For better or worse, COVID19 changed the way work gets done fundamentally. Employees started working from home out of necessity, and since the pandemic, many work from home out of personal preference. Employers are faced with the challenge of engaging and connecting employees no matter where they are physically located.
Today, employers are improving employee communications by using digital signage software. Digital signage scales to businesses of all shapes and sizes, and it displays pertinent information to employees across the globe.
Remote Communications
Connecting with remote workers can be difficult without any face to face interaction. Employers use video conferencing tools like Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet to meet virtually. Digital signage implements these tools for improved employee communication.
Managers livestream meetings to digital signage, displaying meetings in the office and on company provided devices in remote locations. Company news and updates are displayed as well. Employees receive a clear and updated line of communication while working from the comfort of their own homes. Arreya can be deployed to digital devices as a progressive web app, just like apps on your phone. These apps give employees quick access to the Arreya channel. Employee communications become streamlined and universal across multiple locations.
LEARN MORE about adapting technology to remote workstyles.
Sharing Corporate History
Many businesses have a rich corporate history that they want to share with their employees. Corporate history illustrates where a business came from, and it gives employees a greater understanding of what they are working towards.
Digital signage communicates corporate history in an engaging and satisfying way with images and videos. Employees interact with digital signage, navigating across corporate timelines on touchscreen displays or on their phones. Giving employees a better understanding of the organization’s story makes work more meaningful and fulfilling.
Corporate history also helps with hiring new employees. The foundation of a company can be a factor on people applying or accepting a position. Digital history can be accessed from anywhere and dynamic content with timelines, photos and videos will engage more viewers.
Employee Recognition
Employee recognition programs are excellent for making employees feel valued. Businesses are using digital signage for communicating wins to employees, recognizing them in front of all their coworkers and even stakeholders in some cases. Digital signs display employee of the month programs, sales contests, and customer reviews. Displaying wins for everyone to see is a great way to boost morale. It tells employees that their work matters, and that they are valued.
LEARN MOREabout improving employee communications with digital signage.
Team Building
Team building exercises are very beneficial in terms of improving employee experience and engagement. A small investment of time to allow employees to get to know eachother often leads to less turnover and higher productivity. When coworkers build healthy professional relationships, they become more invested in each other and in turn, more invested in their work.
Business owners are using digital signage to improve communication and team building by allowing them to meet with each other virtually, communicate through bulletin boards, and even play games together. Team contests are displayed on digital signs throughout the office, creating excitement and some healthy competition.
Display Key Company Metrics
It’s important that employees understand how their performance is evaluated. Businesses are using digital signage for communicating results to employees, displaying key company metrics in real time. Pinpoint Arreya channels to specific departments or centers to personalize digital content to the audience. Call centers can track calls answered, development can watch real time use and which devices are connected. Posting of safety and equipment data sheets can be easily integrated for real time statistics.
Digital signage displays sales targets, customer reviews, new leads, and any other relevant key performance indicators. Displaying metrics in real time allows employees and managers to prioritize effectively and meet their goals.
Employee Safety
Employee safety will always be a top priority, but it’s tougher to keep people safe when they’re working remotely. Companies need tools to alert remote and hybrid employees to danger when they are not in the office. Digital signage integrates with alert software to proactively warn employees of impending danger like inclement weather, fires, or security breaches. With one click, emergency messaging is deployed to all digital signage simultaneously, keeping employees safe no matter where they are physically located. Business owners set up different emergency messages designed for every dangerous scenario. Emergency messaging includes escape routes, rendezvous points, and steps to take to stay safe in the event of a natural disaster.
LEARN MORE about triggering emergency alerts on digital signage.
Work Calendars and Schedules
Keeping track of meetings, deadlines, birthdays, work anniversaries, and employee schedules is time consuming and overwhelming. Digital signage keeps everyone up to date through integrations with calendar software like Google Calendar, iCal, and Calendly.
Businesses can display multiple calendars simultaneously, or schedule calendars to appear at different times throughout the day.
Presentations are personalized for work anniversaries and birthdays to recognize employees and make them feel valued. Managers use digital signage for communicating deadlines and meeting times on calendars, and updates to meeting times happen automatically.
Impactful Employee Communications
Employers are making more impactful connections by using digital signage for employee communications. Digital signage extends beyond the physical office, keeping remote employees in the loop no matter where they are located. Business critical information is displayed reliably, and updates are easy to make. As remote work becomes more common, and the way we do work continues to evolve, modern tools like digital signage will continue to elevate communication.
Things have changed a lot in the classroom over the last two decades. Students have gone from hauling around backpacks full of heavy textbooks to reading off of tablets and laptops. The usage of this technology not only provides convenience today, but it prepares students for the utilization of future technologies. Following is over 10 ways to use digital signage for school districts.
Schools need a way to display pertinent information to students and faculty, and it needs to be secure, efficient, and reliable. Digital signage is the technologically advanced solution. Enterprise digital signage solutions provide schools the tools they need to display anything they deem valuable to students and faculty and the ability to remotely manage and communicate.
1. News and Announcements
Digital signage software makes it easy to keep school announcements up to date. It can be used to answer the all important question: what’s for lunch? In fact, with the use of excel spreadsheets or Google sheets, the lunch menu can be fed to the software, automating the process. Someone in the cafeteria simply needs to access a spreadsheet containing the lunch menu, and they can update the menu items for the week or schedule the month.
