Do you feel the need? The need for IC evaluation? No? Well if not, your ego might be writing cheques your strategy can’t cash…
To shamelessly borrow once more from Top Gun parlance, internal communicators could be on the highway to the danger zone when it comes to their organisation’s digital channel mix.
Granted, many IC teams had to be digital mavericks (last one) to support new ways of working over the last two years of the Covid-19 pandemic. But many are now struggling with the fall-out from rapid (although necessarily so at the time) digital transformations.
Employees feel technology has “run amok”, with 43% saying they’re spending too much time switching among different tools. On an average day, employees are spending an hour searching through different tools for the information they need (Cornell University and Qatalog research).
We’ve heard from organisations who needed to launch the likes of Microsoft 365 or Workplace by Meta with little time to decide how the tools fit into their existing mix, and how they should be used. Let alone time to explain to their people how best to use them.
Not forgetting too that there’s a culture change that needs to happen to embed digital tools and their accompanying ways of working. As Paul Jones, our Head of Insight, says: “You don’t just switch on a collaboration tool like Microsoft Teams and ‘boom’, automatically have a collaborative culture. If people weren’t working together before, they’re not going to start doing it now just because you’ve switched on a new app.”
We need to help employees to understand when, how and why to use each digital tool at their disposal, and in a way that is right for their current working environment. What worked at the height of lockdowns in 2020 won’t necessarily be right for today’s hybrid workplace.
From Virgin Media Ireland to Swindon Borough Council, we help organisations clarify their digital workplace channel mixes. We evaluate tools and channels, and analyse how employees are using them and why, to help our clients make hybrid working work.
You don’t have to take our word for it. In May’s Sequel Presents we were joined by Kristina Norberg, Head of Internal Communications at Virgin Media Ireland.
She explained how Sequel partnered with a mix of Virgin’s IC, HR and IT colleagues to navigate their Microsoft 365 digital transformation. We helped them understand how best to use the tools to suit their audiences’ specific needs.
Get in touch with Paul Jones, our Head of Insight, at paul.jones@sequelgroup.co.uk to see how we can help make your digital channel mix work for your people now.
We’ll be your IC wingman, anytime (actual last one).