Technology
Goodwill powers COVID-19 employee engagement with digital signage
COVID-19 has made it very difficult for businesses to return to some form of normalcy, especially on the employee front. Goodwill Southern Rivers in Columbus, Georgia turned to digital signage to help make the transition.
October 13, 2020 by Bradley Cooper — Editor, ATM Marketplace & Food Truck Operator
COVID-19 has made it very difficult for businesses to return to some form of normalcy, especially on the employee front. Businesses have to communicate a variety of standards to employees such as mask wearing, cleanliness, social distancing and more. In addition, businesses need to implement regular temperature-scanning and the use of acrylic shields. Keeping up with all these standards can be a major challenge.
Goodwill Southern Rivers in Columbus, Georgia partnered with Industry Weapon Inc. and Intel Corp. to deploy digital signage to help train and inform employees on the latest rules and practices. It crafted a solution known as GoodwillTV to provide this information.
"We've seen significant growth in the digital signage market, primarily customer-facing, but using digital signage to better the employee experience can be just as beneficial to a company. Goodwill Southern Rivers is a great example of how digital signage can help retailers communicate effectively with their employees to create a more connected and efficient workplace," Jose Avalos, VP of IoT Group and general manager of vertical markets RBHE, Intel, said in an email. "Even more so during COVID-19, Goodwill is using digital signs with video content to keep employees informed of company communications. The digital signs run on an IndustryWeapon solution powered by Intel NUCs and Intel Core processors, which allow the signs to update instantly and remotely to ensure the content stays fresh and interesting."
Digital Signage Today spoke with Julie Bennet, director of marketing and communications at Goodwill Southern Rivers to learn more about this deployment.
Q. What were some of the challenges of reopening during COVID?
A. The primary challenge of reopening during COVID was the fact that our retail team members don't have company email. All of our stores were closed for six weeks, and we were reopening with dramatically different operating procedures than before the virus, and we needed to train our employees regarding the new processes which included limited occupancy, social distancing in the stores, temperature scanning prior to entry, enhanced sanitation and disinfecting processes, plexi shields at the register just to name a few.
Q. Why did you decide to use digital signage to aid in reopening?
A. Because our in-store team members don't have company email, digital signage is the primary way we communicate with them from the corporate office. Our retail employee base is very diverse including people who didn't graduate high school and those with developmental disabilities, all the way to those with doctorates in our training centers. Digital signage provides the absolute best way to communicate across a large geographic footprint and to an audience with such a wide range of learning aptitudes. We air tons of video. In fact, we trained our retail associates regarding the enhanced sanitation protocols via GoodwillTV, shared welcome back videos and encouraging video content throughout the pandemic.
Q.Have you used digital signage in the past?
A. Yes. I first used digital signage when I was in banking. We installed the signage in branches and used it to cross-sell products in the branch and minimize the perception of wait times for customers. When I started working with Goodwill and learned about the difficulties the organization faced regarding employee communications, I immediately thought of how the technology was used in banks. So, we installed screens in every team member breakroom and we use it to share all types of important information, including 'state-of-the-union' addresses from the CEO to benefits information to health and wellness updates, location spotlights, team member success stories, etc. I often refer to GoodwillTV as the digital version the company newsletter.
Q.How effective was the signage at communicating store policies and communicating with staff?
A. It's been highly effective and the team members love it! My team and I are now producing hour-long content pushes twice a week because the demand for more content was so strong. We learned that our in-store staffers love seeing themselves on TV!
Q. Do you use any customer-facing displays?
A. We are testing customer-facing displays in one location for now, however, it's used very differently than the digital signage for employees. We conducted customer surveys and focus groups in 2011, and customers shared they enjoy the music we play in our stores while they shop. So, the in-store screens don't have audio. Instead, we communicate with compelling and colorful graphic animations and design to convey important messages to shoppers including the color of the week, free training and job placement services that are available in our career centers and other important information regarding the Goodwill mission of changing lives through the power of work.
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