Using Internal SMS for Employee Communication
Unread emails are more than just pesky, they're problematic. Ensure your employees receive and read all important correspondence with texting.
Unread emails are more than just pesky, they're problematic. Ensure your employees receive and read all important correspondence with texting.
Over the last few years, text messaging has become a popular tool for recruiters on the hunt for new talent. Your SMS efforts shouldn’t stop after the employee onboarding process begins. 70% of professionals believe that texting should be used for inter-office communication. It’s time to trade up your unanswered emails, Slack messages, and Gchats for the space where communication is always happening: your cellphone.
Learn how your business can leverage the power of text messaging to improve internal communications and engage with employees more efficiently.
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As much as we’d like to believe that everyone’s time at work is spent working, that’s unfortunately not the case. A survey conducted by staffing firm OfficeTeam found that employees spend about 56 minutes per day using their cellphones for personal business while at work. Instead of just ignoring this reality, smart managers can capitalize on this trend and turn the cellphone into a tool for communicating valuable, time-sensitive information to employees.
Once you have your emergency text alert system up and running, it’s important to make sure anyone who may need to use it is properly trained in how to send out an alert. Luckily, it’s extremely easy and only takes a minute.
53% of business leaders stated that a top priority was to improve internal communication channels within the upcoming year.
Yet, as more tools are developed to improve communication within organizations, leadership still struggles to implement change. That’s due in large part to things like:
Organizations are in need of a cost-effective solution that doesn’t require any extra training or downloads by employees. The solution is under the noses (and in the pockets) of nearly everyone. And many have already discovered it.
Of those surveyed in the same study from above, nearly three quarters (73%) of respondents stated increased usage of mobile devices would be a top priority.
We attribute that response to the fact that:
And even now, with fewer employees working from a traditional office space, texting serves as any easy way to keep everyone within an arms reach at all times.
See how businesses use SimpleTexting to communicate with their staff.
As some of our partners in human resources have taught us, text messaging with employees is possible, but has to be handled properly and legally. Luckily, with a platform like SimpleTexting, you avoid the issue of sending a text message with your personal, private device.
All your messages are logged and secured providing you with a permanent catalog of your correspondence. This is especially important if you have multiple team members sending messages (enabled by our multi-user access feature). But more importantly, texting your employees gives your messages the attention they deserve by keeping them out of spam folders, and into a location where there’s a 98% guarantee that they’ll be read.
In order to keep those numbers high, here are a few tips for texting with your employees:
As we previously mentioned, the best texts to send to employees are ones that contain relevant and/or time-sensitive information. But what does that look like? Here are a few use cases where sending an internal communication or alert via SMS might come in handy for employers.
Things like policy changes, employee benefits, or open enrollment deadlines are crucial communications. Missing out on these updates could get an employee in serious trouble. While the initial message may still be sent out via newsletter or email, following up via text is a great way to double down. This covers your bases given that emails currently sit at about a 20% read rate.
You can even create specific keywords that employees can text in to have FAQ’s addressed. This saves your HR team time and ensures your staff is always informed. Take it a step further and create templates that respond with relevant information to avoid typing the same thing over and over.
While we don’t like to think about the worst-case scenarios, it’s still important to be prepared. If there is a lockdown, evacuation, or any other urgent situation, reach your employees instantly with an emergency text alert.
Creating a positive company culture is part of fostering a healthy and productive workplace. Ensuring your staff feels valued and appreciated results in more productivity. One study even found that happy employees are up to 20% more productive than unhappy employees!
For a simple and cost-effective way to boost office morale, turn to texting. Send out “kudos” and acknowledge a job well done to staff through text.
Sometimes you find yourself needing feedback or approval from several people before making a decision. That can result in messy email threads and unclear results. Instead, send out a simple Text to Vote Survey and collect data in a much more organized way. Additionally, increase engagement in your surveys by giving employees an easy and convenient way to participate.
Do you have hourly employees or shift workers? If so you know the damage missed shifts or short staffed events can cause. Keep everyone organized by using texting as a system for work schedules.
Sometimes the day can slip away from us. Don’t let a meeting or phone call go unattended. Instead, send out quick reminders that can be viewed on the spot. For jobs where regular training or certifications are involved, set up automatic reminders to ensure nobody falls behind the curve.
Work life in the 21st century doesn’t always look like your traditional office job. With some people traveling and others working from home, there’s still a need to keep your team in the loop. Texting is a great way to check in with these road warriors and ensure your dispersed workforce is on task with status updates.
Timesheets, invoices, and expense reports can start to pile up for any payroll specialist. Help things stay organized by sending and receiving invoices via SMS. You can also automate reminders for employees to approve timesheets and submit overtime requests.
With a text messaging service like ours, you get more than just the ability to send and receive messages.
A host of other tools and features are available to every account, no matter what you pay per month. Here are a few we think might come in hand for internal communication purposes:
Keep your employees organized by department, team, or any other helpful grouping. Send messages to one employee, a whole team, or the entire organization thanks to segments.
Include a name in your messages to create an added courtesy that makes employees feel like noticed individuals. Custom fields in messages can be created to include department names, emails, birthdays, and more.
When you use SimpleTexting’s built-in URL shortener, you have the ability to track click behavior. Find out who clicked (and who didn’t) and even take action based in that information. For example, if you sent a link with HR training materials, you can automate a follow-up message to those who didn’t click reminding them to take a look.
In addition to links, you can include rich media and PDFs directly in your texts.
Never forget to follow up to a message. You can hide conversations for a set period of time, and when the snooze period ends (or when someone replies) it will now appear at the top of your Inbox.
Create an unlimited number of unique keywords for your businesses that, when texted in, will add subscribers to a new list. Keywords can be used for events, special updates, and more.
Find out exactly what your employees think and feel with a simple poll. To vote, all they have to do is reply to your message. It’s both effective and time-efficient.
As important as it is to focus on external communication with customers, a system without strong internal communications is more of a (dis)organization. Sharing information with your employees via texting shows that creating an internal communications system doesn’t have to be difficult.
If you’d like to give text messaging a try, dive in with our 14-day free trial. Our SMS experts are available seven days a week to answer any questions you may have!
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