Students and staff can see the menu on the screen as soon as the content is pushed live. Schools don’t need to spend time announcing news and lunch over intercoms every morning anymore, making more time for learning. READ HOW Oak Lawn Community High School saves time everyday with Arreya Digital Signage.
Many schools have countless events throughout the year, football games, parent teacher conferences, and concerts just to name a few. It can be difficult to keep up with, especially if all the signs are paper or handmade. They often need to be thrown away or replaced after the date of the event has passed. Digital signage not only makes it convenient for events to be updated, but it also reduces waste.
2. Wayfinding and Orientation
Trying to make it to all the new classes on time can be stressful, especially if it’s a student’s first year in a new building. It’s easy to forget where all the classrooms are and when each class starts. Wayfinding can reduce some of this stress. Digital signage can come into play here to direct students to the right classroom from day one. It can also display when each class begins and ends. If the presentation is made public, students can access this information right from their phones or laptops.
Maps of the school can be displayed and updated in real time, so if you have new teachers, classes that need to be added, or renovations that are being done, you don’t need to create a new map altogether and throw out the original. This allows teachers to be more flexible and utilize classrooms that best serve the needs of each individual class, while simultaneously showing students where they need to be throughout the day.
3. Roll Call/Attendance
Trying to keep track of student attendance can be a difficult task, and it’s imperative that staff know where students are at all times. Digital signage can help by allowing students to interact when they come in or out of a class. They could be required to type their name, upload a file, or simply touch the screen to show that they are physically where they need to be.
4. Digital Assignments
The more technical and digital skills students can learn, the better. Some schools are already allowing students to create and upload presentations to their digital signs as assignments. Teachers are able to monitor the content they upload prior to pushing it live to their screens, so there’s no risk of inappropriate content being uploaded. Students get to see the work they did come to life on devices across the school, whether it’s artwork, something they wrote, or just a normal powerpoint presentation. CHECK OUT other ideas on how students can get involved with digital signage software.
5. Alerting Students and Faculty of Danger
While everyone is at school to learn and grow, safety is always the number one priority. In the event that there is ever a lockdown situation, or impending dangerous weather, digital displays have the ability to notify everyone instantaneously. The signs can display instructions to everyone on where to go and what to do, reducing panic, and giving people vital information they need to stay safe. Digital signs can be connected to softwares like ALERTUS , which allow staff members to push alerts to all signs with the tap of a button on a smartphone. A few seconds could make the difference in a dangerous situation. That’s why having a plan in place is so critical.
6. Cancellations or Delays
Every winter, schools in cold-weather states have to deal with snow, ice, and possibly frigid temperatures. Occasionally, the decision needs to be made on whether or not school should be delayed or if a snow day is in order. Administrators can use digital signage software to push out notifications if school or extra curricular activities are delayed, postponed, or canceled. As long as the content is public, anyone can access it from their own device to stay up to date, extending communication beyond students and faculty. CHECK OUT how Franklin Middle school uses Arreya Digital Signage. See how digital signage meets their challenge of engaging with stakeholders outside of their school building and motivating students.
7. Graduation Ceremonies
Graduation is a time for everyone to celebrate. The students’ hard work has paid off, and now it’s time to recognize them. Digital signage can be a great way to do this, not only because it looks great, but because it’s extremely easy to implement. It would work particularly well for a graduation ceremony, because a spreadsheet could be used to feed information about the graduates, similar to the lunch menu we mentioned above. In fact, once the format for the graduation presentation is set, a new spreadsheet could be uploaded each year, and the information on the signs would be updated automatically. This removes the need to print or create new signs each year, reducing waste, and saving time and money.
8. Display Educational Material
Teachers can utilize digital signage software in their classrooms by displaying content relevant to their courses. They can upload previous lectures, notes, videos, deadlines for projects, or the class syllabus. Teachers can even allow students to comment on course related topics, and everyone would be able to see what they wrote on the display.
9. Secure Displays
One of the biggest concerns that come to mind with digital signage in schools is hacking. The last thing parents and faculty want is something inappropriate being displayed on their screens. There are many options in terms of locking things down, but one of the best we have found is Google Chrome’s kiosk mode. Kiosk mode prevents students or anyone else from tampering with or changing the content that is being displayed. It won’t allow them to access the web browser, and it won’t allow them to change any text, images, or any other content that has been scheduled. CLICK HERE and Google explains kiosk mode and how to activate it. WATCH A VIDEO on setting up kiosk mode.
10. Social Media
Schools can use digital signage to display live feeds from their Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram accounts. This is just another way to engage with students and update them on what’s going on. Some schools will have Twitter accounts for each team or club they have, and they will post updates on scores or competitions throughout the year. Digital signs are an excellent way to display all of these social media accounts on one screen at the same time.
Total School District Integration
Digital signage software can play a vital role in keeping both students and faculty up to date and engaged. It’s also a great tool to communicate with stakeholders outside of school. It can be used to keep people safe by integrating alert software, and it can be used to recognize students and faculty for their achievements. Hopefully this post gives you some ideas on how digital signage software can benefit your school, not only saving time, money, and resources, but by enriching the learning experience as well.
