concept, but expressing it in different ways.

Boil down the key messages into a few key priorities. Think about:

How can you sum this up in one sentence? What language do people typically use?This can help focus thinking and simplify what youare trying to communicate.

Tom Harvey, Head of Internal Communications at Nationwide, argues that the role of internal

communications is akin to the narrow part of an hour glass- there is a vast quantity of information that

exists which could be communicated to staff, but only a small amount makes it through the narrow part

to be read.The trick is to make certain that the filtered information is that which is most likely to draw interest.

Try these Snap tools

Snap Ticker delivers information as an on-screen scrolling news feed to targeted employee groups.Simply write your own headlines, include a quick summary and add click-through hyperlinksto furtherinformation as required. As employees see a headline of interest, they can click-through to read the fullmessage or article there and then, or make a mental note to review their news feed history at a latertime (e.g. when they are less busy interfacing with customers).

Headlines can be kept discrete ifcomputers are located where customers may be able to see thescreens.Employees can click to shrink a feed down to a discrete notification icon which can be clicked on later .

Snap Alert is a desktop alert format that can highlight the latest updates or notify staff ofbreaking news.

Concise alert messages can be read and digested in a matter of seconds. Click-through links to furtherinformation, allow staff to dig deeper as required. As with Snap Ticker, an initial alert notification cancontain an appropriate message for customer facing computers.

Snap Alert example from Virgin Mobile


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Provide appropriate support channels

Staff who are working in remote locations, such as branch offices and stores, can often feel cut off fromthe wider organization. When they have questions or issues it can sometimes be hard to find quick andconvenient support.

Local supervisors and managers play a vital role in providing support to, and communicating with, theirteams.They can also ensure that employees have a line of sight between the organizations vision and

their jobs

To ensure managers are effective in their role as communicators:

Help managers understand how effective communication contributes towards achieving businessgoals

Clarify expectations with regard to communication Define desiredbehaviors Provide appropriate training tools and support Measure effectiveness and, if possible, make communication a key performance indicator Try these Snap tools

The Snap Helpdesktool allows staff, who are experiencing problems, to report an issue or ask a

question in an online helpdeskformat. Moderators can be assigned to a particular helpdesk and willreceive instant desktop alert notifications when new questions are posted. Moderators can answerquestions directly or provide direction (via a hyperlink to the intranet, network, or web) to where thecorrect answer can be found.

Each specific question can be tagged and is searchable, meaning past questions and answers can be

easily located in an evolving repository of knowledge.

Snap Poll can act as an open ended survey template which staff can access at any time in order to

provide feedback or just comment on issues or problems they face.

Snap Poll also provides a means to measure the effectiveness of managers as communicators. Easyanswer, multiple choice questions such as

My supervisor / manager effectively explains how company initiatives will affect our departments My supervisor/ manager is good at speaking in front of groups Who did you hear about XXX from? Do you understand how your team /roles activities can contribute to XYZ initiative?can help you assess how effective managers are at communicating key messages. Benchmarking this

capability allows you to set standards, reward good behavior and provide training to those managers whoare not performing well.

Example: Snap Poll to measure managercommunications effectiveness


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Example: Snap Interactive used as a staff helpdesk

Find ways to achieve cut through for urgent messages

Its getting harder and harder to achieve message penetration with so much noise. This is particularly

an issue for busy, customer facing, staff who use computers only intermittently during the day. For

important updates, such as pricing changes, notification of system outages or major business

announcements, message cut-through can be a priority.


Snap Alert is a powerful way to achieve message cut through. It is a targetable desktop alert that pops

up on employees computer screens. Initial pop-up notifications can contain discreet messages if

computers are customer facing. However, the employee eventually has to open or respond to the alert to

remove it from their computer (unless an expiry date or maximum reoccurrence option has beenspecified)

Reporting options mean you can report onwho has / has not opened the fullmessage and/or clicked links contained inthe message. This can be great forcompliance requirements such as health

and safety and code of conduct messages.

Snap Alert example from Virgin Mobile


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Maintain levels of capability and knowledge

A good knowledge and understanding of products, services and key business processes is essential todeveloping effective, satisfied staff and delivering good customer service.

The next time you roll out a training program, remember, in 30 days people typically forget 80% of whatthey have learnt if it is not reinforced


Any easy way to reinforce training and measure and raise capability is to use Snap Quiz. The Snap Quiztool was developed for this purpose. With Snap Quiz you can:

Reinforce training. Enhance knowledge (e.g. around key processes) Benchmark and set standards Influence attitudes with 'scenario' quizzes (e.g. In situation A do you.? 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)

Measure effectiveness of training (e.g. 6 months after attending training, have behaviors changed?)Snap Quiz is quick to set up, easilytargeted to specific groups and is really easy for people to answer. Itpops up on the employees computer and provides options to complete now or defer until later. You can

specify how frequently and how often the quiz will reappear until it is completed. Silent Quizzes thatstaff can opt into via a hyperlink can also be set up. Embedded hyperlinks allow answers to be

researched on the intranet and an optional display of the correct answers and scoring can provide furtherreinforcement of learning.

