Friday, July 12, 2019

Improve Work Communication in Small Businesses Without Spending A Fortune

It doesn’t matter if you’re a small or large company, you must have amazing employee communication to succeed, whether your employees work on the same floor or are scattered globally. Effective communication has a direct impact on your company’s success.

However, don’t get confused because communication is way more than just distributing information. So what is internal communication, really?

It’s a continuous dialogue with the company and its employees, regardless of position or time in the company – internal communication creates a healthy community.

After all, a whopping 50% of employees reported that when bosses shared information and data, they were far more productive and motivated.

If that’s not enough to convince you that communication is essential for business, one-third of employees say that the ability to collaborate makes them more loyal to the company.

Benefits of Great Employee Communication

So what are the benefits of great employee communication and how can you embed it at your company?

  • Quick and easy. Connecting and reaching a workforce that is mainly under the age of 35 means dealing with people who feel “the need for instant gratification” and the “loss of patience,” a study found.

    People just don’t want to wait for a website or video to load, let alone wait for a colleague to reply to a message.

Communication in the workplace has to follow suit, meaning- say goodbye to emails and increase your reply time. Don’t just send a message here and there, deliver consistent, up-to-date communication to energize employees.

  • Build trust with employees. By involving all your employees and not neglecting anyone, you are maintaining a connection which leads to increased trust in the company and its goals.
  • Create a strong company culture. When about 54 million of the workforce is the millennial generation, company culture is more important than ever.

    Millennials and Gen Z too are seeking companies which align with their values, commitments, and aims. Culture and engagement are tied together and must be a part of your internal communication.

Start by leading by example and don’t just throw up some motivational posters, instead promote a family atmosphere from day one. Communicate your company values, create this culture in the office, and embed it into your onboarding, events, and benefits.

  • Free flow of feedback. Through good, open and honest communication you can gain valuable feedback so managers can adjust to their needs and you’ll see an increase in motivation.

    Employees have an important voice, so encourage them to share their thoughts and ideas, while providing them with a platform that nourishes them on a regular basis.

When employees know their feedback holds value, they are incentivized to become advocates of the company, encouraging dialogue and recommending friends to join too. Plus, it builds healthy peer-to-peer relationships.

How to Improve Communication Between Management

This leads us to the questions, how to improve communication between management and employees without breaking the bank?

Most small businesses tend to use known apps like Whatsapp to communicate with their employees. However, that’s something you should avoid!

There’s no separation between your personal life and work – all contacts are saved to your personal phone so when you’re searching for the supplier, you’re endlessly scrolling for the right information.

Plus, all messages are mixed together so the chance that you’ll send something to your manager that you shouldn’t have, a photo or message clearly meant for your spouse, can easily happen.

The Best Solution for Small Businesses

The best solution for small businesses is to use employee communication software, which allows you to communicate with your employees at any time and truly engage them.

There are many employee communication solutions in the market, as it’s the quickest and easiest way to communicate in 2019, that make internal communication between managers and employees more simple and intuitive.

A great example of an internal communication tool is Slack, especially when you have employees who sit in the office all day long. It’s unique interface and amazing integration capabilities are what hi-tech employees really benefit from.

Start one-on-one or group chat that is organized by “channels”, individual and team audio calls and video conferencing. Just send an email to invite an employee to join Slack.

Choose from three price ranges: free, standard ($8 per user/month), or plus ($15 per user/month). Note that each range differs, and has an annual commitment, with its benefits and capabilities so really look into if it’s a good fit for your business.

What happens when you have non-desk employees?

Most small businesses have non-desk employees, they work on the floor and on construction sites, in restaurants and hotels, and drive trucks.

However, 85% of non-desk employees say they don’t receive enough communication at their company. Seeing as how they’re not in the office daily, probably don’t have a corporate email, don’t have access to company news, and more.

Don’t use outdated methods to reach your non-desk employees, emails, phone calls or messages on bulletin boards just aren’t going to cut it anymore.

For companies with non-desk employees, the best solution is Connecteam, the leading all-in-one mobile solution in the market. From one place, you can communicate and engage your employees.

Start a one-on-one or group chat when relevant and track who read your message so you can send a targeted push notification to those who didn’t. Within the app, there is an employee directory, send customized surveys, create a suggestion box and more.

Access data whenever needed, there is no storage limit as everything is automatically stored on Connecteam’s secure cloud.

Instead of paying per user, Connecteam offers fixed monthly plans for up to 200 users and you can start at just $29 a month. Or create your user now and start a free 21-day trial to experience just how amazing Connecteam truly is.

Using an employee communication app will take your business to the next level, build trust with employees, improve engagement, boost productivity, lower turnover and so much more. Find the solution that’s right for you and start improving employee communication instantly.



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