The second tool in your “Digital-First Toolkit is learning effective employee communication before and throughout your digital strategy implementation. Here, we will begin to explore two aspects of employee communication. First, we will consider why it is necessary to communicate concisely with your team during this shift. It is important to hold effective internal communication by keeping constant communication with your team and offering them frequent updates. Essentially, carefully communicating your transition to digital-first will make sure that everybody knows what’s happening and you can be assured that everyone will be kept in the loop. Additionally, this will encourage aligning your employees with your ultimate business objectives, on top of allowing you to build trust among your team during these changing and challenging times. Overall, make sure not to leave your employees in the dark to avoid a lack of productivity and to improve engagement.
Remember, we are living in the “wild west” of technology. Things are changing quickly. Creating a flexible team that is nimble and works organically as you grow your business is the key to great success. Encouraging them to learn and share new insights on an ongoing basis is also important. Incorporate “trends” and weave digital-first conversations into every work meeting.
The second aspect of employee communication we will explore is tangible ways to successfully communicate with your employees during your digital-first movement. First of all, you must be very clear about your expectations and business objectives. You should also prioritize showing your availability as an employer, in order to promote productivity. This tangible style of management aligns with the innate character of thinking digital-first. What was once more subjective in nature is far more objective; this can work to your advantage to stay on target as a team.
One way you could do this is by offering one-on-one meetings. Here at DMW, we make use of a method called “SparkNotes”. Through these, we have employees prepare “brief reports”, which would include a few things they have accomplished and a few things they need assistance with accomplishing, all tying back to being digital-first in thought and action. As a result, employees may feel further encouraged to meet their weekly or monthly goals, and feel better supported and appreciated for reaching them.
In the end, when dealing with employee communication, there are a few considerations you have to make. You must make sure you teach your team how to communicate more often and more concise now more than ever before. Honing your digital acumen and speak is important…and a lot of fun. While clearly, you realize that communication WILL change when shifting to digital-first, being better communicators ultimately offers you faster and more seamless workflows.