Lost and stalled communication can be a major productivity block in the workplace. As an HR department, you have to impart important and typically mundane information to the employees. You want to communicate in effective ways that get that important information into their hands without a hassle. Improve employee communications this year with text messaging integration for 2018.
Check out these 5 SMS tips on how to better your HR communication in 2018:
Improve Your Recruitment Process
Current employees aren’t the only ones who can benefit from the use of text messaging. This service can also be beneficial for the HR department’s role in recruiting potential candidates who want to apply for positions with the company. Jobseekers can leave their contact information and HR can contact them with a text when an appropriate opening is available. HR can also use SMS messaging to support the application and interview process by reminding jobseekers of application deadlines. This will help candidates stay up to date on the status of their applications, reminders of interview dates, and following up with them after their initial interview.
Engage Your Employees
Motivating employees to read HR documents and meet deadlines can be a hard task because professionals are busy and technical items always seem to get pushed off for a future date. You don’t want employees to miss out on company information or benefits, but you also don’t want to have to track down people who aren’t getting the memos.
Text messaging is fast and short by nature. You can increase the engagement of employees in 2018 by sending out quick reminders, important facts about HR topics and links for additional information on their benefits.
In regards to possible cons for using text messages, the organization has control over which numbers are inputted to receive text messages, through controlled opt-in process they could decide to only allow specific employees or mobile devices to be included on their text messages. Organizations are also using group chat text messages for specific departments. For example, a marketing team have their own group chat for the manager to give roles to each member while the team can also pitch and discuss strategy ideas. With text automation, managers can have their texts scheduled automatically so that each deadline is met. Managers can also send motivational texts as a bulk message to every member of the team.
Streamline Questions
Let employees use texting to find their own answers as well. When an employee texts a keyword in 2018, such as ”VACATION” or “ENROLLMENT”, you can set up an automated response to return the information instantly. You can even personalize information so that an employee sees exactly how many vacation days he or she has left on query. Questions about payday dates, holidays, emergency office closures and more can all be automated to give employees fast responses without bogging your HR team down. When a question is asked that the system doesn’t recognize, you can be notified and respond via text personally. Not only will this tool help encourage employees to ask their questions freely, it will also increase engagement with your department, so employees are more attentive to the information or notices you send out. You can boost employee training with text automation that sends out reminders, links to important training materials and even follows up with a survey to improve the process.
Gather Feedback from Employees
Part of great communication and high morale is in making sure everyone is being heard. Texting out a link to a mobile optimized survey is a great way to yield more responses from employees for 2018. You can give your employees an easy way to anonymously provide their thoughts on benefits, hiring practices, training department management and more. When employees feel they are being heard, they are more likely to feel a sense of personal investment and a stronger sense of loyalty to the company. Employees that feel needed and respected will value their jobs more.
Increase Open Rates
The vast majority of texts (98%) are reported to be opened by the recipient and most (90%) within just a few seconds. This far beats open rates for emails that many employees miss, skim or simply ignore. Text messages are short in nature, so employees are more likely to just read them when they see the notification. Because phones are almost always with your employees, they are likely to get these notifications in minutes. And, because texts aren’t an interruptive form of communication (like a phone call or meeting would be), your employees don’t have to stop what they are doing or find time in their schedule to get the information. Texting is convenient for everyone.
As you hire in new talent in 2018, you will find younger generations are even more prone to appreciate texting in the workplace. With the right mix of text automation and strategy, your communication with the office can increase your impact while decreasing your workload.
Add new comment