How to reduce corporate digital internal communication noise

Reducing corporate digital internal communication noise is extremely important. After all, the smaller the noise, the more precisely the company's message reaches employees. And with a clear message, every worker is aware of the company's goals and can do their job in a way that contributes to achieving the company's objectives. But what kind of noise are we talking about in digital internal communication, and what can we do about it? Find out if you read on!

Corporate internal communication noise

In a previous article we already presented the communication model, of which "noise" is also a part.  Noise is an external or internal factor that hinders the message from reaching its destination and being processed. Generally speaking, we distinguish seven groups of communication noise:

1. physical noise -  when there is drilling in the office building, for example, or colleagues talking loudly around us, that is, noise beyond our control

2. physiological noise - when we feel hungry, tired or ill - these are attention-reducing factors that arise from processes taking place in our body

3. psychological noise -  when our thoughts wander

4. cultural noise - we have different cultural backgrounds (language, religion, customs, interests, etc.) which can hinder successful communication

5. semantic noise - when we choose our words poorly or use more difficult words than the recipient is able to understand

6. technical noise - we can speak of this in the case of slow/choppy internet, a poor screen display, too many messages, etc. 

7. organisational noise - when the organisational structure and/or regulations make effective communication difficult

Obviously it is not in our power to manage all seven types of communication noise. Over the first three we essentially have almost no influence. However, there are effective methods for managing the last four types of corporate internal communication noise.

Make corporate internal communication more effective by reducing noise

1. Overcome cultural barriers

Cultural barriers cannot be overcome 100%, not even if every employee is of one nationality. However, the internal communication noise stemming from cultural differences can be reduced significantly with a little awareness and some guidance. Three important factors have to be watched to this end:

1. Remarks based on religion, politics, technology, etc. - that is, on individual knowledge and belief systems - must be avoided
2. Racial and ethnic remarks must be avoided (especially in the case of a multicultural, international company)

Every employee must be able to receive company messages in their own language, or at least in the language they speak best of those available (fortunately, with CHEQ this can already be made automatic)

2. Use words everyone knows

Overcoming semantic corporate internal communication noise is perhaps the easiest. Here it is quite simply about communicating with easy words whose meaning everyone knows. As far as possible, avoid internal company abbreviations and jargon too, since these are still unfamiliar to new colleagues and can therefore hinder understanding of the message.

3. Make it clear whom to ask for help and about what

In the form of an announcement, but also by clarifying the organisational chart, make it clear to employees which colleague they can ask for help with which topic. This not only shortens the time it takes to obtain information, but also avoids employees sending out their help-seeking messages to colleagues at random. That, after all, disrupts the workflow, and on top of that the correct information being sought can "get lost" among the reply messages sent by colleagues.

4. Provide the right technical environment

The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted that a modern company can only truly function well if it is able to communicate effectively with its employees under any circumstances. And for this, the right technical equipment is indispensable, in the office just as much as outside it. In other words, employees have to be given a device so that they can plug into the lifeblood of company communication from anywhere, at any time. 

By communication device we mean not only a laptop and/or mobile, but everything that serves to support corporate digital internal communication. This can even be a chatbot-based internal communication application, like CHEQ. Which employees can confidently use even on their own smartphone, since CHEQ and the employer do not have access to any personal data. On top of that, if the employee is a Viber user, they can use the application through that as well. This way there is no need for the worker to acquire new skills in order to be able to use the company's digital communication channel.

Digital internal communication also struggles with its own particular obstacles

We can receive several hundred messages a day and do not always have time to process everything within a tight deadline. As a result, we check our incoming messages selectively and often superficially. So it is by no means certain that we really learn in time about important company news that concerns us too. The company, however, as the sender of the messages, can increase the chances that the information reaches us recipients in full.

3 tips to make digital internal communication better

1. Short paragraphs instead of long running text

We are all busy, and we have neither the time, nor the energy, and often not even the desire, to read long texts in search of the part that concerns us. It is far more effective to send employees a short, to-the-point message of 2-4 sentences that they can process in half a minute.

2. Links instead of detailed descriptions

Instead of typing out, say, a 32-page training material and sending it to employees in a message, it is more effective to send a short announcement to those concerned. One in which we draw employees' attention to the most important information and tell them where they can read more about it.

In addition, we can also choose the solution of conveying the full information to employees continuously, drip by drip, in the form of a campaign. In this case too, care must be taken that the length of each message does not exceed 4 sentences. (Do not try to cram everything into 4 long, baroque compound sentences. Use short, simple expanded sentences to highlight the essentials. Then continue conveying the information in a subsequent announcement.)

3. Multimedia content instead of a dull text message

A huge advantage of digital internal communication is that it is possible to communicate in ways other than written form. We can make our communication more colourful by using:

• infographics
• images
• audio material
• video

Employees will surely be happy to consume this kind of easy-to-process news. According to a survey, 72% of people prefer to watch video content over reading a text, if they can choose between the two options. And according to another survey, employees who process information in video form remember the message 95% of the time. This is precisely why communicating with video content is strongly recommended. On top of that, you can do this very easily, since  you can share video with employees directly from your mobile through CHEQ. If you are interested in the details, then request our free demo!