Change Management in the Hybrid Work: How to Communicate Remotely

By
Amandine Fernandez
Head of Acquisition
Leading a company change is never easy, and it’s especially challenging when teams are working from home. How can you communicate about changes when your employees aren't in one place?

An unprecedented rise sustained over time. At the beginning of March 2020, almost overnight, companies shifted into a new world of remote work. With the prolongation of the health crisis and its many twists and turns, teleworking has become anchored in our professional habits. Almost two out of three employees in the banking/insurance and services sectors (62%) were still teleworking full or part-time at the end of 2020. On average, employees worked remotely 3.6 days per week!

This new situation, which is set to continue, creates many challenges for companies. How can teams remain cohesive and communication stay effective with remote employees? The problem grows more imminent when a company must also take on important projects or embark on a change management strategy while under these conditions. Normally, this process of change occurs in proximity, with a shared vision, training, and information... How can it be done effectively when associates aren't in the office? Fortunately, different communication channels adapted to change management can still be used remotely.

Centralize everything using an intranet

An intranet is often seen as an ideal way to centralize all of a company's information and give employees easy access to the information they need. The platform can host structural content and tools (payroll, schedule management, expense report management, administrative materials, etc.) and other more circumstantial tools: updates, news...and information related to change processes.

What's more, 64% of companies use an intranet to introduce work methods, and 56% to improve organizational agility and responsiveness. As far as change management is concerned, a (quality) intranet is proven to be a powerful tool… However, it's not enough to carry all the elements of change management on its own.

Employees expect relevant information, but won't necessarily have the reflex, knowledge, time, or desire to go find it on their own. And the best content in the world, the best information out there, won't have anyimpact if no one reads it.

So, what about a newsletter with important information? This can be useful for centralizing and periodically sharing information and new tools related to change management. However, there are also drawbacks, such as the risk of getting lost in already crowded mailboxes and a frequency that doesn't always correspond to employees' needs and availability.

What can be done? Spread the message, improve vertical communication, and respect the basics:

  1. High frequency of communication
  2. New and varied information
  3. Consistent tone across all communication
One channel fulfills all these criteria and many others: email signatures.

Email signaturesthe perfect tool for remote change

You can plan and execute a real internal communication campaign using email signatures. Identify in advance the topics to be discussed with employees affected by the changes, create adapted information, and then integrate it into a detailed communication calendar, being sure to include tangible results and milestone victories to celebrate.

Email signatures - marketing / communication banners - internal communications / change management

With an email signature that's automated and calibrated to support your projects, you can capitalize on the frequency of exchanges and regularly expose your team members to available content. These daily exchanges will help familiarize them with details of the changes requested, relevant content, and more. With this channel, communication is consistent, and employees always feel fully integrated into the company's processes—a crucial point when working far from colleagues.

Inform and discuss…in one click!

Discuss, communicate, and exchange easily. Face-to-face or at a distance, nothing beats direct discussion. For this reason, Letsignit's latest feature is particularly useful: you can now adda Teams button to your signature.

change management banner

Anyone who clicks on it will be able to get in touch with you and start a conversation or a Teams call with one click! Easy, fast, and direct, it's an option perfectly suited for asking a question, addressing a point of detail, asking for clarification, giving step-by-step guidance in the use of a new solution… and ideal for helping collaborators working remotely or in different cities and supporting them through the company's transformation.

An email signature is also perfectly readable on the move, on smartphones and other devices. Whether they’re fully remote, frequently on the move, or alternating between the office and home, all team members will have access to the same level of information. And everyone can embrace the change.

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Sources:
https://www.journaldunet.com/management/efficacite-personnelle/1149438-comment-faire-adherer-a-un-changement/
https://newsroom.malakoffhumanis.com/download-pdf/60216e3db3b8490764313cf3
https://boost.rs/blog/conduite-du-changement-en- entreprise-quelles-en-sont-les-cles/  

About the author
Amandine is the Head of Acquisition at Letsignit! Initially a content specialist, she now actively contributes to the profitability of acquisition channels: SEO, SEA, SMA, SMO... Amandine is also one of the pillars of Marketing at Letsignit! For more than 5 years, she has been participating in and initiating marketing projects and campaigns that systematically reflect her vision, writing style, and creativity (which can also be seen in all of her colorful outfits that brighten up the day of everyone she meets).
About Letsignit
With Letsignit email signature manager, connect with your audience in a way that's on-brand and personal, while driving quality lead generation.
Frequently
asked questions
1
Is it possible to track the number of clicks on email signatures?

