Why ‘experiences’ trump channels every time
Author: Rozi Pearson, Head of Digital
We’ve never had more ways to communicate with employees, yet many organisations are still asking the same question: how do we help people feel genuinely connected to each other and to the business?
Increasingly, the answer isn’t another channel. It’s creating relevant experiences that bring people together.
In today’s hybrid world, colleagues are frequently connected digitally but are disconnected emotionally. Why do we believe this? We’re seeing more demand with our clients for internal in-person events. They’re making a bit of a comeback as one of the most powerful ways to build culture, create alignment and strengthen connections.
And there’s evidence to back this up.
“The key – and equally the challenge – is to make these valuable opportunities count because you’re taking people away from their work.”
Rozi Pearson, Head of Digital
For example, Cvent’s Internal Meetings Impact Report says that 78% of business leaders say face-to-face meetings are either “absolutely necessary” or “very important” to their organisation, while 95% believe impactful internal meetings drive culture, engagement and productivity.
But the key – and equally the challenge – is to make these valuable opportunities count because you’re taking people away from their work.
Here are three of our top tips to help communicators and HR teams to turn one-way events into memorable and effective in-person experiences:
1 Turn attendees into active participants
Let’s be honest. Too many internal events still follow the same formula: Leaders present. Employees listen. A few questions get squeezed in at the end. Information is shared, but engagement often feels like an afterthought.
Finding opportunities at your event to help people feel informed, involved and valued – not just invited – means that you create a better experience and better use of your people’s time.
Can you utilise personalised communications? Live polls and interactive Q&A’s and social and networking features transform your event resulting in active participants.
Nothing undermines an event faster than confusing communications, clunky technology or employees feeling like they don’t have a voice.
Consider a secure, branded space where everything employees need is in one place. Event information, agendas, updates, resources and interaction tools can all be easily accessible through a single platform.
Again this can be personalised and employees can receive relevant content tailored to their role, location or event experience, helping them feel recognised rather than treated as part of a generic audience.
3 Measuring what really matters
This is our bit of a ‘fairy dust’ moment. For internal communications teams, attendance numbers only tell part of the story. The real value lies in understanding what people thought, felt and did.
Did they engage? Which topics generated the most interest? What questions were people asking? How can the next event be even better?
Measurement is so often missed off internal events, missing the opportunity to review and reshape future events by using real data and insight.
These three challenges are the reason why we developed our JuICe events app – a powerful engine for internal events that can be used multiple times for multiple events in your organisation.
From town halls, leadership conferences, awards events, departmental workshops, JuICE brings personalisation, a seamless experience for both attendees and for organisers, interactivity for better engagement and rich data to give communicators a much clearer picture of employee sentiment and understanding.
Instead of treating events as standalone moments, organisations can use every interaction to strengthen communications, improve future events and better understand their people.
Want a quick chat about how JuICe could elevate your internal events into better experiences? Contact hello@sequelgroup.co.uk
Anastasia Sichkarenko
