Has technology solved the remote working problem?

How we communicate with a remote workforce has come on leaps and bounds in the past few years. After a period marked by an explosion of digital channels, our State of the Sector 2023 report found that ‘adjusting channels to hybrid working dropped as a priority from 39% in 2022 to 19% of survey respondents in 2023. Our Digital Strategy Lead Drew Munn discusses the digital employee experience trends at work.

We’ve noticed a shift in focus from quantity to quality when it comes to internal communication channels. We’re spending more time looking at unlocking the value of our channels, as opposed to implementing new ones. But are we leveraging the true potential of digital tools?

Over a third of survey respondents say their channels don’t deliver what they need. Almost half aren’t investing as much as they’d like. The traditional bugbears are re-emerging as people choose and use tech — from stronger personalisation to improved interactions, if marketing has it, communicators want it. And now companies know how vital tech is, we’re finally in a place to start getting it.

We can make what we’ve got work harder for us. Just know you don’t have to go ‘full e-commerce’ for personalisation to work. It’s okay to begin with the basics.

Focus on understanding your existing channels, what they can do and how they can bring the most value. Segmentation will help. Make sure you know how each channel targets smaller groups so you can identify what’s not important. It could be as simple as ensuring people only hear what’s relevant to them. Or as complex as allowing them to choose how and where they hear it.

Gallagher is a global internal communication and employee experience agency.
From transforming workplace culture to championing the physical, emotional, career and financial wellbeing of employees, everything we do is linked to a strategic business objective — and designed to elevate every aspect of the employee experience.
Our communication consultants help clients communicate their strategy and vision; turn their leaders into engaging communicators; review their internal communication channels; maximise the perceived value of their rewards and benefits packages and accelerate business transformation.
We have offices in the UK, US, Canada and Australia, but we support organisations of all sizes on a global basis.