Yes, with the 'Campaigns' offer, it is possible to track the number of clicks on the email signatures of all your employees in the 'Statistics' area of the platform.

You can then access a detailed or global view of the number of clicks on the email signatures of each employee. You can use the search option to target a specific signature or a given period. Finally, you have the possibility to export all statistics to an Excel document.

If you launch campaigns with banners inserted in your email signatures, you can also access their performance via this same space.

2
Can we add links to social networks, our website, and appointment-setting applications such as Calendly?

With Letsignit, you can easily add social network icons in your collaborators' email signatures and link to your company pages. Also, our "attributes" feature allows you to manage personalized URLs for each of your collaborators such as their individual LinkedIn profile.

And that's not all: you can add links to an appointment-setting application, allow your customers to leave reviews easily, and integrate our 'Chat on Teams' widget to let anyone start a discussion via Microsoft Teams chat.

3
Can employees update their signature information themselves (number, function, etc.)?

It’s up to you! As an administrator of the Letsignit platform, you choose whether or not to grant modification rights to your employees. These permissions are managed on an attribute-by-attribute basis, which means that you can decide to allow the employee to change their phone number, but not the address of your premises, for example.

This feature applies to all attributes in your directory, including custom attributes created on Letsignit. When your employees change one or more attributes, your directory is obviously not affected.

4
Why it is important to standardize our email signatures on a large scale to ensure our identity and brand image?

It often happens that employees make their email signature their own: custom format, bad fonts, colors inconsistent with the brand standards... all of this has an impact on your brand!

A consistent visual identity is considered authentic and outperforms a perceived weak one by 20%. And, your customers are 2.4 times more likely to buy your products.

With Letsignit, take back control over your brand identity by standardizing all your email signatures. Our tool has many features that allow you to customize your signatures by department, by audience or by subsidiary. Not to mention the possibility of carrying out campaigns within your email signatures thanks to our Campaign offer.

5
What is the user experience like for our employees?

What is the user experience like for our employees?

  • If you opt for the Letsignit Add-in for Outlook, they will have a dedicated space in their Outlook account where they will be able to view the signatures and campaigns assigned to them.
  • If you opt for the Letsignit Desktop APP, they will be able to preview all their signatures and campaigns in this space. If they want to change their default signature to another one when sending an email, this will be done in their signature library in Outlook.

In both cases:

  • They preview their signature before sending an email and choose from signatures assigned to them.
  • Based on the permissions granted, they will also be able to modify their personal information such as their name, position, or address in these spaces.

In short, they have autonomy in their email signature, but you keep control on the field, signatures, and banners they can edit or use.

6
Can my employees have multiple signatures available to them?

With our "multi-signature" feature, your employees can benefit from multiple email signatures. No technical manipulation is required. Thanks to our Add-in for Outlook or the desktop app, they can change their email signatures as they wish with just a few clicks.

Regarding the creation of email signatures, you can make several variations such as:

Everything has been thought of to go further in the personalization process based on the recipient of your emails.

7
Regarding “Green IT,” have you implemented measures to limit the digital footprint of email signatures?

If sending emails has an impact, non-optimized email signatures also have an impact. An unsuitable format or an image that is too heavy considerably increases the size of your signatures... and therefore, your emails.

As a responsible economic actor, we contribute to reducing our CO2 emissions and those of our customers in several ways:

  • Optimization of the weight of signatures and campaigns in emails.
  • Green features: lightening of signatures during response/transfer emails, possibility of not embedding images, implementation of lighter signatures for internal exchanges.
  • Integration of a 'Switch to Teams' widget to encourage your employees to continue their exchanges via chat, rather than email.

As we are increasingly involved in sustainability initiatives, our priority in 2023 is to develop even more green IT functionality.

8
Regarding “Green IT,” have you implemented measures to limit the digital footprint of email signatures?

If sending emails has an impact, non-optimized email signatures also have an impact. An unsuitable format or an image that is too heavy considerably increases the size of your signatures... and therefore, your emails.

As a responsible economic actor, we contribute to reducing our CO2 emissions and those of our customers in several ways:

  • Optimization of the weight of signatures and campaigns in emails.
  • Green features: lightening of signatures during response/transfer emails, possibility of not embedding images, implementation of lighter signatures for internal exchanges.
  • Integration of a 'Switch to Teams' widget to encourage your employees to continue their exchanges via chat, rather than email.

As we are increasingly involved in sustainability initiatives, our priority in 2023 is to develop even more green IT functionality.

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