Example: Snap Poll to test and reinforce product knowledge


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Make senior managers accessible

Research consistently shows that confidence and trust in leadership is a top driver of employee

engagement. It is important that employees believe in and relate to senior managers and see how theirrole fits within and contributes to the wider organization. Find ways to make senior managers moreaccessible to staff.

Try these Snap tool

Snap Blog enables key managers to blog about various aspects of the business. Encourage staff to ask

questions and seek clarification. Snap Blog can help staff relate to the human side of managers and build

engagement and commitment.

Snap Blog also allows you to enlist the people that staff respect to write blogs, answer questions andprovide a credible source ofcontext covering a variety of topics and issues. One example could be to

have a successful sales performer blog about The Secrets of My Success and a customer servicechampion to blog aboutThe Road to Customer Service Excellence.

Snap Video is a desktop alert format that delivers video to targeted employee desktops. If face to faceopportunities with the CEO are limited, Snap Video can provide an alternative.Staff can still see thecommitment and intent in the CEOs eyes and hear the passion/empathy in their voice.

Example: CEO blog on the Snap Interactive channel


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Engage staff by involving them

Involvement is an important aspect of engagement and commitment to an organization. Find ways to

involve staff and allow them to influence some aspects of the business operations.

Ensure a process exists for submitting ideas and suggestions, consider company volunteer programs

which relate to the business, allow employees to contribute to projects and initiatives being run by thewider organization and provide sufficient and equitable opportunities for staff to become involved in newprojects and opportunities.


Snap Forum: This is a powerful way of holding virtual meetings. Staff dont need to be in the same

location and they dont even have to say who they are. You can involve people and receive timely and

honest feedback. Snap Forum is also exceptionally useful as a brainstorming canvas for focus groups.Get staff involved and keep them engaged

About Snap Comms

Snap Comms provide innovative employee communications tools and solutions to a wide range ofbusiness sectors including; retail, healthcare, technology, banking, media, education and government.

Virgin Mobile is an example ofone of Snap clients who use the Snap channels to communicate to

distributed retail store staff.

One of the key benefits of the Snap Comms solution is that it doesnt require complicated or expensiveinfrastructure to make its innovative secure channels available to multiple geographic locations.


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Snap Internal Communications Solutions. 10


Snap tools overview

The Snap tools provide innovative channels to communication and interact with staff

At times that suit their work flow / they are more receptive All tools have click-through link capability to drive social media participation All are able to be easily targeted to different groups of staff as appropriate

Snap is a cost effective, hosted, fully managed solution. In house versions are also available.

Snap Shots Screen savers Digital Signage on the Screen saver

When we have staff suffering from information overload it can be a real challenge to communicate withthem. This is especially true if our messages are not considered urgent or immediately important to

staff. Agreat way to build awareness of key messages without being intrusive or add ing to the emailburden is to use screensavers which can act as dynamic billboards around the business.

Snap Shots work just like standard screensavers do.....the difference is:

They can be quickly and easily changed Target-able so different groups can receive different content Can communicate passively or solicit a response from staff Staff are able to upload one personal image as their own screensaver (optional) Delivers messages at a time when staff are often most receptive (i.e. not right in the middle of

their work flow) Can tempt staff to find out more via click through links Brighten up office areas making them more dynamic and engaging.Like changing bill boards

around the business.

Screen savers are a great way to build

awareness without being intrusive or causingannoyance.

Options include:

Sequencing images with text Countdown clocks Flash animated screensavers Html screensavers

It is also possible to upload power-point slides orcomplete animated power-point sequences.

Most screensavers can typically be designed

internally in less than half an hour. Web sites likewww.bigstockphotos.com make it really easy to find appropriate images. You can also develop

templates, e.g. in Power Point, Photoshop or any other similar application for updates such as events,invitations and breaking news which can be updated in a couple of minutes.

Snap Quiz Staff Quiz Tool

In 30 days people typically forget 80% of what they have learnt if it is not

reinforced. This applies to key training and also to important messages.

One answer is to reinforce such information via a quiz. The Snap Quiz

tool was developed for this purpose and has the added bonus that it can

be fun for staff and build moral.

