Whether it comes up in conversation, in an email, or as part of a formal document, status updates are all around us. They’re the most fundamental means of letting others know what you’re up to and how it’s going.

As a status update is such an intrinsic part of collaborative working, it’s vital that one quickly finds a way to deliver them. Someone who has been doing them their entire career may not have consciously considered changing (and improving) their methods, which is strange but entirely human.

Effective communication is an immensely important success factor. Poorly delivered updates will weaken team productivity, so finding the best practices for communicating project movements should be top priority.

How Friday for Teams works

A status update is a communication tool, either written or verbal, which one uses to describe the current progress of a project, or tasks therein. A core team lead responsibility is to give such updates to investors or execs, whilst individual team members are expected to communicate the status of their own tasks to a project head.

A status update could take form as a simple email, or a daily task report, where team members inform others of work done. Alternatively, it might manifest as a more formal status report, an extensive summary of completed work against the project plan.

Team members gathering to discuss their progress is also considered a status update, or status update meeting. 

This could be your daily standup or the weekly team meeting. Regardless of how a status update is delivered, the purpose remains the same. They’re there to report progress, assess productivity and determine how best to move forward.

When updating on the status of work, it’s important to know your audience. In most instances, it’s preferred to lead with the specifics. If you’re updating your boss, they will want to be made aware of pretty much everything, just as project leads will expect their team to be detailed. Conversely, a status report given to shareholders should be concise, with but a few key points.

Weekly Check-Ins: how to get started

Despite the importance of consistent status updates, the fact they are the key difference between staying on track and falling behind, many still struggle to use them effectively. They’re undeniably mundane when team members are ill-prepared, don’t contribute or just lack focus.

In order to get closer to the bountiful benefits of effective status updates, there’s a few things to consider.

A status update isn't an opportunity for chit-chat, but a powerful communication tool for aligning team members with project goals. As the name suggests, you’re there to report on the status of your work. To that effect, your meetings should be dealing with:

Initial Review: The team should firstly deal with existing action items, specific tasks with assignees and deadlines. Determining this progress is needed to set future targets. At the same time, an initial review stage should include issues that have hindered productivity, as well as prospective risks. For those experiencing significant difficulties, debriefing can occur outside the status meeting.

Project Summary: Once work updates have been given, it’s time to assess project parameters, which includes scope, schedule, budget and quality. In light of any setbacks, the team can make the relevant changes for meeting project goals. This is also the natural point to evaluate anticipated issues, which could pertain to environment, third parties, resources and client expectations.

Next Steps: Once everyone has a clear picture of how things are going, against the project plan and/or team lead expectations, the discussion should shift towards the future. New action items should be assigned. Those accountable should be clear on their new tasks and the impact their completion has on project health. Some words of encouragement wouldn’t go amiss.

While preferred meeting structures may vary between teams, it should be easy to spot these crucial elements. You can simplify the process by asking more comprehendible questions, like 

Say your project manager comes to you for an update. You’re both already aware of what you’re tasked with, so you naturally blurt out “Ah yes, I’m working on that!” The inexperienced manager nods their head contently and walks away, even though nothing has actually been said. If that manager then goes to the board with similar vagueness, he’ll surely have his head bitten off.

Effective status updates demand clarity, specific information that is valuable and informs others. Just as a high level of detail is a core principle of goal-setting, so too is it essential for status updates. Breaking your tasks into smaller stages will make it easier to convey to others how far along you are.

Leaders that demand specifics keep team members more focused and can build more effective status meeting agendas. Painting a clearer picture will engage the entire team, so rather than saying “X is going well,” one can say “X is in the penultimate stage, waiting on Y, expected to be completed by...” If one tasks must proceed another, knowing the exact status allows members to prioritize, reallocating their efforts as needed.  

Status updates are an obligation, sure, but they’re also a brilliant opportunity to engage others, to motivate them and enhance your collective output. Sharing success incites healthy competition, whilst being open about failure builds stronger team spirit. Be genuinely excited to share your progress and sincerely empathetic when others aren’t having a great week.

Resist the urge to hide issues you’ve encountered, for fear of being ridiculed or reprimanded. 

In the words of author C. S. Lewis, “One fails forward towards success,” which is to say that we shouldn’t be ashamed of missing the mark. A great team lead recognizes the hidden value of blunders, ensuring that the many always learn from the mistakes of the few.

For people to be prepared to expose their failures, however, the entire team must work to maintain a supportive environment. Make the weekly status update meeting a safe space to speak honestly and you’ll be able to catch problems earlier, whilst cultivating a healthier working atmosphere.

