Effective communication ensures cohesion, that everyone in your organization is on the same page, boosts morale and productivity and makes your business a great place to work.
When your internal communications are not up to scratch, things can start to fall apart. Employees will be directionless. Key tasks will not be completed. People won’t know who to go to for help. Your productivity and profitability will decline. In fact, according to a study by Towers Watson, companies with effective employee communications processes enjoy 47 per cent higher profits than those that do not.
If your internal communications doesn’t seem to be working, you could be right. These are the key signs to look for:
1. Redundant work practices
If you have a situation where there are multiple people unnecessarily completing identical tasks, that’s a sure sign you have a communication problem. This is symptomatic of poorly communicated procedures, roles, expectations and best practices within your organization.
2. Not communicating effectively with stakeholders
Your internal communication practices have a flow-on effect and can impact on your external communications. If staff within your organization aren’t adequately informed about important news, initiatives, projects, procedures and events, they aren’t going to be able to share this information with external stakeholders.
3. Costly errors
There are small errors, and then there are huge ones that come at great financial or reputational cost to your business. If you’re finding that mistakes are being made more frequently, it can be a sign that clear direction and expectations from management are lacking and/or staff haven’t been trained properly, or know about relevant policies and procedures.
4. Too many meetings
Meetings can be great if they serve a purpose and further the cause of a project. But all too often they feel like they have been created just for the sake of having one, with many participants not even really required, and the project doesn’t seem to progress or stay on track. In fact quite often many meetings are completely unnecessary – they could have been face-to-face individual conversations, emails, or communicated in a team project app, freeing up staff to do other things.
5. Communication silos
When your work teams don’t collaborate with other work teams and share information effectively. Silos can develop. Whether this is a geographic/regional divide if you work across multiple sites, or just between teams in the one building.
It’s important for teams to collaborate and share knowledge, have a strong understanding of what their colleagues do and are capable of.
If you recognize any of these symptoms it may be time to give your internal communication systems an overhaul. Consider thinking outside the box and deploying an innovative internal communications solution such as DeskAlerts to increase the visibility of your key messages and information and improve outcomes for your company.
