With your teams working virtually, your internal communication has never been so important.
Without the physical collision zone of the office, incidental interaction and face-to-face meetings have been replaced by Zoom meetings and phone calls.
Speaking with business owners each week, so many of them want to discuss how they can manage effectively and efficiently with a virtual workforce. Owners are struggling to find a balance with the frequency, mode and messaging of their communications with employees.
I thought it would be useful to explore the frequency, mode and messaging around internal communications with team members.
Frequency
The Weekly Operations Meeting with the team on Monday mornings should be a non-negotiable activity. It sets up the week ahead for the business, teams and individuals. It is a forum to update the team on any new information and provides perspective. This is where organizational workflow, technical and operational issues live.
The Monthly Team Meeting might need to cycle up to a Fortnightly Team Meeting. This is more strategic and includes financial, customer, communications and HR issues.
In a virtual workforce where staff numbers are more than 10, it is beneficial to separate management into silos where one manager supports a small group of individuals. This allows daily calls to junior staff and mid-week check-ins with intermediate and senior staff.
Senior management should conduct rolling welfare calls in which they check in on each staff member over a fortnightly cycle.
The Management Team should schedule regular management meetings on a weekly or fortnightly cycle.
Mode
Without face-to-face interaction, optimizing the use of technology through phones, email and Zoom video conferencing is critical.
When using these modes of communication, it is worth considering technique.
Phone calls can be effective in engagement, mentoring and staff welfare.
Email is most effective for operational updates, procedural or technical matters.
Zoom meetings are effective for workflow, customer updates, brainstorming and team accountability. Rolling weekly Zoom polls can measure team sentiment and culture.
Messaging
Working virtually requires clarity in expectations. Detailed scopes, timeframes and deadlines are needed. Get buy-in that these are understood and reasonable. Seek acceptance from team members where possible.
Leaders should report the news to the team and promote transparency.
Uncertainty creates anxiety. Managing people through crisis requires a heightened level of patience, empathy and understanding.
Most of your internal messaging should include lots of questions like these:
· How are you feeling?
· What are you struggling with?
· Where are you stuck?
· What do you need?
· How can I help?
If you haven’t sat down and workshopped your business’ approach to frequency, mode and messaging around internal communication, it’s not too late.
Ring up your key people and ask them to reflect on how you are handling internal communication. Invite them to bring their feedback – good and bad – to a Zoom Meeting in a week’s time. Hold the meeting and draft an Internal Communications Plan.
Circulate a draft with your key people and ratify the plan.
Implement the plan with the wider team.
Encourage an upward and downward feedback loop on how it is working.
Tweak it.
Rinse and repeat.
Consistency in your internal communications leads to less anxiety, greater engagement, increased productivity, job satisfaction and a winning culture.
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