When we talk of team communication, it refers to communication within any organization and is considered a vital factor. The purpose can range from updating employees on newly formed policies or prepare for a time of crisis. In any case, effective communication is one of the main aspects of successful management.
To attain success, organizations need to pay special heed to team communication and organization-wide uniformity in propagating the vision, mission and goals. In the following article, we would thoroughly understand the needs, benefits and the impact of lack of internal communication on an organization. Also, there are plenty of tips to help drive a proper communication strategy and ways to make working from home a lot more convenient.
Read on to know more about creating a beneficial communication strategy:
The Importance of a Comprehensive Communication Strategy
It is crucial to understand the benefits of a proper communication strategy in the workplace. Most HR professionals and leaders agree that linking an effective communication strategy to their business function is essential.
Some of the prime benefits of driving organization-wide communication include:
- Keeps communication consistent and ensures better productivity from employees.
- It helps in establishing a proper brand.
- It’s a convenient way to deliver messages from the top management, which are well aligned with the mission, vision, and culture of the organization.
Having a communication strategy that is based in the heart of benefitting the organization has plenty of other benefits internally.
Some of these include:
- It helps with increasing productivity for all the teams.
- It helps in delivering a higher quality of services as well as products.
- The employees can have much greater levels of trust and commitment towards the company.
- It helps in keeping an equation intact between the employees and the authorities.
- It helps in increasing employee engagement as well as ensuring innovation and creativity.
- Organization-wide communication with online tools can also help in culminating better relationships at work.
- People are more receptive to any change in the organization.
These are just some of the benefits an organization can reap with a proper team communication strategy.
You must have often heard about the term crisis communication. But, that’s not the only time when an effective communication strategy is of use. Here are some more reasons as to why an organization needs proper team communication:
The needs of driving organization-wide communication
Apart from just the benefits, here are some integral reasons to have a proper strategy in place:
- Builds morale for employees as well as ensures work satisfaction and higher engagement.
- It can also help the employees understand the different terms and conditions of their employment and help them with better commitment and loyalty towards the organization.
- It makes the employees understand the goals of the company and align their productivity with the same.
- It helps the employees raise a voice whenever they wish to help with the company or even raise concerns in case of any issues.
- It can reduce the chances of misunderstandings as well as the loss of productivity in some cases.
- It sets up effective processes and procedures, which reduces the chances of errors significantly.
To understand why an organization needs a proper communication strategy, you also need to understand the negative impact of ineffective communication. First and foremost, ineffective communication can heighten the probability of misunderstanding, damage the relationships between employees and have a negative mindset towards the organization. Preventive measures can avert the tonality of “Know your business” among co-workers.
Ineffective communication is often a result of a poorly aligned strategy, a failure to make the strategy work and also use the wrong communication tools. Additionally, organizations fail to see the effectiveness of two-way communication. Often, they are occupied with placing their messaging right but do not want to listen to what the employees have to say. In a healthy organizational culture, it is essential to have a feedback culture, where the authorities can know about how their employees are doing. But, the employee should be able to contribute as much as they need to listen. This way, the workforce will always be engaged, and it can help with better communication.
Overcome the challenges with an effective communication strategy:
Now that we have mentioned the importance of organization-wide communication, Here are some challenges an organization would need to address while curating the perfect communication strategy. First off, employees should start by linking important communication to their daily functioning. Reiterate the vision, mission, client goals- this will help the employees understand where the company is headed.
Here are some of the elements to include in your communication strategy so that you can overcome the challenges:
- The senior management should be involved in the tonality that needs to be set.
- A budget should be assigned to proper communication tools, and the teams should know how to use them.
- A team should be assigned to understand the process. This role is typically undertaken by the HR, who looks after the day-to-day communication from the senior management to the employees.
There are plenty of ways to communicate with your team. But, when it comes to crisis communication or even a regular client debacle that needs to be handled, having a proper structure can help. Simple messaging applications should only be used for out-of-work purposes. Ensure that your organization is on the same page when it comes to addressing each other and knows whom to speak to through which channel whenever needed. With these steps in place, it would be effortless for you to drive organization-wide communication.
Communication Strategy for Remote Teams:
It was quite a transition to keep up with a remote working force in unprecedented times like these. With an effective communication strategy for small teams, you can surely get the best out of having a remote workforce. Here are some pointers to remember:
- Never make assumptions regarding how the other person perceives what you are saying. Keep your communication very clear, crisp and to the point.
- While the instructions need to be clear, keeping your intentions clear will also help. So, for instance- you want to send out a bunch of mailers. But, your digital marketing team does not know where do these mailers fit in your strategy. In such a situation, chaos will ensue, and the employees will be unclear on the entire process.
- Steer clear of vague words. Do not say- I spoke five weeks back to all our clients. Instead, give a date- refer to a mail trail or mention exactly about the clients with whom you had a communication. This can help in understanding the process that needs to be followed clearly.
- Specify your deliverables, deadline as well as stay approachable till the task is completed.
- Make sure you use the right tools and get the entire team acquainted with the same.
A tool like NuovoTeam is just the one-stop solution you need for managing team communication more effectively. It can help you with the efficient conveying of your crisis communication strategy. So, teach all the methods above in your touch and see your organization’s overall productivity increase manifold.
