It’s no secret that a happy, engaged workforce is more driven and optimistic about their work. While not every day may be perfect, employers should continually do all they can to communicate with their staff, providing an open forum for employee feedback, discussion, and ideas sharing. In this article, we consider 5 key benefits of effective employee communication and the positive impact it can bring.
Advantages of employee communication
Here we have five of the key benefits of effective employee communication, with guidance for employers on what needs to be done to reap these rewards.
Loyalty
The first ultimate advantage of employee communication when it is done right, is loyalty. Loyal employees are much more likely to be happier and engaged at work, encouraging a positive spirit with their colleagues, and have an overall positive sentiment towards the company and its culture.
Employee loyalty and job satisfaction often go hand in hand. Retention of employees is a key element of business success, and there is a greater chance of improved retention when staff are satisfied at work.
Loyalty can take a variety of forms, whether it’s tenure, consistent exceptional delivery in their role, or living out the values of the business. Employees can be empowered by strong leaders, therefore it falls upon leaders and managers to cultivate a positive, encouraging working environment, showing that each individual is valued for their contributions.
So, how do we achieve employee loyalty?
Working relationships are reciprocal, and therefore employers and managers must also show loyalty to their teams. This can take many forms, such as:
- Trusting in the abilities of individuals to get the job done
- Showing recognition and fair reward for great work
- Encourage a strong work-life balance
- Effectively training managers to support their teams with good communication skills
- Offering opportunities to grow, progress and develop
- Listening to employee feedback and fostering open discussion
Teamwork
There is more to cross-departmental collaboration than awkward ice-breakers on away days. Meeting colleagues in other teams not only helps to find people with similar interests but can make it easier for effective communication and collaboration when the time comes for them to work together on a project.
Having informal connections with colleagues can help to speed up the sometimes slow starts to projects when people are unfamiliar with one another. It can also make it easier to approach these people when we can put a face to a name and know a little more about them.
By creating a space to communicate and share ideas, thoughts, hobbies and interests on an internal platform, there becomes an opportunity for colleagues to spark discussions and friendly debates with those they may not usually interact with, no matter where they are based.
Why is communication important for teamwork?
Collaborative working environments, whether they are face-to-face or digital, can be a lot more enjoyable when there is a sense of camaraderie. Furthermore, it can feel easier to voice concerns or counter-arguments when people are more comfortable with one another, therefore having a strong, connected team that is confident with effective communication could even lead to better ideas.
Engagement
Feeling engaged at work is all-encompassing; it spans job satisfaction, a desire to learn more, and to bring the company values to life.
Using tools like employee communication apps or software that is easily accessible to staff in all roles across all sites is key to keeping colleagues engaged, both in their day-to-day roles and in the broader sense of work and the culture of the company. An additional benefit of using an app means that staff can access it at a time that suits them, so all employees have equal opportunities to stay up to date with news and to find relevant tools and resources whenever required
When using intranet and employee communication apps, sharing updates that are personalised to the employee makes it feel more relevant, similar to a social media feed that prioritises content that the algorithm thinks will be best received. By mirroring that style, employees can scroll through news and updates that are not only necessary but tailored to them. The more relevant the content feels, the more likely they are to engage with it.
How can we use communication to boost engagement?
An example of how we used communication and engagement to complement one another was with ScS. Outdated communication systems caused a roadblock for effective employee communication and collaboration, leaving employees struggling to feel engaged or find relevant information. We helped them to revamp their internal communications with a modern intranet and employee app which significantly improved employee engagement, up to a rate of 98% in a quarter. Employees can now easily access information, resources and relevant tools whenever necessary, wherever they are.
This success story goes to show that to reap the benefits of effective employee communication, the platform you use is often as important as the communication itself.
Improved productivity
Another significant advantage of employee communication done right is improved productivity.
Of course, greater levels of productivity mean that work can be completed more efficiently and to a high standard. By reducing distractions and noise from corporate communications, employees can access the resources they need quickly and crack on with their work.
Why is communication important in achieving this?
We are all about communication, but it is so important to strike the right balance between informative, entertaining, and overload. If colleagues have to scroll through a lot of pages or folders to find one particular document, this is going to negatively impact employee productivity, so you need to make it as easy as possible for people to find what they need.
By providing the right tools in an organised manner, through quick links and easy access, your employees will thank you for streamlining their search.
Another great way to ensure that all the relevant information is easily accessible is by using AI to curate content in feeds specific to the user, their job and the projects they are involved in. By receiving targeted, relevant information, they have all they need to do their job without unnecessary distraction.
Culture
The fifth benefit of effective employee communication is culture. Effective employee communication demonstrates openness and trust between employees and leaders. When leadership is transparent with news and updates, particularly when sharing on an internal communications platform, it creates a direct line from them to their staff which can encourage healthy employee feedback. Communicating like this can remove some essence of silos and hierarchy that can often lead to tensions around culture, and instead promote more effective communication across the whole company.
Company culture goes further than that, though. Culture is an all-encompassing feeling and includes living out company values, doing things the right way, and empowering employees in all that they do.
How to empower employees using an internal communication platform
We can empower employees by making their jobs easier and making them feel seen, heard and valued.
Providing employees and teams with all of the resources they need to do their job effectively, and enabling them easy access to it through an integration with your internal communication platform is one aspect that can show consideration for job satisfaction. It is also a lot more efficient and tidy to keep everything on one platform.
Culture extends beyond the day-to-day work and as such, creating opportunities to reward your employees through activities is a great way to celebrate the company culture and the team. Offering equal opportunities for people across sites to get involved is key; for example, it wouldn’t be fair to give HQ all of the perks when the deskless staff never reap the benefits. Tailor your internal communications to each site or group of employees using your intranet, but ensure that the culture infiltrates all aspects of the business, not just the most convenient one.
An internal communications software or app can greatly improve employee engagement which can ultimately lead to success visualised through these benefits of effective employee communication.
Click below to register your interest for a free demo by our expert team and we will be in touch to arrange this with you.