Snap Quiz is quick to set up, easy to target to specific groups and itsreally easy for people to answer. It pops up on the employees computer and provides options tocomplete now or defer until later. The Snap Administrator can specify how frequently and how often the

quiz reappears until completed. Silent Quizzes that staff can opt into via a hyperlink can also be set up.


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A sixty second quiz can be short, punchy and really effective,

especially if theres a prize incentive attached. When quizzes

are set up in this way, very high participation rates are easily

achieved.

Like all of the Snap tools, Snap Quiz is targetable to different

groups of employees. You can theme quizzes with a logo or

image and automated reminders can be set up, so it will

continue to reappear and remind staff to participate.

Reporting via the Snap Content Manager is automatic and

updated every minute, making it really easy to manage. Upon

submission of the answers, an optional personal pop up

display showing the employees individual score and the

correct answers can to help reinforce learning.

Snap Ticker Scrolling News TickersWith the growth of the internet and other technologies, there has been an explosion in the information

available to us. The challenge is to find the correct, most up to date information without having to spendlots of time wading through treacle. Snap Ticker leverages the power of RSS, which you may be aware

of, but has additional flexibility and can be easily customised.

Staff can be working away, and along the bottom of the screen appears a scrolling new feed. If they aredeep in thought they may ignore it and it wont interrupt their flow. If they are ready for an interruptiontheyll have a scan. Alternatively, when an appropriate break in the work flow comes they may click

through to find out more.

Snap Ticker allowsyou to leverage

external informationsources as it can

push out informationupdates from anysource that is RSS enabled (without requiring staff to opt in, although this is an option). This helps keepto staff informed and be more effective in their roles.

However, the most powerful feature of Snap Ticker is that theAdministrators can write their own feedsand push them out to target staff groups. This means that you can quickly send out any news updatewith a linkto further information, simply by typing in a headline, inputting link details and setting thetarget groups. This format is ideal for the call centre environment as it can keep people informed of thelatest updates without interrupting their workflow.

Snap Tickers are a great way to provide information updates and transport staff directly to theinformation they need..anything from a specific intranet page, to a website to a document on the

shared network

Because communications are targetable, and you can have more than one Administrator, you cannominate selected staff from different departments (e.g. the sales team or engineering department) tomanage the Snap Ticker for their audiences..as an overallAdministrator, you have complete visibility ofall messages

It is also possible to run standard RSS feeds through Snap Ticker, so if you have an RSS enabled intranet,

you can run this in addition to customising other feeds.

Another feature is the option to set up the ticker to continue scrolling on-screen until clicked upon. Thismeans that you can guarantee that staff have viewed important content.


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Snap Poll Staff Survey Tool

Involving staff is one of the key ways we can build engagement. Its also really important to measure

communications effectiveness so we know whats hitting the mark and identify which areas need to

improve. This also allows us to demonstrate business value to senior managers.A Snap Poll or Survey isa tool which can be used to achieve these goals.

Snap Poll is different to other surveys in that it isnt toocomplicated and its pushed directly to the desktop (and notdelivered by email). It pops up on the employees computerand provides an option to complete now or defer until later.

The Snap Administrator can specify how frequently and how

often the pop up reappears until the survey is completed.Silent Surveys that staff can opt into via a hyperlink can also

be set up.

Snap Poll is quick to set up and works best if its short andpunchy (no more than 10 questions multi-choice if possible, although various other answer options arealso available). A prize incentive can help, so does the automated reminder meaning high responserates.

It works best as a benchmarking tool, a temperature check, or as initial research prior to the launch of a

more comprehensive (and time consuming) survey.

Results can be grouped by unit which means that you can measure effectiveness of managers in areassuch as information cascade, or engagement since direct supervisors have such an influence onengagement, this can be an important.

Polls can be set up to allow confidential responses, which can be valuable in times of change anduncertainty.

Snap Alert Desktop Alerts

When we have some breaking newssuch as a security alert or important update, Snap Alert becomes areally powerful tool. It is a targetable Desktop Alert that pops up on the targeted employees computerscreen.

Snap Alert is persistent the message will not go away until it has been viewed and acted upon (ifspecified by administrator). Read Now or Read Later options areavailable or immediate full display ofthe message can be specified by theadministrator. The size, position and prominence of the Desktop Alertwindow can also be preset for each message. The user eventually has to

open or respond to the message to remove it from their screen (unless an

expiry date or maximum reoccurrence option has been specified)

Reporting options mean you can report on who has / has not opened thefull message and/or clicked links contained in the message. This can begreat for compliance applications.

Snap RSVP RSVP Alert Tool

Snap RSVP is a meeting request or invite that behaves like a Desktop Alert. This tool is ideal formaximising the impact of events such as change management briefing sessions or CEO road shows.

