The importance of internal communications cannot be understated, especially now that poor communication has cost businesses roughly about $37 billion, according to PR industry voice Holmes. These days, when hybrid work is the norm and a well-kept network is essential for business survival, it’s just as vital to maintain the health of communication within your company as it is to keep ties with partners and clients. Just as marketing is crucial to keeping your brand name fresh in the minds of your customers, it’s equally important to keep communications vibrant within your business. Here’s how you do it.
Encourage Communication in the Workplace
Efficient internal communications start with the leaders. Sharpening your own communication skills is essential to boosting that of the group as a whole. This will enable you to build a work culture that does not shy away from internal communication, and instead leverages it naturally to the fullest extent.
The first thing you can do is to regularly confer with your employees regarding office matters. This can be done through meetings or simply messaging or talking to them. Prioritize their well-being and ensure they have everything they need to do their job. This will encourage them to be more open to you, and by extension, to one another. Enhance this by getting to know your people and their individual goals. Understanding their motivations helps you to infuse your office culture with a mutual goal that everyone in the office can unite under. This will drive communication and collaboration even further.
Enhance Your Communications Tech Suite
Willingness and the drive to communicate are vital, but these qualities alone are not enough. Are your internal communications tools in the office measuring up to the tasks you demand of them? In order to answer that, you would need to measure the utility value, as well as the pros and cons of each of your communication methods. If you spot any inefficiencies or other flaws, queue them up for an upgrade.
Effective communication tech can make all the difference in the world. In fact, 54 percent of all HR officers surveyed in a recent snap poll by Gartner cite poor tech as the primary barrier to proper internal communications. This is enough of an indicator for you to take comms tech seriously. The keys to good communication tools are diversity of options and reliability. You want to make sure that each of your channels are being used and provide a good user experience. Consider employing something like Yammer analytics to inform your decisions with accurate statistics. Don’t forget to consult your employees before making a final verdict.
Enrich Your Company’s Internal Knowledge Network
Once you have a healthy communication culture and competent tech set up, the only thing left to do is to grease the wheels by making information as accessible as can be. Internal communications thrive off of free-flowing information. So, do everything you can to make it as easy as possible to get a hold of files, stats, and other work-critical info.
The foremost way you can do this is by building your company’s intranet, or overhauling it if you’ve created one already. This will serve to centralize all necessary information, accessed through a sleek and user-friendly interface. Another thing you can do is to streamline the connections between departments. This can be one of the biggest obstacles to the free flow of information.
The best way to build a highly functioning internal communications network is to tailor it to each of the unique traits and factors that make up your business. The important thing here is to make everything as convenient and comfortable as possible. Cater to your workforce’s wants and needs, and they’ll pay back dividends with their newly heightened efficiency
Author & Publisher | Emily Forbes
An Entrepreneur, Mother & A passionate tech writer in the technology industry!
Email:- EmilyForbes69@gmail.com
