Some companies struggle with the concept of internal communication, some will give it a cursory glance by doing the odd newsletter here and there, whilst others go ‘all in’ for the bean bag and ping pong table. The right balance depends on your business, but don’t all your employee’s deserve to know what’s going on in the business they work for?
It can be difficult to manage expectations of your staff given the tight budgets that often restrict ideas and action, but your staff are the key to your company’s productivity and customer satisfaction, so it is really important to have them on your side.
Communicate in a way that suits the audience…
People process information in lots of different ways, some like to read it, some like to be told face to face, some want detail and lots of it, whilst some of us are satisfied with a snapshot. So it is simply not enough to broadcast information in a one-size-fits-all kind of way, because it doesn’t!
Developing an integrated, two-way, multi-media communication plan is the best way to satisfy a varied audience. Plenty of touch-points saying the same thing in different ways and then repeat. Get your message heard.
Theorists believe there are three styles of learning or of processing information; visual, auditory and kinesthetic. So tapping into each of these would seem to be a great place to start. Visually, you could develop a range of posters, noticeboards, digital wallpaper for your common areas. Auditory could be through focus groups, briefings and regular verbal updates. Kinesthetic might include interactive communication tools or through interaction at team building events and activities.
To improve the effectiveness of communication at your business, why not give some of this a try?
