Once businesses expand beyond its first handful of employees, not only do owners struggle to expand the business but also to ensure that employees communicate effectively to meet the company vision. Many companies pay lip service to communication but don’t spend any real time or effort cultivating a positive environment with great communication. To improve communication between your employees and with your customers, use these four tips.
Educate Staff on Communication Methods
With the proliferation of text messages, emails, and other modes of communication, many employees don’t always use acceptable and productive methods of communication when interacting with co-workers and customers. On a very basic level, educating staff on the different modes of communication available to them and the benefits and drawbacks of each can be a very valuable piece of information. Integrate the types of communication used by your company into your onboarding and training process to educate new employees on the best ways to communicate with coworkers. When all employees are on the same page regarding the best ways to communicate, communication can take place more easily.
Train Your Staff
While we communicate daily, in the workplace communication can often be difficult. Employees from many different walks of life and skill sets need to come together to advance the goals of the company and that collaboration can be a challenge without the right tools. Training staff to communicate more effectively is a great way to get all employees on the same page regarding effective communication. Hire a communications expert to come to your next company meeting or simply incorporate a PowerPoint presentation with demonstrations to train employees on the proper way to communicate with their co-workers and customers.
Value Positive Communication
While it’s important to train staff, an even better way for companies to show they value proper communication is during annual performance reviews. Keep communication at the forefront of employees’ and managers’ minds by integrating communication into performance goals. Create effective benchmarks that track employees who effectively communicate with co-workers, customers, and different departments. Add more value to communication by providing rewards throughout the year for employees who show effective communication. Ask employees to nominate co-workers who go above and beyond to foster communication in the workplace. By showing that communication is valued by the organization, employers can empower employees to communicate more effectively.
Commit Yourself to Teamwork
It’s not enough to tell staff how to communicate, you need to foster relationships between staff members that make communication easier. Team building activities are not only a great way to bring employees together but also is an effective way to re-energize employees. Hold a company field day complete with a colour war or rent out a local ropes course to foster camaraderie and communication between departments and the entire organization. Fostering communication in a variety of ways, from training to team building, can help the entire company work together more effectively in the long run.
Effective communication can help companies excel in their field but to reach that point, employers need to foster its' development. By providing training, education, and value to communication, employees become empowered to interact more effectively and reach consensus on company issues more easily. Use these tips to improve communication in your workplace and create an open and inviting environment.
