Tag: #communications

Disengaged employees and poor leader communications key challenges for Irish organisations

Disengaged employees and poor leader communications are among the top challenges facing Irish businesses in 2024, a new report from Springboard Communications has found.

The leading Irish communications agency’s Internal Communications in Ireland Report 2024, supported by the Public Relations Institute of Ireland, also found the number one most important metric for C-level executives is improved employee engagement. The full report is available to download at springboardcommunications.ie/2024ICreport.

Speaking on the Report, Susie Horgan, Founder and Managing Director of Springboard Communications said: “From working with national and global clients across sectors, we have seen first-hand the challenges facing organisations — from recruitment and retention to navigating dispersed teams. Your employees are a primary stakeholder, and post-pandemic, there has been a growing recognition of how critical they are to maintaining and enhancing your reputation both internally and externally.

“Our research backs this up with employee engagement and talent attraction and retention coming out as having the most impact for the C-suite. As we know, this can be increasingly difficult in a hybrid working world, with respondents flagging the dilution of company culture as a top five challenge. As a result, we are also seeing a 26% increase in interactive employee events, including conferences and town-halls – highlighting the desire for connection between colleagues. Effective internal communication is the crucial first step, so it is heartening to see its recognition as a business-critical function. 50% say their team sizes have increased since 2022 while 35% say budgets have also been increased.”

Improving communications from leaders is the number one challenge facing internal communicators in 2024, with over half citing it as a top concern. Commenting on this, Sandy Boundy, Director of Strategy and Insight at Springboard Communications, added: “People leaders are increasingly influential in a hybrid culture as they are the ones directly reaching the wider workforce. Effective communication from leaders is essential as they bridge the gap between the organisation and the broader employee base, ensuring vital information is conveyed accurately. Without the proper tools, resources, and training, leaders can hinder employee engagement and, at worst, contribute to a negative workplace culture.”

Elsewhere, the Report highlights that AI is a key trend along with sustainability communications. While over 60% of internal communications professionals are incorporating AI into their roles, half of organisations lack formal AI policies or guidelines. Susie Horgan added: “Businesses are exposing themselves to significant reputational danger. Failure to have transparent policies in place heightens exposure to risk and the likelihood of outdated information being shared.”

The Report was launched at a Springboard-hosted industry event with insights from leading communications experts including Rosemary Garth, Communications Director, Tesco Ireland; Catherine Dennehy, Senior Internal Communications Manager, Meta; and Sarah Ryan, Director of Communications, daa and PRII National Council Member. The Harnessing the Power of People-Centred Internal Communications event at the Iveagh Garden Hotel, Dublin (30 May), tackled trends and challenges in communications, from reputation management to recruitment and retention.

An Overview of Business Communication Channels You Should Be Using

The medium through which a message reaches an audience is a communication channel. The audience can be your internal or external stakeholders. Internal stakeholders are people within your organization, such as your workforce and managerial team. On the other hand, your key customers, prospective buyers, investors, and vendors constitute external customers. 

A few examples of such communication are as follows. 

Internal Stakeholders: You might send an update to your company’s employees about a new organizational change. 

External Stakeholders: You are about to launch a new product. And, you send a few prospects in your sales funnel some marketing messages. It could also be as simple as sending your existing customers a greeting. 

There are a variety of ways that you can send these communications. The traditional face-to-face and written communication channels are great for certain activities. Then there are the more new-age channels like mobile and digital. 

Even newer channels like video messages combine the benefits of old and new channels. Bigvu has an engaging guide on how you can use such cutting-edge channels. For example, video emails allow you to share your body language, tone of voice, and sincerity in your communication. 

Oral Communication 

An oral channel is considered the richest way for you to get your message across. These include things like face-to-face, telephonic conversations, customer presentations. They also include video meetings, conferences, and lectures. The messages delivered through this medium have a low level of distortion. That is because the audience also perceives your body language and the intonation of your voice. Apart from the message itself, these provide a separate layer of meaning. 

