How to visually communicate with employees and increase engagement

As the landscape of employee communications continues to develop, organizations continue to explore the most effective ways to reach their employees without interrupting their focus.

Since so many of us work in remote or hybrid teams, reaching all employees at once with relevant information takes time and effort. This is where visual communication comes in and employee communication software can be a big help. Companies that use visual communication sparingly miss opportunities to engage their employees more effectively.

What is visual communication?

Visual communication conveys information or ideas using visuals. It can include illustrations, animations, images, videos, infographics, diagrams, maps, and even GIFs and memes, depending on the purpose of the post and the target audience.

Thanks to social media platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and TikTok, creating, sharing and consuming visual content has never been easier. While textual information has its place, to explore specific topics in greater depth and depth, you can't get around visual communication - and why would you want to?

Attracting your audience's attention is essential in an overexcited, inattentive and competitive world. Pairing your message with visuals grabs attention and gets your message across quickly and clearly.

Perhaps it's time to consider using the benefits of this type of communication for your company's most important asset: your employees.

Source: netpresenter

What is Visual Employee Communication?

The mountains of data and information that everyone encounters every day have never been higher. Information overload surrounds almost every aspect of life.

At the same time, today's workforce is transforming to represent an increasing number of employees accustomed to visual information in their personal lives, and so they also expect it at work. This changing workforce requires rethinking your communication methods. Visual employee communication needs to be part of the solution to reaching your hybrid, busy workforce.

Undoubtedly, you update your staff on all kinds of news on a daily basis. Maybe you send (long) emails, publish articles and documents, or publish an employee newsletter. When you replace or combine textual information exchanges with visuals to convey your message, you put visual communication to work.

The logic behind visual employee communication

Visual assets are essential when you need to grab attention. Choosing and displaying visuals carefully helps you stand out. Various statistics on human beings confirm the superiority of visuals in attracting people's attention. But why do visuals win the competition for your attention while text doesn't?

Humans process visual content at high speed.

Part of the explanation is scientific. For starters, humans process visual content at a faster rate than the written word. The human brain processes an image in just 13 milliseconds, while it takes several hundred milliseconds to understand printed words. Visual communication informs without demanding too much attention.

Our visual processing is more evolved.

The human brain can handle multiple images in parallel. Text must be scanned one unit at a time. These units are then recognized and assembled into larger units such as words, word groups and sentences. Only then can the mind search for meaning.

Knowing this, you can visualize ideas or combine text with visuals to communicate with your team about concepts that are difficult to convey with words alone.

So what other benefits can visual communication bring to your business?