ABSTRACT
In addition to everyday forms of communication such as memos, e-mail, telephone messages, and meetings, you may want to consider other ways of communicating effectively with your staff. Some communication ideas that may work for you and your company include:
On-site communication. If you actively engage in day-to-day business activities, then you may be able to increase communication just by walking around the department. Spend a portion of the day in employee offices or work areas. Let your staff know that you will be available to discuss issues. Since your employees will need some time to adjust to this walk-around style, make sure you engage in the activity on a regular basis.
Brainstorming communication. Brainstorming works when you need to obtain as many ideas as possible to solve a problem. This form of communication helps build a sense of teamwork among your employees, because everyone can participate and there are no wrong or bad answers. During brainstorming sessions, many ideas will lead to other ideas, and the end result is often a solution to the problem. Again, this is a technique that, once adopted, should be used frequently to build employee confidence in speaking freely.
Communicating with suggestion boxes. Suggestion boxes have gotten a bad rap in the past because employee suggestions were rarely enacted or even considered seriously. But it is still possible to use them as an effective form of communication. A manager can set up periodic meetings to discuss the ideas that have been deposited. In this way, employees will feel that their input is valuable and they will have an opportunity to participate in a discussion with fellow employees and management.
Off-site meetings. Another idea is to hold informal lunch or breakfast meetings with employees on a regular basis. Attendees could be selected through a lottery or raffle and, at the meeting, be encouraged to discuss openly issues that affect their departments or themselves. The manager would have the responsibility of taking these “beefs” back to the office and to work on solving them.
