There are a lot of moving parts that go into working and operating a hotel. Not only is it the staff’s number one responsibility to ensure that customers are comfortable and that their needs are met during their stay, but it’s also important to install effective methods of internal communication between every employee–no matter what their position is.=
Many hotel managers are constantly trying to find new ways to improve internal communications between all staff members regardless of their position and what team they’re on. Digital signage is a useful tool to use to implement all around the hotel for both customers and especially staff to improve communication, plus encourage more employee engagement too.
If you’re interested in digital signage, but aren’t sure how it can help your hotel staff communicate more efficiently, here are some top practices to try out using this revolutionary form of technology!
How to Use Digital Signage in a Hotel to Increase Internal Communication
Increasing internal communication is crucial so all staff members are in the loop about changes throughout the shift!
Digital signage can help to increase internal communications for less confusion and keep all staff on the same page for work efficiency. Image courtesy of Cvent.
There are many unique ways to use digital signage to increase internal communications, boost employee engagement, and even productivity. It’s important to make sure all hotel staff are in the loop for sudden policy changes, customers that are checking in or out, upcoming training sessions, or even for work events.
Here are some of the top practices for increasing hotel internal communications using digital signage!
1. Keep Staff Up-to-Date on Company News
It’s important to keep hotel staff up-to-date on crucial updates and company news to avoid any confusion. Image courtesy of General Workforce.
Many hotel staff positions are deskless, meaning that people come into work and don’t have to log into a computer to check their emails. This can keep many staff out of the loop when it comes to company updates, policy changes, and even upcoming work-related events or training.
Ditch the cork or bulletin board and instead replace it with digital signage and place it in areas that staff frequent most. This could be break rooms, storage rooms, or even rooms that custodians and maintenance staff frequent. You can post reminders, save-the-dates for upcoming work events and training sessions to attend, or broadcast new policy changes and when they take effect.
2. Show Schedules
Digital signage can show staff schedules and daily tasks to complete to help increase efficient internal communication. Image courtesy of iStock.
For hotel staff, they don’t have to frequently check emails to see any updates in daily operations, last-second requests, or other company news. Many staff are sent their schedules through email or text, but showing them through digital signage can also be a great way for staff to see when they work and what their tasks are for the day.
By adding digital signage in breakrooms, or other rooms that staff frequent everyday, it can be a great place to display daily or weekly schedules. This helps staff to immediately see what days they work, ask questions, or talk to other employees about switching shifts if something doesn’t work out for them. This can help keep communication open with both hotel managers and staff, or even with coworkers to increase relationships in a simple, yet effective way.
It could also be a great way to give a breakdown of the to-do list for staff for that specific day, so they know what they’re responsible for completing in their eight-hour shift.
3. Onboarding and Updated Training
Digital signage can be a great way to engage both new hires and long-term staff with training that are required in their career.
No matter if you’re a hotel manager hiring new staff or your current employees need updated training, digital signage can be of great use for these reasons as well. Holding employee orientations to discuss the workings and in-and-outs of the hotel using immersive digital content can be the perfect way for new staff members to become more engaged.
It’s important for both new hires and long-term staff to stay on top of their training, so digital signage can be used to announce new training, the date and time they start, and how long they will last. Digital signage can use flashy and bright content that is eye-catching, and for deskless staff members, this is a great option to keep them up-to-date on important company information and things that are required of them.
Digital signage can also be used to personally welcome every participant in the training, display the schedule and breakdown the orientation for the session, reiterate company culture and values, plus use touchscreen interactive elements to make it more engaging and fun for employees.
4. Wayfinding and Breakdown of Room Schedules
Digital signage can help staff to efficiently navigate the hotel by showing a map of where each room is. Image courtesy of Samsung VXT.
Another way that digital signage can help with hotel internal communications is by being a source of wayfinding and room availability. There are many rooms in a hotel and digital signage can show a map of the rooms on each floor to determine availability and location–which is especially helpful for new hires.
When using digital signage to show room availability, it can be paired with a property management system (PMS) to give a breakdown of what rooms on each floor are ready to have guests checked into, rooms that need cleaned for housekeeping, or even show if conference or meeting rooms are available for guests to reserve time slots for.
Overall, this could help ease the workload on staff from miscommunications and by using a clear, detailed map to get new guests into rooms, and quickly show what the availability in the hotel is.
5. Streamline Daily Operations
Streamlining daily operations by using digital signage for hotel staff can help guide employees throughout their shift. Image courtesy of ROAR.
For many staff that first come into their shift and even for new hires, it is helpful to have a schedule ready for them as to what their daily tasks to complete are. Digital signage is a great technological tool to use that can help to guide employees to what is on their to-do list for the day, schedules for what guests are checking in or out, an activities list, and what time breakfast starts and ends.
