Aug
2010
Reaching remote workers
Many of the organisations we’re now working with have a major challenge reaching workers who simply do not sit an office all day. Whether it’s factory workers in Heavy Industrials, Lab workers at a Healthcare company or a remote salesforce in Financial Services.
We internal comms practitioners have had to recognise the challenge of communicating with a workforce that is composed of remote workers either as a minority or majority. At H&K we have delivered communications campaigns and change programmes in organisations where remote workers have been part of the mix, and have found successful ways to get around the issue. Below is a summary of key issues we’ve identified.
Key issues:
- Geography
- Language
- Lack of PC access
- “us and them” culture between HQ and remote workers
And so we learnt the following:
- The need to be consultative to help overcome resistance
- Need to build a strong network as well as identifying and getting buy-in from the right people (influencers and opinion formers)
- One size does not fit all
- Need to develop separate approaches and messages for distinct audiences
- Use what already works (i.e. in terms of channels)
And just to be helpful we would recommend the following options:
- Use of face-to-face (roadshows, townhalls, toolbox talks – for shift workers, etc)
- Highly impactful, visual comms well placed (e.g. posters near fax machines)
- Newsletters can work but only if they are distributed properly and involve local managers in contextualising the messages
- Messages in payslips and other perosnalised comms
- The use of audio channels where appropriate / available – e.g. recorded voicemail messages, company radio-station, webcasts, etc
I’d be happy to talk about our experiences at some of the companies we’ve worked with. You can email me on scott.mckenzie@hillandknowlton.com
