Welcome to the 2nd Annual Strategic Internal Communications For A Deskless & Hybrid Workforce! In this fast-paced forum, you'll get to know your fellow peers, their biggest internal communications challenges, and a few fun facts.

Learn about crafting internal communication strategies for a deskless and hybrid workforce while starting at square one. Facing the challenge of bridging communication gaps in a dispersed workforce, the speaker embarked on a journey of innovation, implementation, and evaluation.

Key Takeaways:

• Utilize custom platforms for deskless and hybrid workers
• Provide timely, localized content for employee engagement
• Create feedback loops for ongoing communication enhancements

Step into the world of digital tools and their impact on communication for hybrid and frontline field employees. Get an inside view of how a small but scrappy team of corporate communicators leverages new and old school internal comms channels to inform and connect employees across the organization, no matter where they work.

Key Takeaways:

• Using digital tools connects all employees in the field, in the office or wherever they can log in
• Leveraging content across channels to ensure you meet them where they are at
• Sometimes old school is really the answer – creating printed content to ensure field employees and technology-averse users feel included

In this session, learn more about how opening multiple communication pathways can help to build trust with deskless workers, with awareness that one-size communication definitely does not fit all.

Deskless workers are busy, so to connect with them we have to look at all angles, maximizing the things they see, the things they hear, the times they’re available, and the ways they prefer to connect. From fresh and eye-catching digital signage to good old fashioned face-to-face interactions, tailoring the connection points and showing you listen goes a long way.

Key Takeaways:

• Listening, learning and taking action brings us a step closer to building trust
• Experimentation can deliver the most effective feedback on what is engaging and what’s not
• People are interested in people: Highlighting deskless workers and celebrating their contributions goes a long way for engagement

This presentation delves into the strategies and tools aimed at optimizing communication channels for the deskless workforce. By exploring innovative approaches, including mobile applications, digital platforms, and targeted messaging systems, organizations can bridge the gap between deskbound and deskless employees, fostering greater collaboration, alignment, and productivity.

Key Takeaways:

• Discover mobile apps, digital platforms, and targeted messaging for deskless staff connectivity.
• Learn strategies for collaboration and alignment, enhancing productivity.
• Explore tools to ensure effective communication across diverse teams for business success.

Deskless workers represent the vast majority of today's global workforce, yet their communication and engagement needs are often overlooked by business leaders. This oversight is a major risk, given that these employees are vital to essential industries such as healthcare and manufacturing, where timely and effective communication is crucial.

What's more, many deskless workers lack regular access to traditional communication channels, presenting a unique challenge for organizations striving to keep them informed and engaged.

It's time to bridge this gap and ensure these critical workers are not left behind.

Join us as Ann Melinger, CEO of Brilliant Ink, delves into the importance of connecting with hard-to-reach employees and some key strategies for success. Discover how to craft a robust communication strategy that effectively engages and informs this vital segment of your workforce.

In this session, you will learn:

• The importance of reaching disconnected workers
• The risks associated with poor communication to hard-to-reach employees
• Practical strategies to overcome communication barriers

Delve into engaging conversations with industry experts as we uncover effective communication strategies tailored to the distinct dynamics of deskless and hybrid teams. Explore how aligned communication can foster unity, engagement, and productivity within diverse work environments.

Key Takeaways:

• Customize communication for deskless and hybrid teams' specific needs.
• Prioritize transparency, collaboration, and inclusivity.
• Apply shared insights to boost communication effectiveness and team success.

Together we will recapyesterday's top takeaways and set the stage for this final day of learning.

Let’s face it – internal communications teams are shrinking while demand for high quality (and highly targeted) communication is at an all-time high. Leveraging technology to reach employees where they are and how they prefer can feel Sisyphean – but it doesn’t have to be impossible. In this session we’ll discuss:

• Democratizing your intranet planning process to run a nimble communications hub created by employees, for employees
• Recruiting content partners to make managing your intranet manageable
• Embracing progress and letting go of perfection to build better communications solutions for your company’s employees

At Cable One, roughly a third of our workforce are deskless – largely, field technicians who spend their days on the road between customer homes or conducting both proactive and reactive maintenance on our network.

Our Internal Communications team is always working to identify better ways to reach these associates, and we have learned and made continuous adjustments based on both the successes and failures of our efforts.

Our efforts over the past three years have included: making it easier for associates to access our intranet from a mobile device; launching a podcast for associates who can listen on-the-go; launching a monthly leader email that is cascaded to frontline associates at monthly all-hands meetings; reducing the length of our videos; adding communications questions to the annual associate survey; and conducting focus groups.

These combined efforts have led to both an increase in views and engagement on our internal communications content. We continue to measure the results of these efforts, adapt, and seek out feedback.

Key Takeaways:

• Mobile intranet access for technicians on-the-go.
• Launched podcast for easy on-the-go listening.
• Monthly leader email cascaded to frontline via meetings.
• Conducted focus groups to gather feedback.

In today's interconnected and global workforce, remote work has become increasingly prevalent, transforming the way we communicate and collaborate. However, amidst the convenience and flexibility of remote work, challenges related to inclusivity in communication have emerged. This presentation explores the significance of diversity in remote work communications and offers strategies for fostering inclusivity and belonging in virtual environments.

Key Takeaways:

• Remote work is on the rise globally, reshaping communication dynamics.
• Inclusivity challenges have surfaced in remote work environments.
• Strategies for promoting diversity and belonging in virtual settings are crucial for effective communication

Hybrid workplace models are here to stay, and employee engagement is on every communicator’s mind. Hear practical recommendations for navigating communication challenges in a hybrid work culture and learn how Seattle Children’s Hospital adapts internal communication strategies to connect data to people and people to purpose and mission.

Key takeaways:

• Data and intuition: How both can be used to inform and verify content and channel strategy (especially when the world turns upside-down).
• Tools and tales: Real examples of how a content “Engagement Calculator,” reimagined leadership meetings/town halls and a people-first approach to storytelling are helping anchor a hybrid workplace communication strategy.

Let’s face it: most executives and corporate communications folks are not deskless workers. That means we better understand the deskless audience or risk having our communications fall flat, be ignored, or worse yet, anger this important group. Explore pitfall sand solutions with communications trainer, coach, and consultant Gary Ross. He will share some examples of well-intentioned communications back firing along with solutions for meaningfully engaging with deskless workers to improve their safety, productivity, and overall engagement.

Key Takeaways:

• What can happen when well-meaning comms go wrong in a deskless environment?
• Ways to analyze and segment an audience to understand what’s relevant to them.
• When to course-correct and how to do it!

Join our panel on "Discovering Fresh Content: Engaging Deskless and Hybrid Teams" to explore how you can innovate your content strategies. Discover personalized approaches to enhance your engagement and communication within distributed work settings.

Key Takeaways:

• Discover innovative content strategies for deskless and hybrid teams.
• Explore effective communication practices for distributed teams.
• Gain insights to boost engagement and connection through compelling content