You can include explanatory text andask employees to select which session or meeting they want toattend. Once responded to, Snap RSVP will automatically populate the employees Outlookcalendar withthe appointment.

Reporting tools in the content manager make it easy to see which staff are attending which sessions.You can plan room sizes, catering etc. and close off specific time slots as rooms become filled.


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This is a great tool to use in times of change or crisis management. One of the key rules around

managing change is to communicate, communicate, communicate. It is really important to have face to

face time and provide opportunities for staff to ask questions and express their views. However, it can

be tricky to get everyone in a room at the same time as st aff still have jobs to do and can be very busy.Snap RSVP can help.

Snap Video Video Alert Tool

Snap Video is a Desktop Alert format that delivers videoto targeted employee desktops: So your CEO cant be at

the meeting? No problem. Use Snap Video and staff cansee the commitment and intent in the CEOs eyes and

hear the passion/empathy in their voice. Snap Videos

targeting features mean that you can stagger delivery of

the video alert to different employee groups as required.

Snap Mag Electronic Staff Magazinew ith an important difference

Did you know that research show that the average office worker is interrupted 11 times per hour with

messages that have nothing to do with the task he or she is performing at that time?Each interrupt hasa cost. It takes time for the employee to refocus back into their work. Most emails, particularly thosethat are targeted to all staffcontain generic information that does not have to be read there and then.

Snap Mag allows anyone in the business to input these generic information updates into a one stopmagazine format. An editor can quickly approve articles prior to their publication into the magazine.

In addition to user generated content, Snap Mag isnt delivered by email, it has much more visibility.Each time Snap Mag is published, staff members will see a ticker-bar appear which scrolls three times at

the bottom of their screens. They can click-to-read there and then, or alternatively they can go to their

message history to read the latest publication of Snap Mag at a time that suits them better

Snap Mag is designed to be scan-able with read more links allowing people to find out more on theintranet or find documents on the network. Snap can report on these links so

you can see just how popular a particular article was and include more ofthese types of articles to ensure high readership

Embedded email links allow readers to respond / reply directly to theauthor..depending on response levels, the author can call a discussion

group, summarise comments in the next edition or maybe set up a Snap Blogor Forum for further debate.

There is also an option to display the magazine as a logon screen which is

great because most people like to read something to warm into the day.

Readership rates increase significantly when this option is enabled.

It means that, instead of 11 interrupts per hour, our staffcan focus on theirspecific roles and then chose to read all of thegeneral news and updates ina one-stop format at a time they choose. They are expecting these types ofmessages and hence are more receptive.

SnapMag is targetable to different user groups so individual departments can

have their own version of the magazine.

Snap Mag is not only a way to cut down all staff emails. You can also use it

as a way to allow staff to communicate with each other and to build engagement. Because any memberof staffcan participate in this magazine (assuming this option is enabled), it is a great way for staff to

become more involved, feel part of the community and hence build their engagement.

Your company culture and demographic may mean that tools like blogs and forums are simply not

appropriate or acceptable to senior managers. There may be fears around loss of control or the impact


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of disengaged staff. Under these circumstances, Snap Mag can be a great alternative . Snap Magenables you to distribute safe discussion directly to the employees computer screen.

Snap InteractiveBlogs, Forums, Helpdesks and Q&A Spots

If your company culture and demographics suit the use of social media tools consider Snap Interactive.

The Snap Interactive tools have the following unique features:

Specifically developed for employee communication Cost effective and easy to implement Secure, hosted solution authenticated to each employees

computer (or log on profile) Easy to use, scan-able for busy people Tools to search for key information Promotional tools to drive usage and value

Unique reporting tools to measure value and ROIThere is no IT involvement required to set these tools. The SnapInteractivetools are strategic communications tools and specificallydesigned to be easily managed and operated by the Communications team and not become an ITproject each time a new forum is to be set up or a change needs to be made.

This permits you to quickly and easily try concepts out. For example, you want to implement a discussion

forum around the launch of a new product but there is some debate around whether this will provide

value or whether people will participate.. These tools allow you to test uptake and evolve the use of

such tools without the need for big project budget, business cases or resource.

Administrators can quickly and easily set up new forums or blogs and specify which employee groups

have authoring, commenting, and read rights.

The Snap Interactive tools are also user friendly. Automatic user authentication means that the networkis fully secure and does not require the use of user names and passwords.

Extensive reporting options such as the total time spent by individual staff, rank this forum polls, anduser demographics as well as more traditional site traffic statistics mean that it is easy to measure value

and demonstrate ROI.

Documents

Communicating With Frontline Staff