How much internal communication matters in the business world simply can’t be stressed enough. When the management and the employees communicate effectively, all chances for misunderstandings disappear. The work environment is healthy so employees have all the conditions necessary for performing well at work. Through open and efficient communication, completing tasks and projects will be smoother and faster. For this reason, let’s look at the top 6 practices for enhancing communication at the workplace. 

1. Use a Platform for Connecting Employees 

There is no better way of connecting employees than through a platform or an app. We live in a high-tech era so why not use it to our advantage. Although selecting the right platform seems like a piece of cake, it is easier said than done. There are so many options available that make it harder for managers to select the proper tool. In this situation, intranet systems are the go-to tool for most companies, especially large ones. They are largely praised for their ability to connect all employees and the management in one place. Once you have all the staff connected, you have set a great foundation for improving other, equally important, business aspects.

2. Celebrate Milestones 

Employees are an important, if not the most important, part of any company. They like to have their efforts acknowledged and valued. It motivates them to participate more and work even harder at their job. For this reason, it is essential to publicly recognize their contribution and share it with everyone in the company. This praise can take many forms. It can be a simple shout out in a corporate app, post on social media, or a special article on the company’s website. Celebrating milestones has a dual impact on the company. Firstly, it keeps all the staff informed about the latest events in the organization. Secondly, the management has clear insight into employee engagement and performance. This is why it is important to mark employee success, big or small.

3. Include Visuals during Communication

Most people are visual beings. For this group of people, messages containing images, colorful charts, and objects are more effective than plain text. With this in mind, managers should make use of visual effects to deliver the message more efficiently during communication with employees. Presentations are the ideal way to communicate effectively with employees. It not only allows managers to present their message visually but also concisely and straight to the point. As a result, employees will be able to refer to the presentation in the future if needed. Videos are another useful visual tools. However, they demand more time and it is easy to get carried away and show more content than actually needed.

4. Videoconference with Remote Workers

Past months have shown an increase in remote workers all around the world. While this arrangement has many advantages, employers are afraid internal communication and employee collaboration suffer. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. With proper video conferencing tools and apps, employees can be well connected even when working remotely. Managers should make sure video conferences are timely scheduled and everyone is familiar with the agenda. Participants can clearly see each other so they have a feeling they are attending the real meeting. Before or after the meeting, managers can spare a couple of minutes and allow employees to catch up and chat. This way, all participants will relax and eagerly participate in discussions and brainstorming sessions.

5. Avoid Overwhelming Employees

Every day, employees are swamped with numerous pieces of information, especially on a busy day at the office. It is impossible for them to consume so much content all at once. It can cause them to feel stressed, anxious, and frustrated which can reflect poorly on their performance. For this reason, managers should use various channels for various message types. In accordance with employees, they can decide which channel should be used for which type of information. If something demands their immediate attention, then the corporate app is the place to send it to. When internal communication is organized, employees won’t feel overwhelmed. They will receive the most important messages and act accordingly.

6. Encourage Employees to Post on Social Media

Social media has finally found its way into the workplace. Every company has profiles on the most popular social networks. Managers can encourage their employees to either take over them for a day or post photos from the offices followed by an appropriate hashtag. This is the ideal opportunity to let everyone interested in joining the organization see what is it like from the inside. Also, the brand will become more exposed and it will attract greater attention. All employees should be encouraged to participate in the activities, but only if they want to. Forcing them will only cause the opposite effect.

About the author

Sarah Jessica Smith is a young blogger from Sydney. She is in love with life and all the things that can make her daily routine easier. She loves to write about business, marketing, productivity and workspace décor.

Modern intranets have completely replaced the dead, traditional intranets. Modern intranet solutions are more than a powerful collaboration solution. Implementing an intranet solution allows your employees to access valuable content anytime and from anywhere. It is a reliable tool that your employees can use to share knowledge and collaborate.

An intranet collaboration solution is a much-needed tool for an organization having a dispersed workforce. According to an estimation, one-third of the workforce of an organization will be mobile workforce in the next ten years. 70% of business professionals do their jobs remotely at least once a week. With this shift towards mobile and remote workforce, organizations require a digital workplace solution, a solution that is efficient, fast, secure, and provides all the required features and functionalities. 

It often takes too long to find and share documents. Modern intranet collaboration solutions offer document management and other features to solve the problems with traditional intranet solutions. Traditional intranet does not offer the functionalities and features required in modern organizations.

When you are using a modern collaboration solution, you want to make sure that it meets your expectations. For this, you need to measure its effectiveness.  

You need a plan to address your business needs with an intranet solution. As your intranet requirements change, you may need to make some changes in your collaboration solution as well. You also need to make sure that you measure the right things. 

The following are the metrics you can use to measure the effectiveness of your intranet collaboration solution.

• Usage and engagement
• Employee satisfaction
• Productivity

Usage and Engagement

It is important to see that employees use the intranet and understand its value. Measure their awareness of the intranet. See how often they access and use the collaboration solution each month. You can measure the usage and engagement of digital workplace solutions such as your integrated social channel, a newsroom, or an onboarding center. These are the solutions employees commonly use to connect and share information.

Engagement is more important than usage. You can determine the level of interaction to measure employee engagement. If they are accessing content, it doesn’t mean that they are engaging. Are they sharing content? Are they commenting? Make sure that they are participating in conversations.

Employee Satisfaction

The right collaboration solution can play an important role in improving overall employee satisfaction. The number of quality tools and development opportunities available at work influences employee engagement. When it comes to workplace satisfaction, most employees rank technology above office space, heating, and other physical aspects of the workplace.

There are different ways you can measure employee satisfaction such as user ratings, internal surveys, and polls, and the most important, changes in retention rate. 

To determine the shortcomings or limitations of your intranet collaboration solution, you can ask pointed questions about communication and collaboration. Now you need to make changes in your intranet collaboration solution to keep it relevant.

Productivity

Communication and collaboration are important but composing, sending and receiving emails reduce employee productivity. Although it is not easy to measure productivity, if your employees have been using an intranet collaboration solution for several months, you can determine the level of impact by comparing productivity metrics before and after the implementation of the intranet collaboration solution. 

A next-gen intranet collaboration solution can make you a forward-thinking organization. You can use an intranet collaboration solution as a powerful tool to address specific business challenges.

An effective intranet software connects local and remote employees and allows them to create, share and respond to content.

However, your intranet must evolve with your business. For this, you must measure the effectiveness of your intranet collaboration solution.