Workplace productivity is the key to a successful business. Your employees need to feel energized and ready to tackle any assignment with eagerness. That requires a pleasant work atmosphere and great communication between everyone involved. But it doesn’t come overnight. You need to work on it together.
A great way to foster workplace productivity is to improve internal communication. When everyone’s communicating openly and successfully, it’s easy to guide them in becoming a great team. Nurturing positive and effective internal communication can work wonders for any team. And, if you’re not convinced that internal communication should be one of your top priorities, just keep reading. We’ve prepared a list of 9 ways it will foster your workplace productivity.
Let’s take a closer look.
Defined Assignments
Proper internal communication in a workplace starts from the top. Team leaders and senior members of the team need to communicate with everyone in a clear way to set an example and avoid misunderstandings.
The most important thing they need to do is to define everyone’s assignments clearly:
- what’s everyone in the team supposed to do
- what are the expectations
- what are the goals
If the top management uses open communication to set the expectations and goals, everyone will know exactly what to focus on. There’ll be no room for confusion, procrastinating, or making mistakes.
The productivity level will increase for sure.
Adequate Mentorship
Your workplace is filled with different kinds of people. Some have been in the company for years, while others have just joined your team.
To make sure the productivity level is high with everyone, you need to ensure they’ve got each other’s back. And, internal communication means:
- adequate mentorship for the new team members
- guidance
- being able to ask for advice
- solving dilemmas
- reaching mutual solutions
Your team members need to help each other out and be there when things go wrong. Experienced ones need to be patient with the new ones and help train them into becoming brilliant.
This strengthens the core of the team and creates a healthy workplace. That undoubtedly boosts the productivity of everyone in the team.
Cross-Department Collaboration
Your company might have several different departments working on a single project. The project goes from one department to another, often going back and forth until everything is settled.
And, if internal communication isn’t top-notch, things can easily go wrong.
The truth is, with cross-department collaboration, there can be all kind of bumps in the road:
- misunderstandings
- not respecting the deadlines
- not doing a proper preparation for the next department
- keeping the project with you for too long
- giving unclear instructions for the next department
- data loss
- data safety issues
- waiting too long to correct the mistakes and send the project back
This process can be extremely time-consuming and exhausting for everyone. But, if the departments are communicating properly, the project should run smoothly. Get help from internal communication tricks such as:
- team collaboration tools
- daily or weekly meetings
- team-building sessions
- project briefs
Make sure everyone’s on the same page, and communication will run smoothly and safely in all departments.
Performance Reports
Another form of positive internal communication is the monthly performance report for all the teams and team members. Discussing how everyone performed in the previous month is an important segment of internal communication that will help everyone improve.
Here’s what it implies:
- setting and measuring KPIs
- gathering numbers and data on the monthly performance
- organizing this information in a report
- presenting and discussing the report
If your team members can see and talk about how they did the previous month, they’ll know how to perform better the following.
In case you need help with writing and presenting the results of your report, an academic writing service online can help you out since it’s very similar to a dissertation discussion. Make sure your reports are visually appealing, so use Canva or Mentimeter for your presentations.
Mutual Trust
Isolation and loneliness are not something you want people to feel in the workplace. But, even when surrounded by colleagues and team leaders, some employees still feel alone.
This is due to a lack of internal communication. That also implies:
- lack of trust between colleagues
- the fear and pressure of making a mistake
- doubting your colleagues
- trying to do it all by yourself
All of the above leads to a disaster. Instead, work on fostering internal communication to build trust between the employees and create a team that never stops talking, working, and reaching their goals.
Less Stress
Workplace stress is a productivity killer. No team can work efficiently when they’re feeling tense or anxious about each move that they make. And, fostering a stress-free workplace atmosphere has a lot to do with improved internal communication.
It’s simple:
- improved internal communication encourages, motivates, and helps employees do their job better
- there’s no judgment or pointing fingers
- everyone’s working together
That means that no one in the team will carry all the pressure on their shoulders. They won’t feel pressured about making a mistake, failing, or being judged.
With improved internal communication, everyone’s working together and sharing the potential stress that might appear, making it far less impactful.
This type of work atmosphere will boost job satisfaction with your employees, and as a result, boost their productivity as well.
Time-Management
Internal communication can significantly influence how you manage your projects and how well your team completes them. It improves time-management on everyone’s side and helps people work in unison.
When your employees are communicating openly and efficiently, they’re able to:
- prioritize tasks
- improve their work efficiency
- organize their work hours
- invest mutual efforts into reaching a goal
With less confusion, there’s less time-wasting. Instead of wasting time on endless discussions, questions, and follow-ups, they’ll be able to focus on a goal and reach it fast.
That’s the beauty of great internal communication.
Feedback
The power of quality and solid feedback should never be underestimated. Feedback can be the fuel your team needs to work harder and improve their performance and efficiency.
And, the key to great feedback lies in solid internal communication.
Here’s what we have in mind:
- team leaders and managers give positive and negative feedback
- they ask for employee feedback and listen to what they have to say
This way, everyone’s got the chance to improve and offer more to the rest of the team. Team leaders learn from their employees, and employees receive the information and response they want to hear.
With regular feedback nurtured as a part of your internal communication policy, you’ll have better employees and improved team spirit.
Employee Engagement
Finally, there’s one last reason why internal communication will boost your workplace productivity, and that’s employee engagement.
With open and stable internal communication, everyone in the team will feel like they’re equally as important as everyone else. That will encourage them to be more active and participate in building an even more stable team.
Your team members will be ready to step up and get engaged in:
- pitching innovative ideas
- discussing new opportunities
- suggesting solutions to a problem
- contributing to the team success
This way, your team engagement will be significantly improved, and as a result, your team productivity will jump through the roof.
Final Thoughts
Internal communication is important for a team to function properly. Without it, all you have is a bunch of professionals trying to do their job but not managing to reach their full potential.
Hopefully, the list provided above helped you realize just how important and valuable internal communication is. Use it as inspiration and start nurturing the same policy with your team.
By Helene Cue