Engaging those employees without online access is quite a challenge. But, says Rebecca Richmond, research & content director at training agency Melcrum, a little insight can go a long way

I’ve written a couple of columns recently about social media and leveraging technology for internal comms. But Melcrum’s members often also ask us about how to approach comms for nonwired teams – factory workers, airline or train crew, sales people or restaurant staff – those employees who are as crucial to our companies as any other workforce segment, but can’t access an intranet or blog any time of the day.

Having little access to a computer is often just one of the issues facing non-wired teams. Their working environment may mean there’s little time in their day for communication, or that they have little contact with their manager or colleagues. In light of that, finding ways to truly engage employees or facilitate genuine behavioral changes – whilst often challenging in an office environment - becomes even harder!

Through the Strategic Communication Research Forum, we’ve explored many different ways that organisations can make non-wired comms work but – if I was to give some basic guidelines to communicators in any industry or geography – I’d start with the list below. The key point here – we must know our audience! Only by understanding their working day, what they’re interested in and what would make their job easier, can we understand how best to connect with them in a way that ensures they don’t feel under-valued or out-ofthe- loop because they don’t have the luxury of 24-7 contact through online channels and social media.

It’s easy to say we don’t have time to do this basic groundwork. But time invested here will lead to approaches and tactics that can help you achieve your goals across all segments of the employee base.

1. Know your demographics. Is your audience predominantly male or female? What generation do they belong to? What languages do they speak? How long have they worked for the company? How much do they earn?

2. Understand how people spend their working day. What’s their work environment like? What hours do they work? Do they have downtime between customer calls, or might there be the odd opportunity to chat if a machine breaks down? When and where do people gather together for breaks? Do they go somewhere regularly to sign in or learn about new products?

3. Identify how people prefer to interact. Do you have a workforce full of tech-savvy people who spend their lives outside work skipping between YouTube and Facebook? Do they use mobile phones? Would they prefer a print magazine they can read in their breaks or while waiting for clients? Is the best you can hope for to put eye-catching posters next to the coffee machine?

4. Establish when and where you can communicate face-to-face. The hour-long monthly meeting that works in the rest of the company may be completely inappropriate here. Would huddles be better? Should you establish informal lunch gatherings where people bring their own lunch and discuss new messages or share best practice?

5. Understand what people are interested in. Are people ambitious and interested in knowing about the company and the competition? Or are they focused purely on anything relating to their job and their team – do they only come to work to earn a wage? Do they just want short, action-oriented bullet points? Or do they want to know the detail?

6. Learn who people trust. Do they see communication from the senior team as useful and honest or as corporate propaganda? Do they trust their line manager? Would peer-to-peer communication work more effectively, and if so, who are the influential people in the team?

Some of these elements may sounds simple, but it’s surprising how often we can lose sight of these fundamentals which – at the end of the day – would probably help us with wired teams too.