8 reasons why emails are hindering your internal communications

1. Non-desk workers get left out  

A lot of non-desk workers (83% to be exact) don't even have a company email address, so every time you send out a communication they receive the message late or don't receive it all! It's definitely not a viable option if you are serious about reaching non-desk employees. Engage allows you to send direct notifications straight to your employee's own mobile devices.

2. You can't easily target your messages

Say you want to make employees in the North region aware of a severe weather warning which will affect their work. You either have to manually find contact emails for employees working in that particular area, which would be incredibly time consuming; or you would send the email to everyone, which would mean that all those who don't work in the North area receive irrelevant communications, which will heighten the chance of them not opening your emails in the future. Engage allows you to filter notifications by region, meaning you can send geo-targeted messages at the click of a button!

3. You can't see engagement

You can't get an exact figure for engagement on emails, this is a huge problem as it means you can't tailor your content to ensure it's as compelling for staff as it can possibly be. Engage has the ability to measure engagement, which means you can start sending communications out which your employees actually want to read!

4. They are out of date

Generation Z outnumbers millennials and are the next generation to enter the workforce. A Pew study found that even though 95% of teens have an active online presence just 6% of them send emails. It has also been predicted that by 2020 direct communication channels will replace email, as many businesses are moving away from them as their main form of messaging. People want instant communication for fast results and email just doesn't provide that.

5. They are overcrowded

If you don't keep on top of your emails they can become a sea of information (useful or not) that you only fish through when you need something. This means that as soon as a message enters someone's inbox it loses urgency and impact immediately. It makes it incredibly hard to get noticed and stand out, which can mean your communications are not read at all. It takes just 15 minutes to view push notifications, compared to an average of 6.5 hours to view an email (ZipStripe research 2017).

6. They are too text-heavy

Emails contain large amounts of text, generally, aren't snappy and require concentration to read. If your employees are in a rush or on the move, then it's unlikely they're going to give your message the attention it deserves. A 2015 study, conducted by Microsoft, also found that our attention spans are declining, in the year 2000 the average human had the attention span of 12 seconds and the average is now just 8 seconds. Sending notifications or direct messages on mobiles can significantly boost engagement levels.

7. They are put on 'hold'

Emails have made people get into a habit of opening the message and then putting them aside to read at a later date. This is bad news for internal communications, as it means your email loses impact and urgency from the time that you sent it. With our acknowledgement feature, you can see who has read what and prompt them to read or re-read in order to make sure that everyone is well-informed.

8. They are not very 'smart'

Emails are an age-old form of communication, so it is no surprise that they are not the most forward-thinking solution for internal communications. For staff news and information you need more features which will boost the visibility of your content and ensure that it is read. With so many workplace apps, you now have the opportunity to do more than just email. Engage has a feature which summarises all of your important news to make sure everyone is kept in the loop. A page of easy to read summaries will mean that no news will ever go unnoticed!

If you are having trouble getting staff to read your internal communications, get in touch to see how Engage can transform your engagement levels.

Want to unlock the performance of your frontline teams?

Ocasta Engage unlocks the performance of your frontline teams through comms, microlearning and knowledge. Customers include Next, Virgin Media O2, Burgertory and Tesco Mobile, who have achieved desirable results, including; 

• 98% engagement rates 

• 3.75x more recognition amongst their teams

• 94% of all comms being read.