Additionally, this medium also has the advantage of instant feedback. This medium, however, is the most labor-intensive. The number of individuals involved in this channel is the highest in number. They are highly effective in delivering sensitive messages. 

For example, when there is a likelihood of layoffs in a company, you, as the leader, should use an oral channel. It will create a sense of assurance in your employees, avoid anxiety, and be used externally. If, for instance, you are about to discontinue a product that is crucial for a small set of customers. 

Written Communication 

Emails, text messages, reports, spreadsheets, memos are all a part of this channel. These types of communication are sparser. Thus, you must give appropriate context to what you are writing. Without this, the words in the messages might get interpreted incorrectly. You must also ensure that you remind the reader to inquire and clarify anything ambiguous. With this form of communication, you cannot guarantee that your message has been seen. Since these types of communication are received in large numbers, yours might just get lost in the crowd. 

However, they have their uses. When you write something to your customer, they have the liberty to absorb it over a long period. It also allows you to send a large amount of information to your customer at one time. When you need to send complex materials that need to be studied, this is the best form. Contracts, proposals, and price quotations are some good examples of this type of communication. 

Electronic Communication 

Traditional modes of electronic communication are television and radio broadcasts. In comparison, newer modes are social media, web pages, and blogs. This channel has the broadest reach and is the quickest medium. This channel also allows for segmented marketing and will enable you to deliver targeted marketing messages. 

This channel is highly efficient, yet it does carry some inherent risks. Hacking has become a serious threat to this type of communication. The technology that enables electronic communication is vulnerable, especially when a company stores unencrypted data. Cybercriminals can steal sensitive customer files and private communications. 

So which channel do you choose? A rule that you can follow is this. The more the emotional component of the message, the richer the medium needs to be. When you need to send a very quick standard message, like scheduling an urgent meeting, an email will work best. 

What if you need to cancel a lunch meeting? Then a personal phone call works much better. In reality, though, channels work best in combination. After a face-to-face customer meeting, the best idea would be to give them written notes of the meeting. It ensures that both parties have the same understanding of the terms and provides scope for future reference. 

 

The Derry Group launches new employee engagement and communications app @_ThriveApp

The Derry Group, a one stop shop for the distribution, storage and order picking of chilled and frozen products has today announced the launch of its new employee engagement app, Thrive.App.

Their flagship company Derry Refrigerated Transport is a leading service provider for chilled and frozen distribution throughout Ireland, the UK and Europe. Derry Refrigerated Transport is the first haulage company in Ireland to sign up to the newest self-service, rapid deployment Thrive.App which brings together the key features needed for businesses to power up their internal communications for their frontline teams.

With hundreds of employees working across multiple locations in Ireland, communication, organisational engagement and information sharing is essential for the growing business.

In order to meet the additional challenges presented by the current global pandemic and the fact that the company works out of various locations throughout the country The Derry Group recognises the need to look at new ways in which all employees can more effectively communicate and share information with each other.

Commenting on the deployment of the new Thrive.App, Patrick Derry, Managing Director, said,

“We have worked hard to build and transform our business to what it is today, and our employees are key to our success. It is important to us that we give them everything they need to carry out their roles successfully as well as feeling supported and recognised for what they do. With the Thrive.App our employees can now easily access the information they need to support them in their role, they see important updates as they occur, and they know what is happening across all areas of the business.

The launch of Thrive.App will bring everyone closer together, which is particularly important during the current challenges of Covid19 and the fact that we have teams in various parts of the country.

The Thrive team have provided the best support and guidance in helping us to launch the employee app and we are confident they will continue to support us to make it a success across our organisation.”

James Scott, CEO, Co-Founder of Thrive, adds; “We are delighted to help and welcome The Derry Group as a new client and look forward to working together to ensure their employee communications and engagement app is a success and loved by their teams within the Group structure whether based in Armagh, Dublin or Cork. 

Our goal is to help organisations in shifting their communications from traditional methods such as printed newsletters, notice boards and team briefings to instant, modern apps and we have loved helping The Derry Group do this. We look forward to seeing the direct positive impact the app will have on their employee communications and engagement.”