Happy employees equal happy customers, and happy customers are more profitable. In fact, a Gallup study found that engaged employees are more likely to improve customer relationships, with a resulting 20% increase in sales (source). So how do you keep your employees happy? A key facet is effective communication.
A 2016 study found that the most important driver of happiness at work is a sense of pride: pride in a job well done, in effective leadership, and most importantly, in having shared values. And communication is essential to ensuring that a company’s culture is inclusive and sustained.
While email was the default option, internal communication channels like Slack, which facilitates instant and group messaging between individuals and teams, are becoming increasingly popular.
This shows that internal communication has evolved since email was introduced.
A study found that managers who were spending around 100 hours per year on unimportant emails didn’t want their email access limited. They did, however, want policies put in place that would reduce the volume of emails sent to their inbox. (Source: Grossman Group)
In short, there are better ways to keep staff members informed and engaged than sending an email.
70% of employees think their organisation should use text messaging to communicate with employees (Source: OneReach)
This illustrates that employees want to be communicated through their mobile phone.
The challenge is preventing any of these new channels from becoming as over-used and abused as email – and the solution is to choose the channel based on the content of your message, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach to internal communication.
Below is a list of ways that businesses can use SMS to communicate with their staff members, along with an example message to show you how easy and simple it can be.
3 major ways to communicate with your employees using SMS
Reminders: As long as you don’t use SMS to remind staff members about everything, then this is a great way to remind them of important events, like quarterly meetings, or staff away days.
“We had a fantastic quarter and would love to share it all with you. Don’t miss our quarterly meeting in meeting room 54 at 9:30am today. There will be croissants, bagels and drinks to go around.”
Bulk important messages: If you need to inform all your employees of a road closure, or if the office is closed due to the snow, sending them a text message, that they are bound to read almost instantly, will get your important message across better than sending an email, which most people would only read once at the office.
“Important Update – Due to a small fire, you will not be able to park in the multi-storey car park next to our office. Please find alternative parking or if possible get public transport.”
Offsite updates: If you have employees who work offsite, then sending them a text message is a more reliable way to grab their attention than emailing them.
“Hi Steve, please check with your team if they are able to work until 8:00pm tonight. Please get back to us before 4:00pm. Overtime will be paid.”
Other ways to communicate with employees using SMS
Surveys: Want to see if your employees are happy? Send out a simple SMS survey; include a couple of questions about a specific subject or a more general survey on how the find the business as a whole. This can be targeted at different teams within the business.
Work scheduling: Allow people to text you to book time off or to request shifts. You could send a mass text at the end of every month to all employees and ask them to reply with the shifts they would like.
Something different: And why not try something completely out of the blue? Like sending all employees a ‘well done’ message if you have had an exceptional day or week. Little things like this can really boost morale.
We would suggest SMS for simple and short messages. SMS stands for Short Message Service for a reason. Keep it simple and under 160 characters, even internal messages don’t need to be long.
We have over 15 years’ experience in delivering effective business communication strategies, so please get in touch if you’d like any advice or ideas – or sign up for a free SMS trial to see how this could work for your organisation.
