6 Tips to Create Effective Internal Communications with Your Team

For years, companies have been dealing with one complicated problem — poor communication. Managers assign tasks to employees, but every single one of them has a different perception of what they are supposed to do. In the end, they have to face expired deadlines, countless mistakes, and misunderstandings. Teams don’t receive timely updates, and dissatisfaction grows among the staff. Many have tried to fix this problem by getting everyone in the room and trying to smooth things out. However, it is only a temporary fix-up.  What companies need is a consistent process and effective internal communication strategy.

Here are some tips to get things back on track:-

1. Stop Using Email

This is the simplest tip you can ever get, but it can do wonders for your internal communication. Emails have their advantages or else they wouldn’t be the primary communication channel. Still, it is not really suitable for improving communication with and among employees. There are far better options on the market today. For instance, intranet software. It is great for business communication. Apart from being user friendly, the software is also great for connecting different teams and departments and bringing all of them under one roof. As a result, sharing information and keeping everyone in the loop has never been easier. Every employee is only one click or messages away which speeds up the communication process and makes it more efficient.

2. Leave the Office and Check-in on Employees

No matter how many communication channels you have, nothing beats good old face-to-face communication. For this reason, try to leave your office every day and spend some time chatting or checking in on your staff. Walk over to their cubicles and see how they are doing. Direct conversation is much better than sending a long business email or text. In case you are managing a remote team and you can’t communicate face-to-face, then resort to some other means, such as audio video conferencing, or video calls. Employees will appreciate your taking some time to make sure every member of the team is doing well. This simple act will not only increase employee productivity and performance but also strengthen corporate culture.

3. Create Newsletters for Employees

Chances are your company creates and sends a monthly newsletter to customers, clients, and partners. What you don’t know is the effect newsletters can have on employees as well. Basically, newsletters contain fresh and relevant pieces of information, an overview of the past and present projects, and tasks, along with announcements of the upcoming ones. Such information and data are useful for employees too. They get all the necessary information and know what they can expect to work on in the future. It gives them something to look forward to and be excited about. On the other hand, you can ask them for feedback on newsletters and their content which is a great opportunity for increasing employee engagement in the workplace.

4. Be Persistent

The most important part of enforcing an internal communications strategy is persistence. Without it, all efforts are in vain. For example, if you decide to send monthly newsletters, then make sure you send them every month. No skipping. If you hold weekly meetings, then make sure they happen every week, and everyone attends them. Only by being persistent will you truly be able to change the way you and employees communicate for the better.

5. Increase Transparency in the Workplace

If you want better communication and a well-organized corporate culture, you have to increase transparency in the workplace. Both aspects are built based on this feature. Contrary to what most managers believe, employees don’t need only the good news but also the bad one. When employees are well informed, they become more engaged as well. Keeping all communication as transparent as possible builds trust and strengthens the relationship between management and employees. More importantly, trust and transparency are the pillars of effective communication. When there is trust, employees have no problems with openly expressing their ideas and opinions. Therefore, nothing stands in the way of strong internal communication in your company.

6. Make Use of Project Management Tools

Emails, employee apps, instant messaging, texts, and calls. With so many different communication channels, you can easily lose sight of important decisions, deadlines, and projects. For this reason, you should take all the help you can get. Using project management tools can help you stay on top of things in the workplace. Such tools allow you to delegate tasks, provide guidelines, monitor progress on every project started, and guide employees successfully to its completion.  When you make use of project management tools, it takes the pressure off certain corporate aspects and ensures constant information flow and communication across all departments.