Good Internal Communication Drives Success
While small and medium-sized businesses are often viewed as separate from larger enterprises, the truth is effective internal communications is important for businesses of any size. Even companies who believe all their team members are collaborating and interacting efficiently can benefit from reassessing internal communications and making a few adjustments to the legacy solutions in place. In a recent Small Business Computing article, contributor Janine Popick shared a number of tips for improving internal communications and growing a business.
“After being in business for 12 years, I’ve seen my company grow from a handful of employees wearing lots of hats, to more than a hundred people in many departments who are quite specialized in their day-to-day tasks,” Popick wrote. “However, when folks become more specialized and focused, they often lose sight of the big picture. That’s when having effective internal communication becomes vital. For instance, some of your managers may communicate to their teams while others don’t, leaving part of your company in the know and others in the dark. This can cause ‘water-cooler chat’ (which can happen in any case, to be honest) that can be unproductive and untrue.”
Tips for Improving Internal Communications
Popick provided numerous internal communication tips for small business owners, including holding regular company-wide meetings to keep everyone on the same page. Inviting every employee to attend business forums is one way to help each team member better understand his or her individual role in achieving company goals.
For SMBs with a particularly distributed workforce, technology can be a key component for collaborating across all departments. While SMBs likely have significantly different budgets and resources to work with than their larger enterprise counterparts, business decision makers can still invest in virtual office phone solutions that can fit any company’s specific needs. In another recent Small Business Computing article, contributor Pedro Hernandez said that any small business looking to succeed in 2013 can benefit from a top-to-bottom analysis of its business systems and procedures, as outdated ways of conducting business can hamper a company’s success. Updating technology by implementing PBX for business from AccessDirect can come in handy for conducting company-wide meetings and making sure all employees feel important and have a voice.
Internal Communication Ideas
Popick also recommended publishing a monthly company email newsletter comprised of updates from each department or area of business.
“Ask different members to contribute to fresh content each month, and make sure to provide shout-outs to teams and individuals that exceed goals or have stellar accomplishments,” Popick wrote. “You also can promote amazing customers – the reason you’re in business. Reminding the team why you’re doing what you’re doing is always great.”
Best Practices for Internal Communications
Other internal communications tips that Popick shared included adopting an open door policy and getting out of the office environment to foster relationships with employees in a relaxed, fun setting. This approach to team building can have many advantages, as eliminating barriers can encourage employees to interact with management in an entirely different way.
While improving internal communications is dependent largely on the behavior of business leaders, investing in communications technologies like a virtual PBX system from AccessDirect can be an integral part of the equation. As Business 2 Community contributor Jeannie Walters noted, once the appropriate technologies are put in place to enable effective interaction, then strategies can shift focus away from what is being said and toward how it is being said instead.
Looking to improve internal communications at your business? AccessDirect can help you with one of our virtual phone systems.
