There are a few basic necessities to sustaining a healthy life – food and water of course being two of these. The same principle can be applied to maintaining a healthy company – the necessary flow of information – being instrumental to an organization’s ongoing success and growth. Open and honest company communications – like ripples on a pond – spread throughout the workforce, boosting morale and productivity.
Employees need to feel that they play an important part in the success of a firm and are included in their employer’s progress. A company that doesn’t promote open communications with its workforce risks being seen as lackadaisical towards the organization – or even worse – alienating its employees altogether. Morale is contagious – and good feelings towards a firm need to be encouraged at every turn.
It’s easy for silos to form within an organization, where one department or division doesn’t have any idea of what the other groups are doing. "In growing organizations, employees often have no idea what’s going on in other departments. Marketing, sales, and customer support don’t communicate, which means these teams might as well be operating as entirely different companies. When crucial information isn’t flowing between departments, these silos crush productivity and ultimately stifle growth," says David Hassell in 'Four Steps for Building a Culture of Open Communication' on forbes.com.
"Operating on a need-to-know basis is a costly choice for small businesses. A small business needs the complete commitment and participation of all its employees. Creating an atmosphere of open communication contributes to a more vibrant, creative workforce where all employees have a deep understanding of the goals of the business and what needs to be done to accomplish those goals. Open communication gives everyone equal participation in the success of the business," from 'How to Create Open Communication in the Workplace' by Bridgette Redman, studioD.
Keeping Communications Flowing & Personalized…
There are many technologies available today dedicated to helping people communicate. One that is specifically designed to help an organization’s human resources efforts – for HR, managers and employees - is an HR Service Delivery solution. These systems provide personalized, employee-centric Self-Service Portals, offering each individual the tools and information designed to help them more fully interact with their managers and colleagues.
Self-Service Portals help facilitate company communications through secure internal survey, chat and request management tools; plus integration with a personalized knowledge base.
HR Service Delivery’s integrated communication tools include satisfaction surveys to measure ongoing employee satisfaction in real time; live chat providing direct access with HR - all from an individual’s personalized portal. Now that’s encouraging open communications.
Find out more about the benefits of HR Shared Services from the HR Trend Institute in a recent piece titled ‘6 major trends in HR Shared Services.’
