ENGAGE | Communication
What is the Best Medium to Communicate with your Staff?
Now, more than ever before, we have at our fingertips a huge number of tools and mediums to communicate with your staff. So how do you decide which is the right medium for communication when you have so much choice?
The way organisations (and individuals) communicate needs to be influenced by what is culturally acceptable and appropriate. This can be a challenge for organisations who have international or global operations where they are looking to drive consistency of communications, processes and behaviours across their organisation, but also need to be mindful of using the most effective (and appropriate) communications tools to ensure that messages are understood, processed and acted upon in the intended way.
Consider your organisational culture
Organisational culture will inevitably impact your choice of communications channels. In organisations with a more formal, hierarchical structure, more formal methods of communicating with your staff such as structured presentations (whether delivered in person or via global webinars) can be used to good effect.
For organisations whose culture is more informal, a more informal approach is a better way to ensure the intended message is received. Your choice of communications channel should be consistent with your organisational culture or the message may be ‘lost’ or ‘misunderstood’.
Consider the message and the audience
The medium you choose to communicate with your staff should be appropriate for your intended audience. Planning your communications in a structured way can help you select the most effective approach. Consideration should be given to all existing communications channels and tools within your organisation, and how these might be best leveraged to ensure you get your message across.
Effective Communications Channel Selection – A Framework
Finding the answers to these following questions will allow you to develop and implement a communications plan to ensure your message is communicated in the right way, to the right people, using the most appropriate medium.
- What message are you communicating – what is its importance? Is it strategic or tactical? Formal or informal?
- Is it delivering good or bad news? What do you want employees to do as a result of receiving this message?
- Are there any regulatory or compliance considerations which may impact your communications in terms of content, format, communications channel, frequency of communication or timing?
- Who is your intended audience?
- What is the most appropriate medium for each audience?
- What is the frequency of the communication?
- Who should deliver the message?
- What is the timing of the message – should it go to all audiences at once and be delivered by one person – or be cascaded through the organisation? Does the time of day for the message delivery need to be considered?
- How are you going to ensure that the message is delivered in a consistent manner?
Check for understanding – the importance of feedback
Once you have delivered your communication, it is important to measure that it has been successfully received. As part of your overall plan, remember to put in place feedback mechanisms. This will allow you to check for understanding and provide you with the opportunity to take any additional actions which may be necessary to clarify or provide further information in the event of confusion.
Give me a call today on 01702 879548 or email enquiries@harley-west.com to find out more.
