By: Kim Carroll – Bayshore Solutions Director of Human Resources
Social Media has made communication something of a global obsession. Something that’s not so apparent is the importance of internal communications in any business. This is the channel where employers and their staff, have a chance to share information and talk to each other, and create a mutual understanding between management and their teams.
Studies show that a quality internal communication can yield many positive outcomes, like employee’s commitment, engagement, motivation, sense of belonging, organizational success and business results. It’s important for any organization to explain their vision and strategy to their employees, so that people can align their individual objectives accordingly. When done properly, employees should know how their efforts and the role they play, contribute to the overall success of the organization. This in turn will help keep people engaged and motivated. Your employees are your ambassadors. Make them a part of the solution, engage them in the decision making process, ask for their feedback, and let them know that they are important.
How do you do this?
There are many tools that can be used when communicating internally. First and foremost is making the time to have face to face meetings with your employees. Having monthly town hall meetings is a great example of this. This venue allows management an opportunity to express important company information while allowing staff to ask questions. But beware of unadulterated honesty in hard times. This can lead to lower morale. When employees are being communicated at, not with, it could potentially lead to cynicism. Keep your goal in mind. Internal communication should be about leaving the members of your staff educated, informed, and inspired.
Another channel of internal communication that you may want to consider is providing employees with weekly email updates or monthly newsletters that demonstrates management commitment to keeping staff informed at all levels. Newsletters can include company information, latest projections, client updates, new staff members and more.
Employee feedback is crucial to the engagement of your teams. Instilling a formal employee feedback process through company surveys or focus groups, allows continual measurements and evaluation of successful employee contributions.
Why does employee engagement matter?
When employees feel valued and that they genuinely matter, morale goes up and productivity goes up. Employees want a sense of belonging. They want an immediate supervisor that cares, belief in senior leadership, and pride in working for the company. An engaged workforce is one that feels fully part of the organization’s business goals and plans. Engagement is the act of building communal ownership and accountability, for what your business or organization stands for and must achieve.
It’s leadership’s challenge and responsibility to meaningfully engage the workforce. The employees are the people who will move an organization from good to great and beyond. It’s a fact of modern business life. Leaders at all levels must do more than just tell employees what to do. Instead, they must engage employees, communicate with employees, and seek their input in a way that connects them to business goals. In other words, leaders must show employees how their actions will help the organization succeed and how they will benefit from that success.
Internal communications enhances the credibility of both the communication process and leadership’s decisions. If employees feel like they can voice their opinions or concerns or ask questions in a comfortable environment, they have a tendency to continue to work hard for you and contribute to the overall bottom line. Keep your employees involved in the evolution and you will see your workforce evolve.
The engagement and development of our co-workers is central to Bayshore Solutions’ values. Click here to see a sample of the culture we have built in our organization. Contact us to connect our highly engaged team to helping grow your business.
Kim Carroll is a Director of Human Resources at Bayshore Solutions—a Web Design, Web Development, and Digital Marketing Company.