How To Measure Communication With a Remote Workforce

As the modern employee adopts more and more to a "work from home" habit, HR and Comms face new and unanticipated challenges. Where it was easy to physically get all parties involved in a room, give announcements, and drive learning, we are now running on a 100% digital attendance.

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Adapting to this change requires a new work methodology and approach by management. First of all, in adapting the «remote-first» mindset, one has to accept the fact that there should be no informational advantage in being physically present at the office. All available communication has to be accessible through digital channels in a natural way.

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Then when you’re all set up with your content, how can you measure if your content is performing as expected and double down on your winning formula?
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Here are our top tips on measuring communication with a remote workforce:

Look at channel analyticsBy using tools that can track what channels are most active, it gives you powerful insights on how to reach your audience. Channel use tends to shift both with regards to content types and the nature of the situation. When company comms use insights with the habits and formats preferred by the audience, it is one of the most potent actions top management can take.

Use updated data pointsAs of today, the most used tools to collect data from the content performance are sending out manual surveys. These mostly provide lagging data and can be biased by employee mood and situational context. Working with real-time data when iterating content is paramount to secure efficiency and high yield in content creation.

Be proactive in reaching outIf you see certain areas or groups that are lagging or becoming unresponsive in company comms, the best practice is to reach out as fast as possible. In a physical office environment, information can more easily flow across departments, and that naturally creates support and realignment across different branches.

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With a remote workforce, that is not the case, and it consequently requires a more proactive follow up to be efficient and address lagging or unresponsive players within the organization.