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  • Company culture

5 communication tips every team should know

Aude Creveau
Aude Creveau

If every city and business in the UK worked to the average level of productivity and efficiency, you'd increase the economy by 203 billion. But not everyone is at that level of productivity, which can severely reduce your profits and hurt your business.

There's no good excuse for letting bad team communication and inefficient work drag you down. You could improve your team communication with just a few simple tips.

Here are 5 ways to improve team communication for better efficiency and higher productivity.

1. Clearly set roles

When people on a team don't know what their role is, they'll be more likely to step on one another's toes. While some people might want dominion over certain responsibilities, you need to draw lines.

Some people might be irked at first, but eventually, they'll see the value in having a clear role at work and respect other peoples' boundaries.

Any time instructions are unclear, you open up space for people to get confused and upset one another. Lack of effective team communication is the root of most conflicts at work. Most of the problems that people face with their coworkers are resolved by giving everyone the role that suits them. They need to know what's expected of them and what they're responsible for.

Don't expect perfection every time. Make sure it's clear that there is room for mistakes.

If you move one responsibility from someone who has had it historically to someone else, that person might feel jilted and scrutinise the new person. If they're under tight scrutiny, they're unlikely to perform to the degree that they could.

When you're working on a new project, consider creating a responsibility chart and implementing a project management process. Break the project up into a series of tasks with the team and assign things to each one of your team members. This ensures that people who are doing work are the most appropriate person for the job.

whiteboard-with-projected-outline

2. Training

If you want to ensure that your team communication is as clear as possible. You need to train them to communicate if you want to improve morale around your office. One of the ways to train them is on how to deal with physical and psychological boundaries.

You need plenty of online tools to help you as well. Make sure that your onboarding process includes training in those tools, more about the company culture, and how to set boundaries with the body and spoken language.

Using the right language and the right boundaries ensures that people feel like they're both able to speak openly and to be heard.

Glass-enclosed offices and meeting rooms advertise a sense of transparency. Make sure that people know they can come to one another for guidance or to offer feedback at any time. It's important that you keep channels for team communication open because the alternative is that people will build animosity over small things they should talk about.

Having weekly meetings is important, but having the ability for immediate feedback can work wonders.

3. Get to know them

People who are new to a team need to be brought into the fold in a fun and exciting way to ensure that they don't have any unnecessary awkwardness.

Team spirit means keeping channels open and giving every member the opportunity to feel invested in their work. They should be invested in more than just getting through the day. When you keep the energy up, everyone will celebrate the outcome together.

Team building getaways aren't perfect for everyone. Those kooky games and obstacle courses aren't always the most productive way to get people to get along.

You want your team to talk to one another in a real way, in an informal space where the vibe is fun and social.

Bring everyone out for lunch once a month on a Friday. Invite members out to a local bar or restaurant for an after work soda or cocktail. This ensures that everyone has the chance to communicate in an honest way where there won't be so much talk about work and people can break the ice.

If there's a local sports centre nearby, consider putting together a basketball team or a softball team. You could give the energetic members of your team the chance to get out some energy and the rest of the team can cheer them on.

dinner-for-team-building

4. Make resources available to them

When it comes to harmonising team communication, you need to ensure that people have the resources they need the moment they need them. Both, team communication and collaboration are going to improve when they have tools that collect and gather company documents

Your team needs to have tools that are up and running 24/7. Make sure your IT department has all the support they need so they can support the rest of your staff. Find tools that are accessible from home or with a virtual machine to keep your teams productive day and night.

5. Get a good time tracking tool

When working on managing a new project, having a time and attendance system is vital. You can not only see what kind of time you're using on the current project, but you can also compare it to past projects.

If your employees need to know how much time they have to complete a task, they can refer to the tool. This allows for transparency when it comes to setting your expectations and for them to communicate their needs to you.

Team communication is vital

If you want to improve your company's profits, efficiency, and morale, investing in team communication is the way to go. The better your team communication is, the more difficult tasks you'll be able to take on with everyone fully invested. An online HR software like kiwiHR help you and your team communicate with HR software features like time tracking, company overview, resources management, absence management, and more.

If you really want to kick start your team communication, check out our onboarding guide for onboarding.


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