On the other side, status updates are the perfect place to appreciate the work of your peers. Team recognition is immensely valuable for motivation and morale, as research suggests. While many teams can use asynchronous work comms to give praise (Kudos!), saying it in person is a great way to celebrate success, making status updates far more impactful.

When you have a large group of people, all working on different jobs, it’s impossible to mentally keep track. Status updates can be made more engaging by using visual elements, such as a work management software that uses centralized task boards and project timelines.

Task-lists are good, but you’d have difficulty arguing they’re stimulating. Visual aids allow team members to simultaneously see the progress of various work. You can use a tried and tested example like a Gantt chart, or devise something on your own. Having such tools is especially useful for remote teams, where it may be more challenging to schedule regular meetings.

There’s also more interactive options, such as Kanban cards. To set it up, you’ll need a board (project) divided into columns (stages), with accompanying cards (action items); alternatively, you can use a digital one. As tasks are partially completed, they move their way from left to right. Kanban doesn’t suit all teams, though it can have a brilliant influence on those who respect a visual, dynamic system.

Using Friday For The Best Team Status Updates

Having a full status update every day is a waste of the team’s time, many organizations have their employees fill out daily reports, or check in with their manager. 

With Friday, you automate the process, and easily curate daily updates for use in weekly status meetings.

See how Friday simplifies the automated check-in process for your team.

Introducing: The all-new Routine Builder

Share written updates outside of a meeting, so you can have fewer, better meetings.

Centralize your goals in one place. Visualize progress and see if you will hit key milestones on time.

Send kudos, answer icebreaker questions, and get to know your team from anywhere.

Deeply integrate with the project management tools you already use, and copy over your tasks to a daily planner. Use this to send your update.

Set up a regular team check-in with Friday, customize your own questions or use one of our templates. 

You’ll drastically reduce your time spent in meetings while still consistently aware of what’s happening. 

Start your team and company on Friday for free.

There’s a few good reasons why we dread team status meetings. They either take too long, end up being irrelevant, or demand far too much preparation. If the session lasts an hour, a team of 8 will be committing 32 hours in a single month, not to mention the extra time taken to create material or otherwise plan.

Having the right mind-set is paramount, where the value and efficiency of the status update process surpasses all else. Disappointingly, few project leads follow the simple principles to keep team updates brief, yet productive.

Weekly updates should be basic, but not boring. They are an activity that the team looks forward to, ideally. It’s an opportunity to connect with one another and strive towards common project goals. Ultimately, status updates complement the work, so they shouldn’t feel like too much work themselves.

When a team finds the optimal means of communicating with another, productivity soars! When done right, team status updates create transparency through a project, which in turn helps foster mutual trust and team morale. They create cumulative knowledge that ultimately leads to a smooth, successful project.

How do you keep track of your team without so many meetings and one-on-ones? See how to make them more effective (and how Friday helps).

Team Status Updates: The Best Way To Communicate

The Best Way to Deliver Team Status Updates

Traditional communication methods within a company are confusing and time-consuming in the digital era. Information can get lost easily with all the forms of communication. Using bulletin boards saves time, increases productivity, teaches new information, and enhances employee morale. 

So, companies are looking for ways to relay information that save time, money and reach all people. One way to do this is through digital bulletin boards.

This article will discuss different types of company bulletin boards. You will also see the benefits of bulletin boards, what you can put on one, and how to create a virtual bulletin board.

What Are the Different Types of Company Bulletin Boards? 

There are three types of company bulletin boards that display information differently. They include online, digital or virtual, and physical boards.

An online bulletin board is a platform where participants converse or answer questions posted by a moderator. 

People receive incentives depending on their participation in the forum, like answering questions the moderator provides. 

The moderator evokes feedback on specific narrative and visual stimuli like advertisements and websites. 

Then people log in and post their responses to the moderator or other people several times a day to answer the question.

A virtual or digital bulletin board is a monitor or TV screen that features company announcements. 

Digital bulletin boards allow flexibility since you can post engaging videos that capture attention. Aside from company announcements, you can post weather updates, traffic maps, news, and other social media feeds. 

A digital bulletin board is easy to operate since you can update the information from any computer and pre-schedule announcements on specific times or days.

How Friday Can Be Your Digital Bulletin Board and Intranet

At Friday, the focus is on solving the "what's going on?" problem at companies. Digital and virtual bulletin boards also try to solve this, but our solution is more modest. 

What if instead of blasting your message across every available surface, you create a tool that employees want to use and naturally use in their everyday work? 

That’s Friday. It’s the home for your most important things at work.

Friday is your company home that glues together your most important work, helping your organization work in an office-optional world. 

