Clear and proper communication is a vital aspect in ensuring fruitful personal and professional relationships. While this may seem like a no-brainer, we still often witness poor communication occurring at work. The problem is mainly due to people not utilising proper communication, which often results in misinterpretations, leading to confusion and conflicts.
Moreover, with remote work remaining the default option for many businesses in Singapore, it only makes sense to improve cross-team communication and make it easy for all employees to collaborate effectively. By learning how to communicate well in a professional environment, working together becomes more seamless, resulting in improved collaboration efforts, the discovery of new innovative ideas, and enhanced productivity for all. Let us share four effective tips to help your business achieve this feat.
1. Centralise all communication
Using multiple work communication platforms will only make it more challenging for various teams to reach one another, thereby complicating the entire process. This problem may only be exacerbated if you have multiple staff working in various offices or at home.
To ensure your employees cultivate an expressive culture in the company, you may want to consider limiting your communication channel to a single platform that offers everything your business needs.
There are various solutions, such as Microsoft teams, Google Workspace, and Zoom, available on the market, so you can start by experimenting with the different options and find out which works best for your workers and company.
2. Hiring the right candidate
Employees are one of a business’s most critical assets. Therefore, when you are choosing candidates to bring on board, you may want to consider prioritising applicants who possess excellent communication skills in addition to having the necessary skills and experience required for the role.
During interviews, you can consider testing the candidate’s proficiency in verbal and written communication via questions and mock scenarios that typically occur within your company setting. Those who can rise to the challenge are certain to fit well into your team and perform admirably in either a remote or traditional working setting.
3. Incentivise your employees
Incentives are an excellent way to motivate your employees into observing specific behaviour that you are trying to cultivate. These incentives do not necessarily have to be physical rewards; they can be as simple as praising your staff members during a team meeting for demonstrating excellent cross-team communication.
However, a bonus structure with more tangible rewards that focuses on an employee achieving specific communication goals within the company can also be a welcome addition to promoting an effective cross-team communication culture.
4. Develop an effective plan
Fostering effective cross-team communication is undoubtedly a tall order, but it is still a feasible goal if you have an effective plan in place. In fact, proper planning is essential when you are making any significant changes to an existing operation or infrastructure.
Having an effective change management plan in place can help you avoid issues, such as loss of productivity or backlash. After all, your employees need time to adjust to the new changes. Some of them might even have strong opinions, so you will need to manage their expectations and questions adequately.
Do also consider conducting a final evaluation of the proposed plan to determine any potential issues that may occur and signs of weaknesses that could decrease the effectiveness of the change. Once the change is implemented, you will still need to consistently monitor the communication strategy to determine what works and what does not so that you can tweak your plan accordingly.
One last thing to note
While it is essential to establish an effective cross-team communication plan at work, it is also crucial for you not to neglect your company’s finances. As with any changes, implementing a new communication plan requires proper resources and allocation. If your business’s finances are ill-equipped to handle this change, you may find the implementation to be haphazard, ultimately leading to failure.
However, if you are busy with your company’s daily operations, you may want to consider outsourcing your accounting needs to a specialised accounting firm. At Ackenting Group, we provide a suite of reliable accounting and bookkeeping services tailored to your company’s needs. With our seasoned accountants overseeing your company’s books, you can rest assured that you will receive timely and accurate updates to help you stay on top of your business’s finances.
Conclusion
Without proper communication, businesses cannot reach their goals and achieve the growth they desire. Furthermore, with remote work now being incorporated into the standard working model due to the pandemic, it is now more crucial than ever to cultivate a culture that promotes effective and transparent communication to overcome the distance between team members.
If you require any assistance on accounting services, feel free to drop us an email at johnwoo@ag-singapore.com or contact us at +65-66358767. At Ackenting Group, we offer a complimentary 30 minutes online consultation for us to better understand your business requirements.
