Information overload continues to be one of the biggest obstacles to reaching employees. One solution is to reduce the volume of communication, but deciding how to do so can be a challenge.
Your first step should be to take a walk in employees' shoes to observe how they are experiencing communication. Here's how:
| Observe | Ask | Streamline | ||
| Ask an employee to save all email for a few days. Then meet with the employee to take a close look at those messages. |
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If employees are overwhelmed by too many separate emails, consider consolidating information in a weekly e-newsletter that they can quickly scan. | ||
| Conduct intranet user testing: Sit with an employee while he or she surfs the site. |
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Simplify the home page, moving little-used information to sub pages. | ||
| Watch how employees pick up and interact with print publications. |
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If employees aren't reading certain content, change the content mix, or the way topics are covered. If employees are skimming, reduce the length of articles and make them more "chunky" by using sidebars, bullets and tables. | ||
