How to Communicate Effectively with a Global Workforce

Office communication has come a long way, especially as many businesses now span multiple sites, across cities, regions and even trans-national locations. And while every business is different, communication styles differ and one strategy might not work for another - the truth is that effective employee communication is more important than ever.

In our recent study with Unily, we found that poor communication with frontline teams costs US businesses $80.6 billion every year. This isn't even factoring in international teams or organizations with interconnected global networks such as those in freight and logistics, transport and travel. But the challenges of global comms aren't limited to these industries; here at ScreenCloud, we operate five offices across three different countries in three continents. So we understand a bit about how to communicate across a global network.

So lets look into how to leverage the skills and the technology to improve corporate communications across global teams.

What is global workforce communication?

Global workforce communication is, as it sounds, the process of communicating with departments, team members or specific individuals within a global organization. An example of this is within the freight and logistics industry where a dispatch center in country A might need a process to communicate easily and openly with country B but also with regional hub X.

But it goes beyond mere point to point communication too. Global corporate offices might want to share changes to processes, alert employees to security issues, or remind workers across their global offices that a deadline is looming to apply for a company rewards program.

As well as this, SMB and enterprise companies are increasingly sharing ideas, managing projects and collaborating via communication tools. This typically requires a range of tools, from a preferred messaging tool such as Teams or Slack, to a file sharing solution, an intranet and various collaborative tools.

Problems associated with global workforce communication

Managing a global workforce comes with a few obvious challenges, such as communication across time zones, missed messages, crossed wires, language or cultural differences, differing infrastructure and the feeling of being disconnected from your team mates in different locations.

There is also the challenge of managing online security across multiple global locations, and ensuring processes and protocols are adhered to. Having the right access to the right tools at the right time means less chance of short cuts being taken, especially with regards to security (such as in the case of shadow IT).

In recent years, however, technology has bridged a number of these gaps and enabled better real-time collaboration through instant messaging apps, access to an intranet and screen based team meetings.

How to improve global workforce communication

The rise of company wide initiatives such as the all hands or town hall meeting have made it easier to share company culture and messaging, and also to connect across time zones. But these occasional events are just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to effective communication across regional departments and locations.

Improving communication usually means a few simple factors need to be taken into consideration:

• Ease of access to the message portal
• Clarity of the message
• Consistency of communication

To break these down to the individual points.

Ease of access usually means a single place where most messaging is shared, or access to the 'single source of truth'. In some businesses, this might be the communication tool (Slack, Teams, etc); project management platforms (Monday, Asana etc); or an intranet hub (Unily, Firstup etc).

Clarity of messaging means keeping communication clear and simple - especially across global departments or when dealing with multiple language barriers. Long emails with lots of points are easy to ignore. Two or three clear action points and a call to action are easier to manage and track responses.

Consistency simply means that people expect to see certain messages or forms of communication at certain times. Your company all hands meeting might be monthly, but you might also release team performance data every Friday, or share action plans on the first and third Monday of the month.

These three steps are the critical ingredients in effective communication, regardless of company size or locations. Enshrining these as clear communication protocols can greatly help to create a more cohesive communication strategy across businesses with international teams.

The tools to build better global communication in business

Most modern businesses use some form of instant messaging platform, whether that's MS Teams, Slack or Google Chat. These often form the basis of real-time collaboration for office based teams.

Other tools also include:

• Project management software: Monday, Asana, Trello etc
• Collaborative workplace tools: Google Workspace, Microsoft Office Suite, Notion.
• Digital Signage Software

However, with 80% of the global workforce being non-desk based, there needs to be a more cohesive approach to global workforce communication.

How to use digital signage for global communication

When it comes to employee communications, digital signage is key to engaging employees and helping to get important messages seen. A strategic approach using digital signage can help cut through the noise of multiple comms tools or intranet platforms and get your messages seen.

For multi-location teams, this can be a literal lifesaver. When it comes to policy updates, business announcements or even real-time data the ability to share this information visibly can ensure everyone is on the same page.

Lets look at some of some specific examples of using digital signage for organizational comms.

Content impact

One of the big benefits of digital signage, and one of the main reasons for it's success as a workplace communication tool, is it's highly visible nature. And as research shows that digital signage has a recall rate of 83%, it's clear that this makes it an excellent employee engagement platform - especially when paired with other employee experience platforms.

Real-time announcements

From new global safety measures to birthday announcements, treat your digital signage as a real-time digital notice board and get that message noticed, without waiting for people to open their email. Controlled by a central CMS, these global announcements can be created and scheduled in accordance with varying time zones to show up during specific hours.

Live broadcasting of company events

When it comes to quickly connecting the whole company, digital signage is unrivalled. With a quick 'cast to screen', you can share your company all hands meeting with the whole organization, or bring departments together with a meeting. This allows the humble meeting to have a truly global scale - something more important than ever in today's interconnected world.

Building company culture

Often, global workforces struggle to build empathy with their interoffice colleagues because they don’t know anything about them, other than their email addresses. And it can be hard to foster company culture.

Digital signage is an open canvas where teams can paint a picture of who they are behind the avatars. These screens can be used as information radiators to emanate engaging content which people will want to see.

Some great examples are to stream social media posts, run a photo competition, broadcast an interactive yoga class or stream a company AMA.

Three global workforce communication case studies

Seeing examples of digital signage in use for internal communication helps to spark new ideas about how you can use digital screen networks to challenge and improve your traditional interoffice communication flow. Here are a couple of examples:

1. ScreenCloud: Connecting our own global workforce

Here at ScreenCloud, we operate 5 offices across three countries, with bases in the US, UK and Thailand. As such, we know a bit about connecting global teams and the value of collaboration tools and open communication.

We do use a variety of communication tools such as Slack, Asana and Notion. But we do, of course, display key messages and data on digital signage displays across our offices.

Our office digital signage usually has a mix of business and company culture content, such as what we've been up to with the 5-a-side football team, work arrivals and anniversaries, new family arrivals such a babies - and sometimes dogs. Business content can include reminders of company policies, sales targets and data, reminders of announcements and other useful info.

The favourite integrations we use include pulling messages from our Slack channel, our own Team News app and sharing messages via our own QuickPost app.

2. 3M: Sharing information beyond the inbox

3M recognized that employees already had an abundance of communication methods – but that the key announcements weren’t getting through. This led them to creating a strategic digital signage journey. With internal updates happening all of the time, they began using digital screens located throughout their 150 offices to surface the stuff that was most important.

3. Granger: Multi-location messaging

For Granger Waste Services, communicating well to its employees is a key consideration, given that it has four different locations and that some of the associates are only onsite for around 10 minutes each morning before they head out to serve customers.

By putting up digital screens in break rooms and throughout each of its four locations, Granger makes use of the key times its employees are in the office. Sharing training videos, company announcements and customer feedback through scheduled content.

Connecting your global workforce

Digital signage easily connects to your choice of screens and is a hugely effective communication tool for global teams. Whether you're linking team members in different buildings within the same town, or connecting regional and international hubs, the benefits for productivity are well documented.

As our study found, 28% of workers want information tailored to their location, and digital signage positively engages 84% of staff.

In short, digital signage is built to improve effective cross cultural communication, and to bridge the gaps between locations and time zones in modern business.

Find out for yourself and get started with our 14-day free trial, or book a demo today.