For internal communications, non-desk-workers are a group that is consistently rated as difficult to reach.
There are 4 key learnings for communicating with non-desk-workers:
The old adage for succeeding in internal communications is "go where your audience is." Non-desk employees, however, are everywhere. Unlike traditional employees who sit at a desk 40 hours a week, these employees are on their feet and on the move. In service, field service, sales and many others, these employees often deal directly with the company's customers. In manufacturing, these employees operate heavy machinery and work on assembly lines. In transportation, these employees literally move across cities, states, and the country to get people or products where they need to be on time.
Any company that has non-desk workers should understand how important they are to success. In many cases, these employees are the reason a company can sell a product in the first place. In other cases, they are the face of the company, the first and sometimes only contact customers have with the company. Simply put, these employees do the actual work that makes money.
Yes, it can be harder to reach these populations, but internal communications as a driver of strategic business goals and employee outcomes like employee engagement should aim to connect with these employees. If you have non-desk employees and your communications strategy isn't doing everything it can to reach them, here are four reasons why you should rethink your approach.
1. There's no one-size-fits-all solution, and traditional channels aren't working.
It wasn't too long ago that email was the dominant method of communication in the workplace - the average employee sends and receives 122 work emails per day. For communicators, email is a handy tool to quickly disseminate important messages and keep their employees informed. Why not take advantage of instant, direct and personal communication with your employees?
The IT revolution that made email possible hasn't found its way to employees who don't work at a desk. According to a recent study, 83% of non-desk workers do not have a corporate email address. In other words, the primary communication channel for 95% of internal communicators is an absolute no-go for this group. Instead of making up for this digital deficit, many choose to continue relying on a channel they've always used to reach this audience: Updates from direct reports.
And while face-to-face interactions, especially with managers, are undeniably important, everyone has a different communication style. If you make face-to-face communication your primary communication channel, your communication strategy will only be as strong as your worst communicator. As Elizabeth Cogswell Baskin, CEO of Tribe Inc. notes, relying on direct supervisors for communication works better in theory than in practice. "For one thing, some supervisors are better communicators than others, so important messages can get lost in translation. There's also often a problem with inconsistent timing. Some employees find out about big changes earlier than others, simply because some bosses haven't told their people yet."
To successfully build trust, communicators often need to deliver print, digital, and in-person communications, but engagement across these channels needs to deliver more than just transactional company information. Employees want to feel connected to the company, but also to their colleagues on a personal level. Gallup confirms that employees who feel their managers are invested in them as people are more likely to be engaged. For non-desk-workers, that means taking the time to build relationships in face-to-face conversations with their managers, and also looking for digital channels that can do the same.
As long as non-desk workers are doing important work, there will always be a need to communicate with them beyond the bare minimum. Reaching this group may be difficult, but it's a challenge worth overcoming, given the invaluable contribution these employees make to the company's success.