Friday for your Company

Communicate top-down company messages like a digital bulletin board

Posts make it easy to share company-wide announcements and see who viewed them. 

Digital HQ that centralizes your most important work in one place.

Team profiles and employee directory to get to know coworkers.

Add-ons make Friday simple at first, yet extendable over time.

Integrates with all systems of record, like HRIS, Project management, and work chat.

Goal/OKR tracking, perfect for executive buy-in.

Company handbook for onboarding new hires in minutes vs. hours.

Use no-code widgets to build out your company home in a few minutes instead of months!

Start your free trial of Friday today or request more information about how Friday can help your company.

A physical bulletin board, also known as a notice board, is where physical announcements are placed. 

These traditional cork bulletin boards have pinned messages or notices. Some companies incorporate both the pinboard and blackboard, known as a combination bulletin board.

What Should Be on a Company Bulletin Board?

Company bulletin boards are practical communication tools to share information and capture employee attention. They contain messages, alerts, and announcements. 

A company bulletin board is used to communicate job opportunities, fundraising, or other events. They are also a source of motivation with daily or weekly quotes to help employees keep going.

Here are some things to put on a company bulletin board. 

Compliance posters: The law requires all employers to put up the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Employee Rights for Workers with Disabilities posters. The posters are available online for printing and postings. Use the company handbook in Friday!

Human resources announcements: Employees need information on other positions open within the company. The human resources team should put up company positions, policies, or training workshops.

Community service activities: You can facilitate team spirit by posting sign-up sheets on bulletin boards. Photographs, brochures, and sample prices on bulletin boards can enhance community service activities. Other crucial things you can post include workplace contests or initiatives.

Personal events: Creating a welcoming and friendly atmosphere creates strong bonds among employees. You can enhance employee connection by allowing them to put up individual circumstances. It can be marriage, birthdays, vacations, graduation dates, or photos. Personal photos are perfect as long as they aren't offensive. Check out People profiles in Friday!


Posts in Friday act as your company bulletin board for important updates, company announcements, or notices. You can quickly write and edit posts. Even add videos and images for more context. It's simple to get started. 

A post is slower paced, structured, and more organized than a long Slack message.

Group your posts by category and keep a running log of meeting notes, announcements, and whatever else you come up with.

Integrate with Slack and distribute the Post via Friday, Slack or email at the same time. See what percentage of the team or company saw your message.

Your employees can instantly react with emojis and comments

Improve your knowledge management: See a chronological feed of posts over time and give new hires access to institutional knowledge.

Getting started with Posts

Bulletin boards enhance communications, save time, and inform and inspire people. 

Look at the various benefits of bulletin boards:

A digital bulletin board provides a framework where employees can learn shared viewpoints and goals. It also provides a platform to face challenges together and be part of a wider community.

Employees can save time and enhance productivity through bulletin boards. Going through emails and other notifications can be tiring and time-consuming. Posting messages on a bulletin board will save time and increase performance and customer satisfaction.

Posting inspiration quotes can be a great way to motivate employees. Also, you can bulletin boards to post successful project completion and employee satisfaction to encourage employees.

A virtual bulletin board is a TV screen that shows company announcements and news. They enable the company to communicate alerts and messages effectively. Creative and colorful announcements on the board help people retain information quickly.

What can be displayed on digital bulletin boards?

Digital bulletin boards provide freedom since you can relay different information formats that capture your employees' attention. 

Here's what you can display on virtual bulletin boards:

You only need a TV and a cloud-based digital signage software platform to create a virtual bulletin board. These are TVs or screens employees see while walking around the office building. 

Employees like information that is readily available on their screens. Bulletin boards allow you to effectively relay emergency messages, alerts, announcements, and other information.

Look at the following benefits of using a virtual bulletin board:

Offers dynamic content with better interaction: A virtual bulletin board is an excellent way to absorb information easily through graphics and videos. People can quickly grasp company updates, opportunities, and peer activities.

Saves time and effort: Information is updated at any time, saving time and effort for printing papers. The information on the screen is also live, for example, news, updates, commodity prices, etc.

Helps you display a lot of information: Digital bulletin boards allow you to display a lot of information at once. The data can't get lost in between, meaning people will view every piece of information.

Environment friendly: Displaying information on the screen helps minimize the number of papers you must print. Digital platforms are preferable changes in many companies.

Saves money: A digital bulletin board requires one investment and will save you printing costs that come with physical bulletin boards.

Getting started with Widgets

How Can Bulletin Boards Improve Internal Communication in the Organization?

