Desktop Notification: New Way to Communicate with Employees in 2024

If you’re looking for new and innovative ways to communicate with your employees in 2024, consider introducing desktop notifications to your internal communications tools. By introducing new and creative ideas, you can keep your internal communications dynamic, relevant and effective, engaging employees and ensuring that your important messages are received.

Table of contents

What are desktop notifications?

Why desktop alerts are an essential part of your internal communications toolkit

DeskAlerts desktop notifications

How to use desktop alerts in your internal communications

How to send desktop notifications with DeskAlerts

What are desktop notifications?

Desktop notifications – sometimes also called desktop push notifications - are messages that appear on employees’ computer screens, often in the form of a pop-up box, to provide them with important updates or information relating to their work.

Various software programs contain desktop notifications as a useful feature to alert users of important events or updates without interrupting their workflow. These notifications can take the form of pop-up windows, scrolling tickers, sound alerts, or even icon badges on the taskbar or dock.

Specially designed internal communications software systems such as DeskAlerts also deliver desktop notifications to employees as a communications channel.

Why desktop alerts are an essential part of your internal communications toolkit

Desktop push notifications are a great way to stay informed and on top of important updates and messages in the workplace. They can be used for a variety of purposes, from sending reminders about upcoming meetings and deadlines, to sharing important news and updates with your team.

One of the key benefits of using desktop notifications for internal communication is the ability to reach your team members quickly and easily. Unlike traditional forms of communication, such as email, chat, town halls and intranets, desktop notifications appear directly on a user's screen, making them hard to miss. Users stay informed about important events without having to constantly check in on individual applications. This can be especially helpful in fast-paced work environments where time is of the essence.

Desktop alerts have several advantages over other communication channels, including:

• Immediate delivery: Desktop alerts are delivered instantly to the user's computer, making them ideal for delivering time-sensitive information or emergency notifications.
• High visibility: PC notifications appear on the user's computer screen, making them hard to miss and ensuring that important messages are seen.
• Customizable: Desktop alerts can be customized to suit the company's specific needs and branding, including the appearance, frequency, and display of notifications.
• Targeted: Desktop alerts can be targeted to specific groups or departments, ensuring that relevant information is delivered to the right people.
• Trackable: The performance of desktop alerts can be tracked and analyzed, allowing organizations to measure the effectiveness of their internal communications.

DeskAlerts desktop notifications

DeskAlerts is an internal communications platform that includes a range of desktop notification tools to reach employees. These include:

1. Pop-up alerts

DeskAlerts pop-up alerts are desktop notifications that appear as boxes of text on employees’ computer screens and quickly grab their attention. They can display text, images, and multimedia content, and are used for delivering important messages, announcements, reminders, and updates. The pop-up alerts are fully customizable, with options to set display frequency, size, and position on the screen, as well as the ability to target specific groups or departments.

More on topic: How Pop Up Message Is Helping Communication Teams Reach Employees

2. Desktop tickers

The desktop ticker feature displays scrolling messages and alerts on employees' desktop screens. The ticker is customizable, allowing administrators to set its display frequency, text style, and background color. It is used for emergency notifications, news updates, reminders, and other company-wide communications.

3. Video alerts

Video pop-up alerts are a type of desk notification that display a video message in addition to text and images. They are designed to be eye-catching and convey important information in a more engaging and dynamic way. They can be used for a range of internal communications, including training videos, product demonstrations, and company updates. The video content can be streamed directly from a file or URL or embedded within the notification.

4. Surveys, polls and quizzes

DeskAlerts pop-up surveys, polls and quizzes are interactive questionnaires that appear as a desktop notification employees’ computer screens. They are designed to gather information and feedback from employees in a quick and convenient way. They can include multiple choice questions, open-ended questions, and rating scales. The responses are collected in real-time and can be analyzed to provide valuable insights into employee attitudes and opinions. Pop-up surveys are a useful tool for conducting employee engagement surveys, market research, and other types of internal surveys

How to use desktop alerts in your internal communications

There are many ways you can incorporate desktop alerts into your workplace communications. Here are some of the best uses for them:

• Emergency notifications: When there’s an emergency or critical situation, desktop alerts can be used to quickly inform employees and provide instructions on what to do.
• Company updates: Desktop alerts can be used to deliver company-wide updates, such as news about policy changes or new product launches.
• Meeting reminders: Remind employees about upcoming meetings, functions, deadlines, and important dates.
• Safety reminders: Deliver health and safety reminders, such as tips about safe work practices and emergency procedures.
• System downtime notifications: Inform employees about scheduled system downtime, such as maintenance updates or server upgrades. You can also let them know about unplanned outages.
• Cybersecurity reminders: It’s important to keep cybersecurity front-of-mind among your employees. Desktop alerts can remind them about various threats to be aware of as well as password and other security tips.

How to send desktop notifications with DeskAlerts

DeskAlerts can send employees desktop push notifications when the system is installed on their PCs. System administrators send content via a web interface. Administrators don’t have to be IT experts: you can have internal communications departments, HR team members or other authorized users are able to send push notifications from either Windows or Mac desktops. Simply follow these steps to send effective and targeted desktop notifications to your employees:

1. Log into the DeskAlerts administration panel: This is where you create and manage all your notifications and alerts.
2. Create a new notification: To create a new desktop notification, click on the "Create notification" button and choose the type of notification you want to send (e.g. pop-up alert, scrolling ticker, video pop-up).
3. Design the notification: Customize the appearance of the notification, including the text, images, and multimedia content. You can also set the display frequency, size, and position it will appear on employees’ screens.
4. Target and schedule the notification: Choose which groups of employees or departments you want to send the notification to and set the delivery date and time.
5. Preview and send: Preview the notification to make sure it looks the way you want, and then click the "Send" button to deliver it to the targeted employees.

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Desktop notifications can help you to communicate more efficiently and effectively with your employees to improve knowledge sharing and engagement in your workplace. If you’d like to see how our desktop notification software works, get in touch with our friendly team of experts today to arrange your free demo.

FAQs

What are desktop notifications?

Desktop notifications are pop-up messages that appear on an employee's computer screen to deliver information and alerts. They are used for internal communications and are delivered instantly, making them ideal for delivering time-sensitive information.

What happens when you enable desktop notifications?

When you enable the DeskAlerts desktop notification system, they will be sent to and received by your employees. These push notifications for PCs will appear as pop-up messages on employees' computer screens, delivering the information in real-time.

Is it safe to allow notifications?

In general, allowing desktop notifications are considered safe so long as they are being send by trusted source, such as the company’s DeskAlerts installation. However, it is important to be cautious about allowing desktop notifications from unknown or untrusted sources, as they could potentially contain malware or other harmful software.

What is a digital notification?

Digital notification are messages delivered to devices, such as computers, smartphones and tablets to alert the user to new or updated information. Digital notifications can come in many forms, including pop-up messages, email notifications, text messages, and app notifications and can be used to alert users to a wide range of information, including updates from social media, email messages, software updates, and news articles. Common digital notifications in many businesses include Teams, Outlook, Slack and Google desktop notifications.