Any excellent communication channel can be customised. This is especially important in a hybrid work environment and can really help improve the employee experience. Here are some tips for improving your company's communication channels.
Make the content more engaging to motivate employees It's no secret that working remotely is quite difficult to stay motivated throughout the working day. Remote workers feel less connected to the company, are less involved, and therefore not as interested in company success. An important role in this is played by the lack of communication with managers and colleagues.
We advise you to make your content more engaging, publish more videos, messages from managers (the more sincere and lively, the better), conduct surveys and show employees that you care about them. You can also think about the possibility of holding interactive events that can be participated in regardless of location.
When you are planning compensations and incentives for employees, such as workshops, gift cards, courses, etc., remember that not everyone will be comfortable using them offline and pay attention to online resources.
Make calls more like real meetings After the start of the pandemic, the number of calls and meetings has increased dramatically, the fact is that it is easier to call and quickly discuss the issue than to describe it in a chat. Previously, we could have asked colleagues sitting next to us directly, but now we have to waste time on setting up online conversations. To minimise the time spent on calls, as well as build a comfortable working environment, we suggest using the following ideas:
- Consult with the teams and choose the best call format. Decide whether it is more convenient for employees in the office to get together and participate in a call from one device, or for everyone to connect from a personal laptop. The main condition is that all employees should have the opportunity to speak and everyone should feel comfortable.
- Encourage employees to treat online calls like regular meetings. Before, when we got together before a meeting, we used to have friendly chat and discuss any topic. While with an online meeting, everyone usually sits silently and waits for colleagues to get together.
- The use of web cameras helps in creating a friendly atmosphere during calls. Encourage employees to turn on cameras so they can see each other, pay attention to emotions and body language.
- Many modern tools help make calls more engaging and interactive: boards, polls and surveys, breakout rooms. Sometimes it gets boring on calls, especially if several of them go in a row. Therefore, adding five or ten minutes of interactive and relaxing time to the meeting plan can be useful.
Make sure information is easy to access anytime, anywhere As we have already said, in the current situation it is important that all employees are comfortable while consuming information, because everyone is in different conditions. This includes:
- The ability to consume content both during working hours and at any other time.
- The ability to do this both from a computer and from a smartphone.
- Asynchrony, you should not force employees to connect at a certain time using the specific link. Let them have the opportunity to read and see the information they need at any time.
- Adaptive layout of internal emails and corporate portal. The employee should be able to read them without problems from any device.
Train managers to support employees The role of the manager after the start of the pandemic has grown because it is the manager who performs the most important function of the communication channel between the company and employees. Teams in which managers occupy an active position in the work process and help the employee with the organisation and execution of tasks show a greater level of engagement and job satisfaction.
A manager must be a person and a friend in the eyes of employees. Especially those who are at a distance. Here's how you can help managers with this daunting task:
- Give them the tools they need. A manager may not know or understand how to properly use tools for teamwork, communications, planning, and creating presentations. And that's okay. Conversely, a manager may be prevented from using a more convenient or functional tool. In this case, you need to listen to a different point of view and make the right choice, perhaps the tool used in the company is really outdated. The goal of a professional internal communication specialist is to ensure that managers know and can use the necessary applications for communication in the company.
- Provide training on communications, team leadership, survey conduction, and feedback gathering. These skills are vital to being a good leader and will benefit your employees. The better you train them, the higher the result will be - the engagement of employees.