For many hotels, breakfast buffets, small coffee shops, or cafeterias are also available for guests to grab a bite to each without leaving the premises. Using digital signage to post the menus, deals, or times for free breakfast in places where guests can see them is beneficial, and it can also help keep staff up to date with other areas of the building to improve internal communications.
Replacing paper schedules with digital signage can help to reduce paper costs while also being a multi-use tool to provide information to all staff–regardless of what department they’re in–on the daily operations in the building.
6. Can Have FOH and BOH Staff Communicate Effortlessly
Both FOH and BOH staff members can work together more fluently with the help of digital signage increasing internal communication. Image courtesy of LinkedIn.
Front of house (FOH) have the responsibility of working with guests, checking them in and out of their rooms, and ensuring that their needs are taken care of during their stay at the hotel. Back of house (BOH) staff can include everyone from those who work in the kitchen, housekeeping that clean and do the laundry, and those that support guests through the services that they provide. Both of these groups of staff work together to ensure that customers are taken care of, and it’s important for the two to communicate better.
Digital signage can help both FOH and BOH staff work together effortlessly by helping to provide better internal communications. These screens can be added in high-traffic areas that both sets of staff can see throughout their shift–such as the breakroom–where it can communicate areas of need, shift changes, safety protocols, and even highlight employees who have been going above and beyond and deserve some recognition.
7. Allow Staff to Provide Feedback
Digital signage can also be interactive and immersive, allowing staff to provide feedback and help make decisions within the hotel.
Something that is extremely important when it comes to job satisfaction is having staff provide feedback on the ins-and-outs of their job. No matter how positive or negative, it’s important for staff to provide their honest opinion of what could be improved and how. By doing something simple like letting your staff be honest and even fill out surveys anonymously, it can help to improve the hotel as a whole, how it is run, and how to make employees happier–and help to retain long-term staff in the process.
A great way that digital signage can help to improve internal communications in hotels is by letting staff use it to provide feedback, which could help to improve employee engagement. By hooking up a touchscreen digital signage screen in a breakroom or high-traffic area, it can allow staff to take a couple minutes to fill out surveys about job satisfaction, improvements to make in the hotel, or even something as simple as where to hold a company work event at.
How a Content Management System–Like Shift–Can Improve Hotel Internal Communications
Increasing employee engagement and internal communications is crucial and Shift can be what does the trick!
Shift is a CMS software application that can help to improve employee engagement and internal communications in many deskless job positions.
Digital signage is the first step into improving internal staff communication and employee engagement in the hotel industry (and many others too!), but how do you make the dynamic content behind what is displayed on the screen? A content management system (CMS) is a useful tool in providing managers with unique ways to engage more with their staff, boost productivity and sales, plus other benefits–and Shift is a top-rated option that can do just that.
What is Shift All About?
Choosing the right CMS software application to use in your hotel is crucial, and you’ll want one that helps to engage staff and increase job satisfaction, and in return boost productivity and sales even. Shift is a top-rated content management system whose main goal is to help managers develop deeper connections with their staff. By building relationships with your staff, it can help to do everything from further employee engagement using recognition and appreciation tactics, increase internal communications, and even be used to train and re-skill employees–plus more!
Shift allows managers, HR, or other departments to create diverse and immersive content that can be displayed using digital signage and rotated as the day goes on. If you have multiple screens, you can also direct which type of content is streamed from one to the other depending on if you need something that is directly geared toward customers coming into your place of business or even for staff in the breakroom. All of your content can be created, edited, modified, and uploaded in real-time using your mobile device, tablet, or computer to reflect these changes on each screen to boost employee engagement and communication.
Features Shift Offers to Increase Internal Communications
Shift can help to increase hotel internal communications between managers and staff, but it can also help in a number of other industries as well–especially those that are deskless, like restaurants, retail, healthcare, warehouses, transportation, and even logistics.
Some of their most prominent features that can help improve job satisfaction and help retain staff long-term include the following:
- Boost employee engagement through recognition and appreciation
- Celebrate staff birthdays, work anniversaries, and other achievements
- Show training videos
- Employee spotlights
- Interactive polls for staff to anonymously complete
- Expands internal communications
- Allows staff to retrain and re-skill in key trainings
- Helps leaders learn more about staff
- Encourages employees to do work harder
- Increases productivity
- Create diverse content using pictures, videos, or documents
- Use as a wayfinding and navigation system
- Broadcast company announcements, updated policies, etc.
- Use to post emergency alerts
- Streamline workflow and post frequent updates about each day’s tasks
Improve Hotel Internal Communication Using Shift and Digital Signage
Digital signage can be a lifesaver when it comes to improving communication, boosting engagement, and retaining staff long-term. Shift is a CMS software application that can help to boost staff engagement and communication using digital signage and adding them into staff breakrooms and other high-traffic areas can help both FOH and BOH employees in a hotel work together on a whole other level.
Consider adding Shift and digital signage to your hotel today and up your game with increased internal communication and employee engagement!
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