We all know how important good communication with clients and customers is, but what about internal communications?
According to research, more connection and collaboration between employees makes them 20 to 25% more productive - that's a pretty dramatic increase.
In fact, the way your employees communicate with each other is just as important as how they communicate with customers. Using strong internal communication tools is essential to an engaged workforce and successful business.
Want to know exactly how better internal comms could improve your business before you invest in new tools? Read on for all the details.
Joint Calendars Keep Everyone on Track for Deadlines
How many times has a project been held up because one member of the team hadn't completed their part of the work? Not cool.
With team calendars, everyone can see their own deadlines and how they tie into the wider project. This makes staff less likely to put off doing work, as they can see the direct knock-on effect it will have.
Employees can also view deadlines for other parts of the project, which allows them to liaise with anyone they think might be behind schedule.
When everyone knows what needs to happen and when, staff gets more engaged and more projects are completed on time.
Discussion Tools Make Knowledge Sharing Easier
Having dedicated internal communication tools means staff don't need to email for every little thing but can engage in dynamic conversations instead.
For example, if there's a problem with a certain document, your team can discuss next steps using an inbuilt chat feature. Everyone can contribute their ideas, but there won't be a million 'reply alls' clogging up everyone's inbox.
Most tools also make it easy for staff to post updates for the rest of the team to see. This is a great place for quick tips, like, "Hey guys - using Ctrl-F makes checking the documents for keywords easier."
Knowledge sharing isn't just about big lessons learned - it's about all the little tricks that make staff more productive.
Having Everything Saved in One Places Saves Time
There's nothing worse than being held up because you need access to a certain document and your coworker is out of the office.
Keeping all project files saved and organized in one place makes it easy for the rest of the team to keep working if someone is off sick, on leave, or quits unexpectedly.
Many internal communication tools include cloud storage for all your important documents. If your tool doesn't, Google Docs also works well and lets multiple people collaborate on one document.
Managers Can Be More Involved in What Staff Are Doing
It's so easy for managers to stay detached from day-to-day operations, and that's not good.
When using internal communication tools, everyone is on the same page, and you'll be seeing the same project to-do list, calendar, and deadline list as your manager.
This helps higher-ups identify and solve any issues, look for areas of improvement, and get a better of understanding of what their employees are working on, leading to better end results.
It also opens up new opportunities to reward staff for hard work, which makes them more engaged.
Why Use Internal Communication Tools?
Using internal communications tools isn't optional - it's essential to running a successful business.
Start experimenting with internal communications today, and you'll soon see an increase in staff performance, greater employee satisfaction, and higher quality work.
Got any questions or thoughts? Let us know!
