Keeping your staff informed, sharing important messages and keeping an open dialogue improves workplace productivity, while boosting staff engagement, morale and commitment. Here are some easy ways you can improve communications with your team.
Check in regularly
Checking in with your employees on a regular basis is essential. Meeting with them in person, or online lets you share important news and updates, but it also invites them to discuss their thoughts on the business, projects and any regular tasks, including processes.
This not only gives you the opportunity to keep them informed of changes, but it can give you important insights into how the organisation is functioning.
Make important information easy to access
Every business will have their own collection of internal documents about how the organisation does things. This kind of information is especially useful when onboarding new staff. Help your employees by making these documents easy to access, for example online via the staff intranet.
Be the example
Say goodmorning to your team, ask them how their weekend was or how the kids are going in soccer. Ask them for opinions and ideas on various work projects and challenges. Let them know what the best standard of communication is by demonstrating it and keep your proverbial door open, so they know they can always come to you.
Communication should always be a two-way street, especially where feedback is concerned. By asking them for a review on your performance you send a message that you care about their experiences in the workplace. And remember, good communication is as much about expressing yourself as it is about listening to others too.
Consider an anonymous suggestion box
Some people don’t feel comfortable to raise issues in person. Setting up a virtual way to communicate any concerns can let people comment on things they believe can be improved. You can even set parameters around it, for example, by encouraging employees to raise issues, but to also include a suggestion of a possible way to overcome the issue.
Use online project management tools
Online project management tools make information and updates easy to access by everyone on your team, which can save a lot of time and keep everyone on the same page. For example, Deputy’s communication tools enable managers to communicate with staff via an app, ensuring employees are notified of upcoming meetings or urgent tasks via push notifications, so nothing goes missed. This can also help to foster greater collaboration within your team, or across different teams in the same organisation.
Have a weekly newsletter
A regular newsletter keeps everyone up to date on changes, project progress and future plans. You can also use newsletters as a way to invite a dialogue between you and your team. Check out these tips, for some ideas for a better employee newsletter.
For example, Deputy gives users a News Feed, which can replace emails and text messages as a way to communicate with all of your employees. News Feed can also be customised so you can post directly to one employee, or a group of employees, or the entire organisation. You can use News Feed to update staff, sharing PDFs, important policies and procedures, even photos. News Feed also lets you view a log of past announcements, highlighting when the post was made and who made it.
Do you have any tips for communicating effectively with your team? Do you need help to open up dialogue between you and your staff? Find out how Deputy can take the hard work out of your small business admin tasks, leaving you free to focus on growing your business. Get in touch with our friendly team today on 1300 DEPUTY.