Digital bulletin boards are a powerful communication strategy because they enhance mass communication. 

Most people don't read their emails, but they will see information displayed on a screen. 

Also, digital bulletin boards improve communication within the organization if specific topics show at particular times. Employees will communicate with other employees if they miss out on anything important. 

With more people working from home, companies need to improve internal communications. 

Virtual bulletin boards improve communication because they allow you to post announcements, news, and information to all your employees instead of one. 

You don't have to create emails for individual employees who might not go through their emails. 

So, ensure you have accessible screens in your company where people can view vital information and updates.

How Use Digital Bulletin Boards To Share Top-Down Announcements

You probably have some type of intranet, but how often do employee use that? What if you combined forces and had an intranet that also served as your digital bulletin board? 

Friday makes it simple to get up and running in minutes (not months!) with flexible and customizable options that you can extend over time. 

It doesn't matter if you have great digital or virtual bulletin boards and people never see it or respond. 

How to share top-down updates at work (for leaders)

Posts in Friday make it simple to do this and in a way that people are sure to read. 

Here's what the announcements and your company home would like in Friday. Employees would see it right when they log in, making this the optimal home for your most important things at work. 

Which digital bulletin board is right for your company? Learn the different types of digital and virtual boards, and consider a team intranet.

Different Types of Virtual & Digital Bulletin Boards

Types Of Company Bulletin Boards (Digital & Virtual)

There are many reasons why intranets fail; and historically, intranets tend to feel like a tool forced by the HR teams for adoption rather than a work platform embraced by employees.

In this post, we will outline different use cases and examples of how to use an intranet (or intranet-like tool) to foster connection, culture, and communication. 

The role of an intranet is to centralize the most important stuff at work that everyone needs to know.

Unlike workplace chat, the intranet aims to separate the signal from the collaborative noise. We love work chat, but not every conversation should be treated the same way. An announcement from the CEO is much more important than someone asking, “does anyone want to go grab lunch?”

Acts as a filter, showcasing the most important context and information.

As you read through this, ask your company operations and people ops about what your current intranet can do. 

If your current intranet can't do theses things, why not? And why can't it? 

As people ops, chiefs of staff, and HR teams consider rolling out yet another new company-wide tool, consider the perspective of an individual contributor and how you want them to participate. Does it provide real, everyday value to the average employee? Or is it just another initiative so HR can check a box? 

If the average person doesn’t use your intranet, you will never drive organizational change. 

Friday provides opportunities for individuals, such as with the daily planner, team check-ins, icebreakers, and kudos to round out your culture.

And for managers: An intranet can provide a quick view into what your team or direct reports are working on. Status updates and team check-ins give an overview of the key tasks an employee is engaged in, without diving into the details like a project management tool would. 

2. Learn more about each other with people profiles 

Every employee should have their own “people profile" and not just be featured in the team directory.

In the traditional office building, it was more natural to be introduced to people and to understand their personalities, likes, and dislikes. With remote work, you may assume your co-workers are disinterested automatons. Video and workplace chat apps are great, but you need a bit more. A modern intranet with people profiles, their interests, and location makes it easier on teams to get to know each other. 

People profiles on your intranet can help with this. They can be that place employees visit to learn more about their coworkers. 

Automatically import information from HRIS tools, like birthdays, work anniversaries, and teams/department rosters

Create custom profile questions and fields that are specific to your organization, like “what is one fun fact about you?” i.e. a user manual for work.

Specify your work location even if they're remote (city/town/office location)

Display individual’s manager is (for org charts)

[Optional] You may want to consider displaying personality information (Enneagram, DISC, etc) 

3. Navigate the organization with a team directory

Next, you need a way for employees to easily navigate across the organization and learn a bit more about how the organization is structured. This is where the employee and team directory is most important.

Import employee information from directory providers like Azure, GSuite, Workday, Bamboo, Rippling, etc. This is especially important if you are scaling quickly.

Sort and filter employees based on key information

It should be easy to search for someone with ease

You should be able to easily create new teams and designate team leaders who can update the team pages

Create team “spaces” where groups can add the most important information and initiatives that the rest of the organization needs to know about. Like a bulletin board for the team.

Your company intranet needs to be the central hub for the most important things at work, especially for new employees. Consider it a knowledge management/intranet hybrid. needs to answer commonly asked questions without people as the bottleneck. The more context employees have, the faster they can contribute to your company's success.

A company handbook in Friday can solidify your values, and Posts will provide additional awareness and alignment. 

5. Enhance existing tools with integrations

The intranet needs to integrate and complement existing systems instead of competing with them. If your intranet replicates functionality that is found in another tool, that’s a recipe for confusion. 

Modern organizations are already using a variety of tools, such as project management, chat apps, human resource information systems (HRIS), calendars, document management, and wikis like Confluence or Notion. 

Have your intranet glue the most important work together, and centralize the important work from these tools. 

Deep integrations with a tool like Friday can make this happen. 

6. Make company announcements & top-down updates

First up, your intranet needs to be a place where you can share top-down updates like announcements and communicate with the organization at scale with ease. There's a middle ground between sending the internal company newsletter (that you're not sure anyone reads) and having it lost in Slack. 

It's a  rich-text editor that makes it easy to format and embed information, like videos from Youtube, Loom, or video

It can showcase the most important posts and announcements to the company homepage

Cross-post your company announcements through email, Slack, and/or Microsoft Teams

Additionally, employees should be able to easily see the history of announcements over time. This helps speed up onboarding, especially with distributed teams. There’s a huge amount of organizational context that can be accessed here.

Your intranet also needs to be a home for key resources and other high-level information that everyone needs to know. You don't need to document everything in the intranet, but think of it as a starting point.

The reality is that different people use different tools to write things down (Google Docs, Box, Dropbox, Microsoft Word, Confluence, etc). Instead of forcing people to use the intranet, you should just link to the key resource or tool, wherever it may live.

Important functionality for your company handbook:

Pin certain links on the company intranet homepage

Widgets to showcase your company mission, vision, and values.

Quick links and the company handbook are a simple way to aggregate the most important information a new hire needs tom know. It’s like a one-page overview for the company and why it exists that can also answer frequently asked questions about company policy. 

Employees need to know how their day-to-day work connects to larger strategic, organizational objectives. Oftentimes these high-level initiatives are hidden or not exposed on a regular basis.

If your intranet aims to be a home for the “most important stuff”, but there’s no mention of strategy, goals, and KPIs, it’s not truly a home for work. While your organization may not have all this figured out yet, we’d encourage you to seek this functionality as a future possibility. This is especially important for leadership buy-in and adoption.

Document and centralize the most important organizational goals in one place

Have an easy way to update the status and share an update on the goal

Prioritize key goals and north-star metrics on the company homepage.

Getting Started with Goals

Some HR tools include org charts, but employees rarely access these tools, which limits their usefulness. It's not as accessible as it could be.

This information could be pulled from the HRIS or management tool with a sync to your intranet.

10. Highlight Company Calendar/Important Events

Your intranet should also showcase the most important company events that everyone needs to know. This could be company holidays, all-hands meetings, and other key dates. Embed it from a Google Calendar or Outlook, or add it to directly in your intranet. 

In Friday, we're working on functionality to embed and sync these events from your Google Calendar or Outlook.

Many separate tools exist in Slack and Teams to give thanks and recognition. Often this happens at company all-hands or staff meetings. But how do you encourage gratitude on a regular basis? And what about on individual teams? 

To encourage connection, your company home should make it easy to say thanks and send recognition on a regular basis. For distributed organizations, this can help replicate some of the outcomes that people experience at the physical office.

Tag recognition and encouraged based on organizational values that you want to promote

Stats and analytics to see how often kudos were sent

Features like kudos and recognition make intranets feel more fun for the average employee. These tools shouldn’t feel like a chore!

12.  Create conversation with icebreakers

If you want to add even more fun to the intranet, consider icebreaker questions. This is a way to learn fun facts about coworkers that you would only discover after hanging out with someone for an extended period of time.

Ideally, you should see these responses when you navigate to an employee profile. This can help accelerate connection and make it easier to chat with someone you don’t know very well.

13. Announce new hires, welcome employees, celebrate birthdays

Use your intranet to announce important events and company hires on your company home. If a new hire joins the company, others should be made away of it!

Announce work anniversaries and birthdays (unless the employee has opted-out)

Showcase new hires who have joined, so everyone can welcome them!

To recap, the goal with these features is to encourage connection and replicate some of the outcomes that happen at the physical office.

Next, your intranet should allow you to create simple polls to ask your company quick questions on an ad-hoc basis. This simple feature can help make sure leaders understand the “pulse” of the company.

Make your company intranet a true company home. How can you use it? (With examples).

Friday Blog

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Types Of Company Bulletin Boards (Digital & Virtual)

Intranet Uses: 18 Ways You Should Be Able To Use a Modern Intranet

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7 Best Practices to Promote Internal Knowledge Sharing at Your Company

21 Best Online Collaboration Tools for 2022 (Great for Teams!)

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Introducing Widgets, an update to our pricing plans, and a preview of 2022

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