There is often discord and poor alliance within a workplace, regardless of its remote working status and its dire effect on employees and profits alike. Working in a fragmented/disorganized workplace causes fear and isolation among employees, with separate departments unable to connect due to ineffective or non-existent communication.
This, in turn, puts a strain on internal HR and IT teams and puts pressure on already outdated technologies. Employees feel unheard, powerless, isolated, and disconnected.
Successful communication is vital
A successful approach to communication can greatly improve all aspects of a business. Universal remote work in 2020-21 may have changed the playing field forever, and the methods have shifted from the primarily office-based environment in which many professionals are familiar with today’s issues; Lack of trust and understanding leads to skepticism and the potential for conflict. It can bring work frustrations to the fore and make employees feel isolated. Transparency is the best way to go, but it is not always easy.
There is a wealth of software designed to solve this exact problem, and digitally savvy companies have options when it comes to expanding their technology stack. However, the shiny new tools will not solve the fundamental problems that prevent successful communication within an organization. Strategies are much more than sharing information; Instead, it’s the basic understanding and analysis behind messaging and the way employees perceive their professional lives.
Intranets drive more engagement
Understanding the importance of communication in the workplace means taking positive steps to actively and caringly engage employees. Regular checks in the right framework make part of the team want to be part of the team, even if the new hybrid office is so dispersed.
Communication professionals and team leaders are especially important when it comes to finding new ways to interact and start the conversation from the top-down, creating a positive atmosphere and maintaining strong relationships. Executives have to lead, and that starts from the moment a new hire signs up to their last day at the company office.
Worried about your fragmented workforce? Here are the areas you should focus on:
1. Strong leadership
A good leadership team often makes the difference between a company’s success or failure. Having inspiring leaders trusted by the overall employees has a powerful on the organization’s performance. Encouraging constant communication helps employees avoid the feeling of having to grope in the dark, especially during difficult times. Executives using multiple communication channels give themselves a voice within a company.
Intranets are a great way to get a message across without the team having to be face to face. Using multiple platforms to engage with employees can be a great way to promote culture, reward teamwork, and lead by example.
2. A positive workplace culture
Everyone sitting in the same office for 9 hours a day doesn’t automatically create a strong culture. Treating office and remote workers as an important part of the organization so they feel valued and not easy to replace will foster digital comradeship.
Using a powerful tool like an intranet creates a positive work culture, especially when a business expands in multiple locations whether in the same country or globally. It enables employees to talk to like-minded colleagues and meet people outside of their department. Communities are often used for work projects or personal hobbies and everything in between.
3. Align business goals
Taking responsibility for employees is not only a welcome responsibility, but it also demonstrates confidence and keeps them focused on having a significant impact on important business goals. This clear responsibility inspires people to jointly develop a common vision that remains the same regardless of whether employees work in the office or from home.
Be transparent with defined metrics and results to improve performance and productivity so everyone understands the requirements and therefore common goals of the team. Grouping employees into intranet helps distribute content effectively, and building email lists allows employees to only receive relevant business updates. This step informs when necessary and prevents the information from just being a dumping factor.
4. Finger on the heartbeat
Emphasizing culture and achieving better results go hand in hand. Promoting wellness and monitoring the heart rate of an organization supports a people-centered culture and reduces staff turnover.
Using surveys to see the psychological state of employees and measure their effectiveness in times of high stress can be an excellent way to monitor their progress and stay on top of problems in specific areas. Working with employees through the right channels ensures that a team will remain happy and motivated no matter where they are.
5. Tailored communications
For larger companies, content relevance is vital to ensure that employees stay engaged in day-to-day business affairs without seeing multiple updates that don’t interest them. Managing workflow and adjusting the experience to enable focused data exchange prevents employees from being overwhelmed or easily distracted.
Optimizing internal communication allows teams to identify what content is useful to them and avoid anything that is not valuable. For example, information relevant to the French marketing team is not useful to a US-based development team.
6. Reward top talent
Rewarding deserved employees within the workforce can be a motivating way to foster diligence and collaboration between teams.
Creating a culture that crosses borders and even continents requires a conscious top-down effort to promote peer recognition, consciously embody and promote company values at all levels of the organization.
7. Train your champions
Businesses are constantly evolving and changing, and that’s where training comes in. Counting on each department’s requirements, training is often built, scheduled, and assessed through the intranet, tailored to the requirements of staff within their own roles.
Teaching employees about cool new intranet features or training up new internal champions allows them to become intranet experts at the guts of a corporation. Having the proper people during this position promotes the software throughout the business, representing the culture and overall messaging that the corporate wants to portray.
8. Show them that you belong there
Intranets are often important in bringing a fragmented workforce together and creating a sense of belonging to the workforce once any suggestion is accepted. Whether the team works in the office or from home or hybrid, onboarding is often a welcome introduction to corporate culture and encourages engagement from the start.
Nobody likes to find themselves in the background of a new job with little communication; leads to a bad employee experience and ultimately higher turnover. The intranet enables onboarding management from a central location to ensure that required documents are read and new hires understand exactly what is expected of their new role.
Improve your workplace now with Intranets from Sciqus.