Internal Communication: Interact Like Professionals
Communication is an extremely important part of running a business. Employees at all levels of a company should be able to quickly and easily get in touch with their managers, coworkers, and other departments.
A workforce with a strong communication level can help build a sense of community and create a positive company culture.
There are a few ways to improve the internal communication of your business, but it all starts with organization. The concept of contact management is one of the easiest ways to get your contacts organized and help you communicate like a professional.
Why Is Internal Communication Important?
It takes employees from all levels and departments working together for a business to operate efficiently. Every person that works for a company is important, and no job is created without a purpose.
Everything involving a business will require all of these employees to work together in some capacity or another. It’s virtually impossible to have a functioning team when there is no communication. That’s why having an internal communications strategy is considered to be so important.
The key benefit of a strong internal communication strategy really boils down to one thing: increased employee engagement. An employee needs to be able to communicate and have their voice be heard. By feeling like they are a valued member of the team, engaged employees will become more productive and typically generate 20 percent more revenue than disengaged employees.
Another benefit of a more engaged workforce is that it will lower turnover rates. The exact numbers can vary, but it’s estimated that engaged employees are around 60 percent less likely to look for a new job than disengaged employees. Constantly replacing and training workers can be very stressful for everyone involved and lead to a business operating much less efficiently.
What Are Ways To Improve Internal Communication?
Not every internal communications strategy is the same. It will depend on a lot of factors that are specific to your business. However, there are a few common practices that can help to improve your internal communication and increase employee engagement:
Use Videos
Constantly having to spend time throughout the day reading emails can get boring and repetitive pretty fast. It’s estimated that the average worker will spend roughly 28 percent of their workweek reading and sending emails. Not only does this take up valuable time that could be spent working on tasks, but it can also quickly become tedious staring at these texts on a screen all day.
By using more videos to communicate, you will be able to keep your team members up to date with critical information and keep your employees more engaged. These videos don’t have to be anything with high production value. A simple weekly or monthly newsletter can be enough.
Another option would be to use video for meetings. Instead of an email with 15 people CC’ed, hosting a web meeting on Zoom could help employees meet and engage with other members of the team. These virtual meetings can lead to much more active participation than simply using email.
Create An Open Door Policy
Every member of the workforce will have thoughts and opinions relating to their job. While not all of them may be positive, these thoughts must be shared.
If an employee isn’t able to report a problem they are encountering; then the problem will most likely never be addressed or fixed. In turn, the problem will typically get worse, and the employee might become more disengaged from their job.
Having an open-door policy can help to prevent that scenario. Productive conversations between managers and their teams will help to quickly identify any issues and lead to brainstorming on the best way to fix them. Open door policies can be a great opportunity to improve internal communication, increase employee engagement, and create a more positive business culture.
Although an employee should be able to talk directly to their manager with an open door policy, they might feel hesitant to do so depending on the issue. One of the easiest ways to solve this dilemma is to use employee surveys or a suggestion box. People are more likely to respond honestly when they can remain anonymous.
Use Contact Management Software
When running a business, there will be a ton of important contacts that end up in your phone. It can quickly lead to disorganization, and it might be difficult trying to find the information you need for a specific contact.
That’s where using a contact management app like Dialed can help. The app has a few features that can be beneficial to organizational issues. One feature is the ability to create contact sheets that will include relevant information about the contact as well as all previous texts and call logs.
Another feature is the ability to create specific groups for your contacts. These groups might include members of different departments inside your company, business connections outside your company, or people in your personal life. The bulk messaging feature can make it much easier to send messages to entire groups.
As an added bonus, Dialed is one of the best spam-blocking apps on the market as well. So not only can it help you to get your contacts more organized, it will keep your line clear from annoying distractions at the same time.
Manage Projects More Efficiently
The ability to complete projects is a very important part of the overall success of a business. Regardless of whether the project is merely a list of daily and recurring tasks or is a grand and drastic undertaking, organization is very important.
It can be very rewarding for employees when they know their specific part in the company’s overall goals. Using project management software like Trello can help the team get better organized and work more efficiently.
The program is based on the popular Kanban method, which uses a visual model to illustrate the tasks required to complete a project. This will allow each employee to know what their responsibilities are as well as the responsibilities of their coworkers.
Knowing this information can lead to much better collaboration between individuals and departments. Not only will this lead to work being completed more efficiently, but it will also lead to stronger communication being developed throughout the company.
Use More Emojis
It may sound a little childish for a business professional to use emojis, but they can be very beneficial. There can often be a dramatic difference between the intentions of text and the interpretation. An email or text might be sent with a polite suggestion, but the recipient might read it as hostile and negative criticism.
If you are unable to see someone’s face or hear their voice physically, it can be difficult to understand their tone. Text is cold and emotionless and can be read very differently depending on the reader. Using emojis might not feel like something a grown professional would do, but they can be the difference between helping to guide a struggling employee or turning them disgruntled.
The Takeaway
Internal communication is extremely important for a business. When employees can easily collaborate and communicate with one another, they are much more likely to stay engaged.
There are a few ways to improve internal communication, but the key factor is overall organization. Having an easily accessible list of all your important contacts can help you to stay connected to all your employees and team members. Gaps or breakdowns in communication can lead to employees becoming disengaged from their work and could create severe problems for a business.
SOURCES
The Essential Internal Communication Strategy Plan Template
8 Employee Engagement Stats That Will Reinvigorate Your Workforce
