How Can I Reach an Employee Without Email?

28 Mar 2023

Robert Cain

Employee Relations Specialist

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In certain industries, many workers don’t have regular access to email throughout their workday—or at all. This is especially true of people working in blue-collar jobs. In a lot of these situations, employees might not have a company email address at all, and might not have reliable internet access during their shifts if they do.

But communicating with non-desk staff is just as important as reaching anyone else in the workplace, so what’s the best way to contact them? SMS text messages are a great solution, since employees can easily open texts from their regular mobile phones if they’re in the field. With a modern text messaging platform like Yourco, HR and managers can get the benefits of email with the convenience of texts. Features like scheduling texts to employees and automatic saving of all messages for company records make texts an even better option.

Keep reading to learn more about the different options for non-email communication in the workplace, including internal communications best practices to make sure everyone stays in the loop.

What Are 5 Methods of Communication in the Workplace?

There are a wide variety of ways to communicate with staff at work, each working best in different circumstances. Let’s take a closer look at five of the most common ways and the situations where they are best suited.

Face-to-Face

Talking to workers in the same space is a great way to communicate clearly, develop relationships, and convey tone well. But it only works with staff and managers who are in the same physical space at the same time, so it can’t be used after hours or across locations.

Phone Call

Picking up the phone and speaking directly to another staff member can also work well to communicate necessary work information. Unfortunately, it’s time-consuming to call each person individually and staff may not be available to pick up their phone the moment a call comes in. Phone calls also don’t give the option to look back and quickly review information.

Email

Sending an email might be the best way to communicate with employees online if everyone is sitting at a computer for most of their work day. But if staff is mostly in the field or on the floor—possibly without internet access, data plans, or a smartphone—it’s not the right way to be in touch.

Group Text Messages

Text messages work well for spotty internet or staff without company email addresses, and sending them out to a group saves time compared to one-on-one communication. But getting everyone’s replies to group messages runs the risk of having everything ignored when too many notifications flood an employee’s phone. It can also raise privacy concerns if everyone on a job can see each other’s personal cell phone number.

Text Messaging Platform

If you’re wondering how to reach an employee who doesn’t have email in the most efficient way possible, a text messaging platform is the best solution. A platform like Yourco lets you send texts that show up just like a normal text on employee phones, without them needing to download or install anything. Plus, it allows managers and supervisors to send private individual messages to groups of staff with just a few clicks.

How to Improve Communication Between Managers and Employees

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A lack of communication between managers and employees means businesses don’t run as well as they could. In worst case scenarios, staff may miss important safety announcements and end up working in unsafe conditions. Because clear communication is such an important part of business success, we’ve put together some quick tips to answer the question “How can a manager communicate effectively with employees?”

Be Accessible – Use a way of communicating that all your employees can access during their workday. If not everyone has a computer or smartphone, internet access or data plans, and time to open and read emails, consider texting instead.
Don’t Do Too Much – Don’t overload the communication channel so messages get lost in the crowd. Group chats can quickly become strings of hundreds of replies, making it likely that staff will tune out or turn off these notifications. An individual text means there’s only one thing to read and respond to.
Less is Best – Send clear, concise, and relevant messages. Make sure messages give all the information someone needs to take whatever action is needed. Avoid sending messages to people who have no need for it (like messaging all workers about a job site change that only half of them are working at).
Optimize Text Scheduling – Text at times of day when it makes the most sense for your workers. Use Yourco’s text scheduling tool to make sure messages reach staff when they need it—whether that’s when they’re on a break or on their next shift.

How Do You Get Employees to Read Internal Communications?

Text them with Yourco! Use our intuitive platform to send messages with ease that non-desk workers will get as regular texts. This efficient, two-way communication platform will improve internal communication in organizations and employee engagement, letting you share: