Communication

Communicating with Distracted Employees

CCook

We’ve all been there as employers. We think we’re being clear, we think we’re getting the message out, but it’s not sinking in. So, we schedule the meeting and we create the memo and we post it on the bulletin board, but alas, our efforts feel futile.

Why has communication become more challenging in the communication age?

For one, we live in an age where there is a LOT of competition for our employee’s attention. If you want to get your message to land, you need to build in repetitions of that message. Studies tell us that to effectively help someone change a behavior, they need to hear or see a message repeated a minimum of seven times.

Getting your message to stand out amid the din of their devices is job one. People get hundreds of notifications every day and are often operating on information overload. Your employees may be struggling to prioritize what’s most important to give their attention to at any given moment. For example, when they walk down the hall, they are more likely looking at their phones than the bulletin board.

Another key to communicating with distracted employees is to help them understand why a change is happening. If you can tie your new policy to the reason why it exists, it will connect in a deeper, more impactful way. Tell the story behind the change, help them understand the rationale and bring them in on the reasoning and it’s far more likely to take hold.

We created Retriever Digital Signage specifically to solve these communication frustrations in your workplace. If you’re tired of losing hours in your week to ineffective communication, let’s chat for 15 minutes and we’ll tell you about how we can help. Click here to schedule.

Colleen Cook

Colleen Cook

Colleen Cook works full-time as the Director of Operations at Vinyl Marketing in Ashland, Ohio, where she resides with her husband Mike and three young daughters. She's an insatiable extrovert who enjoys finding reasons to gather people.