Communication is a vital part of a company’s success. Simply put, you can’t expect your company to achieve its goals if its employees and officials are not communicating at all. Staff won’t have any idea on what leadership is expecting from them. Lack of or poor communication can lead to a breakdown of processes, and worse, disgruntled employees who feel that they are being taken for granted by the management.
Regardless of the corporate communications strategies you may have in place in the office, these tips should help your strengthen communication and hopefully promote unity and harmony in the workplace:
1. Video conferences
Companies which have offices in multiple locations, or whose businesses are remote, can look into the possibility of having video conferences. This should address the difficulty of sharing information with every member of the team, which could be preventing the unit from achieving its goals.
Holding a video conference would provide an opportunity for every team member to hear and speak to a team leader, head of a department, or even the company CEO. Hearing it straight from the big boss will not only make it easy to spread critical information, but also motivate the employees.
2. Holding of group events
Similar to video conferences, the holding of group events can create a sense of unity amongst geographically distant colleagues. With group events, team members will get to know each other better even if they haven’t seen each other in person. It can also lead to shared experiences, helping individuals relate to each other more easily.
3. Regular meetings
Companies that don’t have remote workers may follow corporate communications strategies that differ from those employed by firms with multiple locations or branches. If you have employees who regularly see each other, then video conferences may not exactly suit your company’s requirements. But surely, the holding of recurring meetings would meet your firm’s needs.
Consider recommending recurring meetings with the senior management, and to encourage the department or unit heads to do the same with their staff. Meetings may be weekly or monthly. Regardless of the frequency, meetings will allow leaders in the organization to track deadlines, pass on reminders, and generate feedback from the staff. Perhaps more important, recurring meetings can enable a team to address a problem right away, or before it goes out of hand.
4. Regular lunches
This is something that you can explore with your team or unit, as team lunches can provide a venue for team members to get to know each other in a less formal manner than say, a regular staff meeting.
Depending on the team’s objectives, team lunches can be working or simply social. Social opportunities can break the monotony of work and more important, give members the opportunity to build respect and trust which are two essential building blocks of good communication.
5. Internal newsletters
Internal newsletter is the best medium in communicating with the rest of the organization important matters. Aside from relaying information to the employees, it can also be used to acknowledge the achievements of individual staff members and announce new hires. This traditional internal communication tool can be easily archived so employees can refer back to its content whenever they need to do so.
No matter what corporate communications strategies are being implemented in your office, you will find these tips useful in improving internal communication in the workplace.
Remember, though, that there are no bullet-proof corporate communications strategies. Like any aspect of successful business management, good internal communication takes years to cultivate. Constantly seek ways to improve your corporate communications plan and your firm will reap the benefits of good communication in the near future.
