Modern businesses have to tackle a wide range of problems, from communications to marketing. On the communication side, it can be quite tough to meet deskless workers where they are, with empathy and content that resonates. And that’s just the beginning; there’s also keeping the team on the same page, and ensuring that information doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.

Then there are problems that companies face on the outside – keeping customers engaged, driving sales, and maintaining the brand. All these problems can be troublesome to tackle. 

So naturally, you’ll need an effective internal communications strategy that’s also budget-friendly and capable of reaching deskless workers. If it can help with promotions and marketing for no extra cost, even better! That’s where digital signage comes in.

But how exactly is it supposed to save you money as the title says? Well, that’s what we’re here to answer. But first, why get digital signage at all?

Why do organizations need digital signage?

Organizations with higher levels of employee engagement vastly outperform competitors in every area. Strong engagement equals less absenteeism, less turnover, less theft, and defects. It also equals more safety, more profitability, and better quality. And happier customers! (Gallup)

Now, HR leaders understand how business-critical engagement is, and that every cent and minute matters. How do you execute an employee engagement strategy fit for the times that are resource-lean and don’t break the bank? 

One simple solution could help: Digital signage.

Digital screens may already be on the walls of your stores, warehouses, offices, waiting areas, corridors, and break rooms. And these screens could potentially enable you to communicate cost-effectively, dynamically, and at scale. 

In some cases and locations, they can also help with your marketing and help promote additional services or products.

Leveraged properly, digital signage screens help your organization to meet your employees' need for connection, and forge that all-important ‘psychological contract’ with their employer, and each other. 

Bridging the communication gap with digital signage

It’s not surprising to find workers in the manufacturing, transportation, supply chain, and logistics industries who lack a company email address. Even though they may have access to personal devices, engagement with company-wide emails in real-time may be low. And research shows that content viewed on smaller screens (phones, laptops) has poorer recall.

Another study by Bananatag shows that across all industries, the opening and click-through rates for internal emails are 79% and 15%, respectively.

While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, ‘saying it with a screen’ can play a role in keeping your deskless workforce up-to-date with key company announcements. That could be everything from health and safety notices to operational data, performance metrics, birthday messages, and even the news, sports, and weather. 

Now, you may be thinking, “digital signage isn’t cheap”.

Granted, digital signage management software like Screencloud is just a low cost per screen. But there are other factors to consider:

• Purchasing the display screen(s)
• Installation costs
• IT staff

Learn more about how to build affordable digital signage here.

But there’s some good news: when implemented effectively, digital signage shows a significant return on investment (ROI). Here’s how.

1. Going paperless

Physical documentation (leaflets, flyers, posters on notice boards) is generally being phased out (source) but still remains common in certain deskless sectors. 

Digital signage posters can help you dramatically cut down on paper, which saves paper and storage, as well as your precious time. By using screens to, say, promote the annual holiday dinner, you can create content online quickly – with design tools you already use, or editable templates – and start playing it on one or many screens. 

“The Canvas app on ScreenCloud is a dream to use. The templates are all so useful and are great for when you want to create a new announcement quickly, but still want it looking professional.” - Mark Hunter, Section Manager, Healthcare.

Made a typo? Fix it in a second and see your edits reflected in real-time. Want to know numbers? Add a QR code that your colleagues simply scan to RSVP. Simple, and, most importantly, scalable!

There are many other ways that digital signage can help your business go paperless:

• Digital bulletin boards for announcements and schedules
• Electronic forms and documents
• Wayfinding signage instead of printable signs
• Environmental messaging

Here are some hard figures to further tip you in the digital signage direction: Going paperless pays off. On average, an employee in the US uses $80 per year worth of paper! (Indigital) Digital signage can potentially save you tens of thousands in printing and photocopying costs.

2. Increasing productivity

When your people aren’t in the know, or kept informed, productivity can suffer. Whether it’s who is out of office on that day, what the delivery schedule is, which van is offsite for repairs or whether a specific process has been changed. 

Displaying this information in a way that fits into your team’s workflows, meaning that it is easily accessible and visible, means employees in every corner of your organization can be on the same page.

As well as announcements, digital signage solutions can display actionable and real-time data – dashboards, production analytics, performance metrics, and insights that help teams stay on track, on time, and on budget. 

Screens are also a great medium for educational health and safety messaging, and are likely to be better received than paper posters covered in big red crosses. In fact, digital signage receives 400% more views than static media! Databeat.

3. Reducing churn

Did you know that according to Best Companies, 69% of disengaged employees leave their company for a mere 5% salary increase?

Churn is incredibly costly in terms of recruitment and retraining (up to 2 times the employee’s annual salary according to Gallup. 

According to the same source, a key way to reduce churn and engage employees is to keep them in the loop on relevant company information. Deskless workers deserve the same level and transparency of dialogue, and they deserve to be met where they are – physically, and figuratively. 

Closing the gap between so-called ‘blue’ and ‘white’ collar workers can be a key step in reducing turnover in traditionally high-churn sectors such as third-party logistics. After all, the total cost of disengaged employees in the US is a whopping $450-500 billion per year. Best Companies.

Use digital signage to connect all of your employees, and you can rapidly reduce churn and keep everyone engaged. 

4. Cutting advertising costs

For retail establishments, digital signage offers an amazing opportunity for product promotions. 

Typical strategies for in-store promotions most often include flyers, posters and banners, product positioning, product events, staff promotion and hands on/try ons.

Bringing digital signage into the mix can: 

• Cut down print costs
• Free up employee time, potentially saving up person-hours
• Inform walk-in customers about promotions in a non-intrusive way
• Create a cohesive experience between your online and physical branding
• Create more of a buzz

And, with digital signage, you can quickly swap out products, update promotional displays in real-time, and provide viewers with as much information as they need. All at zero extra cost.

5. Reducing the cost of internal communications

As any IT or HR manager knows, managing internal communications programs and initiatives can be time-intensive. Overseeing large teams across multiple sites and having to distribute work anniversary or birthday announcements via email or internal messaging apps… That’s multiple times a day, every day!

Slack channels, Teams groups and intranet posts are one way to get these messages about. But there are more efficient ways to get the message across to teams who might not even have access to a desktop device. 

And yes, as you might have guessed, digital signage can make internal communications easier to manage. It can help you automate these morale-boosting processes and many other situations. 

With options to broadcast to specific locations, or across the whole company, plus easy to edit templates and much more, managing your internal comms just became much less hassle.

6.  Improving learning and development opportunities 

By using digital signage, every room with a connected screen is a potential training space. Use your displays to deliver training and upskilling materials in a format and duration that appeals to your workforce, and supplements how they learn. Gone are the days of long sessions in conference rooms!

“Previously, our associates would only see safety videos during a safety meeting; now we can put them up on the screens all the time. ScreenCloud is a tool that we can use to spread the word about anything to anyone.” - John Kindy, Training and Development Specialist, Granger Waste Services. 

Let ScreenCloud help you save time and money with digital signage

In a time of hiring freezes, reduced budgets, economic uncertainty, and a seismic shift in how we work; digital signage may seem like a nice to have. Or it might appear lower down on the IT or HR teams to-do list.

Yet, informed and engaged employees have a direct and quantifiable impact on hard metrics such as retention and productivity, and even company performance. Getting the messaging right, and pairing that message with the right medium – screens! – is an important step in building community within your organization. 

The ROI of an affordable and feature-rich digital signage solution like ScreenCloud is an investment that will deliver bang for its buck and position your organization ahead of the curve in communicating with and caring for its people.  

Sign up for a free trial here and see how ScreenCloud can help your business save time and money with digital signage.