When it comes to improving the reach of your internal digital channels, there is an apparent contradiction: having digital communication resources, such as an intranet or mobile app, does not guarantee that your audience will have access to them (regularly or continuously). It is not about willingness – whether they want to use your channels or not – but whether they can . This underlying problem can be a structural issue, sometimes related to formats or even devices. But most importantly, it is always 100% related to the needs of your workforce.
There are corporate areas that are primarily concerned with being able to “cover” more ground:
Internal Communication, with topics such as addressing pandemic protocols at the company level, but also communicating general company updates.
Human Resources, with its recurring processes related to employee benefits and entitlements, which often require multiple approvals at different levels and/or procedures that may not be fully digitalized.
Operations, with the need to connect and coordinate with different departments.
Sourcing, by constantly interacting and evaluating pakistan b2b leads potential business partners, with approval rounds and multiple deadlines.
Technology plays a crucial role in offering these corporate areas specific solutions to their concerns; however, the main challenge is not around technology, but around the audience. Rethinking a company's processes from a technological perspective and preparing to reach all business audiences requires vision and empathy, but above all, strategy.
Below are some factors to consider when evaluating your digital resources, technology, reach, and workforce.
What is my company's workforce made up of? And what kind of needs do they have?
If a company sees its workforce as “monolithic,” no matter what kind of technology it uses, it’s unlikely to work. For large companies and global brands, the workforce means a giant Venn diagram with many attributes: region, countries, sites, departments, age, gender, and seniority are some of the factors to consider. In a way, understanding your workforce means working at the intersections of the above attributes. This is where certain processes, such as UX research and user-centered design, usually begin: What are the needs of this specific audience? What is a typical day like for each user group? How is this audience different from other audiences? What is their relationship with technology? When do they typically connect with a digital resource, such as a portal or intranet? These are some of the initial questions to try to pinpoint the issues behind a limited reach within the company.
How many of my employees are “on the go”? How many of them don’t have a computer?
Today more than ever, having access via a mobile device is essential for companies, not only for the services we offer to our clients and customers, but it also represents a constant need for our employees. If your workforce is on the move, or if your core business is about transportation or logistics, your digital resources need to consider a design that is responsive to mobile experiences. Again, just because we offer a solid and robust solution does not necessarily mean that our workforce can use it. In short, the way you imagine and design, and experiment, has a tremendous impact on adoption. For example: is your communication channel responsive? Or, is it designed for mobile devices? This question may seem simple, but it is what will ultimately determine how universal your UX approach should be when trying to interact with massive internal audiences.
How multicultural is my company? Is English the only language we do business in?
It doesn't matter if you receive a message: if you don't understand it, it's almost as if nothing had arrived. Large companies and global brands frequently face this dilemma: defining which sections of a portal or mobile application should be in English and which sections in another language.
When a company has operations in multiple countries, there is some specificity in processes that are unique to each location, such as legal matters, employee benefits, or even holidays, in addition to the fact that not all of the workforce is fluent in more than one language. To share a message across a large company, the company not only needs to get the message across, but also has to trust that the message shared in different languages and formats is conveyed appropriately. For this juncture, modern digital platforms already have multilingual functionality, and specific workflows can be set up so that translation happens quickly and is managed by the right people when needed.
Devices and browsers: What is my company's approach to this?
The Browser Wars are long over, but the underlying idea remains: how can we create rich, engaging experiences for everyone to use, regardless of device and browser? Managing internal digital channels for the workforce means always looking for new emerging technologies, their components, and the way they work, especially budget-friendly ones, such as new brands of tablets or smartphones. Being interoperable across browsers and devices is a principle that any IT team should embrace, especially if working with large enterprises, global brands, or on Public Sector projects, where the target audience is even larger. Importantly, Usability and Testing tasks play a crucial role in ensuring that our digital channel works as it should when exposed to different environments. In other words, when in doubt, test.
