Internal communications remain an incredibly important part of your business’s overall functionality. Your internal communications often determine the effectiveness of your ability to spread information throughout the company, whether you need to spread the news about changes in company policy or there’s information about training that employees need. Often, however, you miss out on some of the most important details. Have you considered how IT can help with your company’s overall internal communications?
1. Look for Faster Ways to Deliver Messages
With an increasing number of millennials and even members of Gen Z in the workplace, employees are looking for fast, effective methods of communication. They don’t want to have to wait for emails to come through or use clunky paper messages. Instead, talk with your IT team about how you can streamline communications in the office, often with solutions you already have available. The IT team might be able to help you use the company’s existing internal apps or programs to their full advantage, or they might be able to suggest new messaging platforms or apps that can help get the word out to the entire company.
2. Integrate Remote Employees
Today’s employees can work from anywhere, often at times when the rest of the company isn’t even in the office. Remote employees make up an increasing percentage of many business populations. Not only that, 68% of millennials admit to a higher level of interest in a position that offers at least some remote work, and those employees who do work remotely would like to increase the amount of time they can spend working from home.
Thanks to the latest advances in technology, remote employees don’t have to be forgotten when the time comes to share information throughout the company as a whole. Instead, work with the IT team to increase communication opportunities and ensure that your remote employees are as fully integrated as possible. This simple step can also make remote employees feel more valued, in turn increasing their overall job satisfaction.
3. Learn What Tools You Need
Did you know that video can substantially change the way employees interact with one another from different locations? Simply seeing someone else’s face can change the way employees interact with one another. Not only that, video communications can take a lot of the guesswork out of the communications process, since they allow employees to see each other’s faces and expressions. Video technology may also offer more effective audio connections than simple conference calls, especially if callers are on speaker.
Work with your IT team to get a better idea of what tools will enhance internal communications throughout the company. Talk with them about how to improve video or how to offer better devices to your team members. The IT team can provide a more thorough breakdown of which tools will genuinely help the company reach its goals and which ones will ultimately show themselves as an expensive waste.
4. Get IT to Help Track Internal Communications Success
In addition to contributing valuable advice to the process of creating an internal communication strategy or making it work, the IT team can also provide vital assistance in another area: they can track the success of your current strategy. Often, the IT team can work with internal communications to get a better idea of how effectively your current strategy is working. They may be able to help more effectively track employee engagement or give you a solid idea of how much time employees are currently spending with your existing internal communications platform. IT can also help track disengagement, including how many hours employees are spending on their devices on other tasks.
The IT team often has a better idea of what employees throughout the company actually spend the business day doing than any other department. IT typically has the ability to track usage on every computer or device on the company network. They can see what apps and programs users are using, what websites they are visiting most often, and even what emails they’re sending. As a result, the IT team frequently has a solid picture of what’s going on throughout the company–and often, they will help you better understand your current successes and failures, if you’re willing to ask.
5. Take Advantage of Analysis and Metrics
The IT team often has access to a number of tools that can help track the effectiveness of your internal communications policies and efforts. They can help create surveys or help predict roadblocks. By working with the IT team, you can break down usage of various programs, including both how much time is actually spent using the program and how much use it sees compared to other, similar ones. What programs are employees really using to communicate? This is particularly effective when you have just launched a new internal communications solution: is training working effectively? Do people really know how to use it? Are they making the switch to use it, or clinging to old tools? By working with your IT team, you can use their analytic tools to improve your understanding of internal communication effectiveness.
6. Involve IT in Training
Are you using a new program to help enhance your company’s internal communications efforts? Often, the IT team can help you train employees on how to use those valuable programs. Without training, employees may struggle to learn how to use a new program–or, in a worst-case scenario, employees might not use it at all, preferring instead to turn to their usual methods of sharing information. By utilizing the IT team, on the other hand, you can train employees in the new system, helping them improve communication effectiveness.
Your IT team is an incredibly valuable player when it comes time to start tracking your internal communications efforts. You know that effective internal communication can transform employee engagement and create employees who are more informed about everything going on throughout the company. Need more tips to help transform your internal communication strategy or how the IT team can help? Contact us today.
