Top 5 Ways to Effective Communication in the Workplace

The way you communicate with your employees, and how they communicate with each other, is extremely important. Effective communication is ...

The way you communicate with your employees, and how they communicate with each other, is extremely important. Effective communication is the best way to get things done and keep employees engaged and informed. Unfortunately, effective communication isn’t necessarily what you think.

Stopping by someone’s desk may be the fastest way to communicate, but it may not be the best way. Same goes for emails and phone calls. Instead, rethink how you communicate in the office with these tech tips.

Top Five Ways to Effective Communication in the Workplace

1. Post to a Newsfeed

Email is convenient, but it’s a little too convenient. That’s what makes it so annoying to your employees. Because it’s so easy to send a message, many people send messages when they really shouldn’t, which just clutters everyone’s inboxes. Most employees aren’t a big fan of mass emails either.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t things you need to communicate to multiple employees! Instead of cluttering their inboxes with messages that may not even get read, create a company newsfeed.

A newsfeed can be updated whenever you want, and employees can visit the newsfeed page whenever they’re looking for updates on the latest happenings and news in the company. If you really want to make sure employees don’t miss important information, make the company page everyone’s home page when they log into their computer for the day.

2. Set up Alerts

Things get busy fast at work. Although it can be frustrating, it isn’t uncommon for employees, and even you, to forget important events or meetings. You can make sure no one forgets important dates and events by setting up alerts.

Not only can you get alerts on your phone, you can also set up alerts on your computer. When enabled, you can ensure employee-facing websites will notify users of important information by displaying an alert on their computer.

You can also find specialized communication platforms that will display red alerts front and center every time employees log into the program.

3. Create Department Portals

There’s nothing more frustrating than feeling like you’re wasting time. That’s exactly what your employees are likely to feel if they have to comb through irrelevant messages and information to make sure there isn’t important information they need to know regarding their specific department.

Cut down on the time wasted combing through information that doesn’t pertain to some of your employees by creating department portals. With a unique portal page, you can post department-specific news and alerts that people in those departments can see right away, all without the need to maintain multiple mass email lists and clutter everyone’s inboxes with messages.

4. Create FAQ Pages

FAQ pages are very helpful on many different websites. They are a quick and easy way for customers and clients to find the answers to common questions, without them having to email, message, or call your business to get their questions answered. A FAQ page can be helpful for your employees too.

That includes answering questions for new employees, as well as long-term employees. A few examples of questions you can answer on a FAQ page include:

• How do I view important information, like my benefits and vacation time?
• What is the best way to take time off?
• How do I sign up for automatic payroll deposits?
• How do I alter my time log if I made a mistake?
• Who do I contact to change personal information, like my address?
• How are employee evaluations conducted?

It’s especially helpful if you treat your FAQ page as an evolving platform. As employees ask questions, consider adding those questions to the list for future employees to reference.

5. Rethink Meetings

Most companies schedule too many meetings. By using the tips on this list, you can more effectively disseminate information, which means you can reduce the number of meetings you schedule.

However, you can’t eliminate meetings completely. That means making sure you are properly prepared before the meeting starts.

Make sure your WiFi connection is solid, get everything plugged in, and do a trial run before everyone arrives. You can also get more out of your meetings if you invest in tech, like an interactive whiteboard and wireless presentation equipment, so you never have to scramble to find the right cord again.

Don’t communicate with your employees the way you want just because it’s easy for you. Do them a favor and find ways to communicate that are easy for them and keep employees engaged and informed. Everyone in the office will appreciate you following the tech tips on this list.