Customer Experience

Digital communication for employees should not be overlooked

It’s hard to believe a month has flown by since I started as editor of Digital Signage Today. I’ve learned so much already about this fascinating industry and I’m just getting warmed up.

Hughes Network Systems offers Breakroom TV, delivering quick, reliable information to keep employees engaged at work. Provided

July 20, 2021 by Kevin Damask — Editor, Digital Signage Today

It's hard to believe a month has flown by since I started as editor of Digital Signage Today. I've learned so much already about this fascinating industry, and I'm just getting warmed up.

Promotional digital signage, such as DOOH advertising, consumes a large segment of our news coverage. I don't see that changing any time soon. Digital signage has also become a valuable tool in education. Whether its universities, as I wrote about recently, or elementary schools, educators and administrators are constantly looking for new ways to engage students, especially in an age when holding their attention seems more difficult than ever.

But, there's one area that gets overlooked yet is so vital to hundreds of millions of workers everyday — digital communication for employees. That's where Mike Tippets comes in.

Tippets

Tippets works as VP in the enterprise division of Hughes Network Systems. Last week, during a meet-and-greet via Zoom, Tippets talked about where Hughes has been and where the company is heading. Tippets said Hughes, based in Germantown, Maryland, has sold digital signage products since 2004, but it wasn't until 2012 when the company introduced HughesON Breakroom TV, marketed exclusively to employers.

"At the time, large retailers like Kohl's and JC Penney, they locked into this idea of having a TV monitor in the breakroom," Tippets said. "That was in an era when they realized they need to start thinking about their employees."

Cabela's, a large retailer supplying outdoor gear and apparel, was one of the first stores to use Breakroom TV, Tippets said.

"Fast forward to today and a lot of employers have realized, 'Hey, we got to have front-of-house signage. We have to look modern,'" Tippets said.

Tippets knows digital signage is all about engagement. For employees, he's pinpointed three main topics at the crux of engagement: communication, recognition and growth.

Breakroom TV allows employees to get information needed to stay on top of guidelines, meetings, company news, announcements and other vital topics. The recognition aspect, which can be designed to broadcast in a particular store, regionally or nationally, focuses on highlighting employee achievements. For growth, Tippets said users can program a message to go out to either a wide net or stores or just specific locations.

"With the TV display, you can bring up a table of content and tell the home office, stores one, two and three want content items marked seven, eight and nine and it goes specifically to them," he said. "Consistency is key. Now, store managers can bring employees together as a group, push a button, we can all watch it together and get the exact same message."

In the early days of digital signage communication, purchasing and installation costs were employers' largest hurdle, Tippets said. These days, employers are more concerned with deployment and operations. With more employees returning to the workforce as the pandemic slows, quick, reliable communication is important.

"Now, it's a complete turnkey operation," Tippets said. "We have installers, we have field maintenance, we can operate the system if you choose… But what we're seeing is there's a transition happening where different customers want to move that needle back and forth, sell me the license to that technology and I'll run it and do everything myself."

In the future, Hughes Network Systems' goal is to keep simplifying its line of smart TVs. The company also wants to continue integrating its technology with kiosks, especially wayfinding displays. Tippets sees digital signage technology putting more control in the hands of its users. For someone still learning the nitty gritty of this amazing technology, I like that idea.

About Kevin Damask

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