Corporate communication plays an important role in almost all types of business functions. For this reason, it’s vital to create a communication plan that streamlines not only the external communication but also the internal. According to research conducted by Interact-Harris, more than 91% of the employees surveyed by them felt that their managers were not good communicators.
So regardless of whether you are managing a team in a Fortune 500 company or a blossoming startup, you need to upgrade your corporate communication skills. 21% of team leaders admitted that they do not have a predefined formal plan for internal communication. This needs to change, as organizations should deploy specific and value-added strategies to drive their communication.
With that in mind, here are a few tips that you can use to improve and streamline your international communication to work for you.
1. Assign Goals According to Roles
One of the first things that can pose a challenge to streamlined communication is improper channelizing of information. In highly structured organizations, relaying the right information to the right party is crucial.
Individuals who have been assigned specific job roles should be managed so that their KPIs and objectives are aligned with the organizational goals. Furthermore, messages should be communicated in a professional way to people based on their job roles and responsibilities. You should have a verification and authorization process in place so that information is distributed effectively.
More often than not, the communication chain in organizations breaks down as a result of chaotic information transmission.
2. Ensure Clarity and Transparency
With a global pandemic changing the very proven ways of corporate governance, organizations have no choice but to adapt. Ensuring clarity and transparency should be at the forefront of your communication strategy.
It has become vitally important for companies to communicate where they are at clearly to the employees. According to a study by Gartner, employees who are more informed tend to perform 77% better than others. Employees should always be assured that the company is relaying information to them as soon as they are able. This will improve motivation and trust among the employees, while boosting results in terms of their productivity as well.
Cluttered or ambiguous communication can be quite detrimental for organizations, so they should take active steps to prevent this.
3. Be Proactive and Positive
Empathy is another trait that has recently resurfaced as being instrumental for effective corporate communication. While a lot of companies already follow this rule for external communication, they often ignore it when it comes to communicating internally.
Proactive communication can help employees and organizations achieve better results almost instantaneously. Regardless of the communication channel, employees should strive to tackle internal communication just as effectively as they do with clients.
Being proactive with communication can reduce lags, shorten turnaround times, and even contribute to higher efficiency and productivity if done right. Plus, having a positive tone in communications is proven to affect the overall effectiveness of the communication substantially.
4. Leverage Technologies
We’ve already discussed the importance of maintaining clear communication whether teams are working remotely or not. Regardless of the working model, integrating technologies can make communication smoother and easier.
Companies have evolved from just using emails to communicate updates on day-to-day tasks. They use SaaS applications that can manage projects, deliverables, and real-time communication.
Larger companies often opt for enterprise-grade software for their robust capabilities. These solutions have multiple modules to manage the core business functions and the communication across departments. You can also consider implementing cloud-based digital signage to showcase information and disseminate information effectively in real-time to your internal teams.
However, if you are making such a major shift in the way you do things, you should also consider how employees will adapt to the change. Accordingly, be prepared to implement change management strategies that will help your organization grow.
5. Put Things in Writing
One of the best ways to ensure that there is no loss of information in communication is to document everything. An effective way to keep all the communication documented is to always stand behind the written word.
The best part about putting things in writing is that there is very little scope of ambiguity or confusion. Moreover, all the parties associated with the communication will be on the same page about the gist of it and can take any actions that they want to immediately.
Written communication is also a great way to save time, cutting out the need to explaining the same thing over and over to different parties. Sharing information can be as quick as forwarding a message or email. Even this simple step can help you streamline communications significantly.
6. Set Ground Rules
Organizations often overlook an important aspect that should be included in internal as well as external communication strategies — the ground rules.
Establishing rules may seem like a very strict or disciplinary thing to do, but that’s only if you’re doing it wrong. Ground rules are great for setting expectations and standards that should be followed by everyone in the organization.
Most organizations have a set of ground rules established for client communication. It’s important, however, for managers to follow similar rules and regulations for internal communication as well. It should include basic things such as maintaining a respectful tone, avoiding certain words and phrases, and encouraging the use of positively directed communication.
Even if these ground rules are not enforced strictly, communicating them with your team will help them understand and appreciate the kind of communication that you expect from them.
7. Start a Company Newsletter
Company newsletters are great for large organizations to ensure that all employees are up-to-date with organizational developments and recent events.
If written properly and sent out at the right time, they can efficiently disseminate all the useful information that your employees need to know. The newsletter can include all the recent milestones achieved by the organization, specific employees, or internal teams. They can also include information about new hires and information about new major clients who have been onboarded.
You can give a voice to the department heads and managers in your organization by giving them individual blocks to talk about their team’s performance and their outlook for the upcoming month.
An important note: Even if you have all the resources, limit newsletters to a monthly affair instead of making them too frequent.
Wrapping Up on the Importance of Internal Communication
Organizations invest a lot of money in making their internal systems and mechanisms stronger, including corporate communication and related channels. Updating the communication strategies and protocols are instrumental in ensuring organizational growth and success. Since internal communication is often a gray area for companies, taking proactive steps to correct this is necessary. Using some of the steps that have been listed here, you can update your internal communication strategy and streamline it significantly.
This guest blog was written by Hazel Raoult, a freelance marketing writer who works with PRmention. She has 6+ years of experience in writing about business, entrepreneurship, marketing, and all things SaaS. Hazel loves to split her time between writing, editing, and hanging out with her family.