The Importance of Communication Procedures

We have so many ways to communicate these days. We can speak face to face, make a phone call, send an email, send a text message, chat and share through the various forms of social media, video chat through FaceTime or Skype and so on. With the countless avenues for getting the word out, it’s now more important than ever to implement solid communication procedures within our businesses.

Communication between management and staff is imperative.

This seems like common sense, but from my experience, it’s not really so common. The bottom line: Regardless of what the company is communicating, without the proper, well-crafted message from those in a leadership role, the message is bound to become altered… sort of like the game “Telephone,” but far more detrimental. When it’s time to communicate about a change in management, a new product, changes in policy, etc. it is important for those in management to meet and create a clear message or platform that can then be shared with staff and beyond.

Make sure everyone is on the same page.

Once the message has been crafted, it is important that all parties involved are united in sharing the exact same message. This can be a challenge. No one has time to babysit their employees to make sure this happens. It could be helpful to type up the message and distribute it; this could be as simple as a memo or as complex as a handbook. For certain circumstances, it can be helpful to equip the team with a list of possible questions that “outsiders” may ask with a clear answer to each question. If the message is sensitive in nature, you may want to enforce some communication policies that keep staff and management from announcing the news (prematurely or at all), especially through social media.

Keep your audience in mind.

Once management and staff are all on board, it’s time to transmit the message to the company’s various publics. This could be customers, shareholders, members, volunteers, media, etc. The publics you will be communicating with will determine how you will send the message. For instance, you may arrange a meeting for the members. You may decide to email your customers or share the news through social media. If you’re trying to reach the media, you could send a press release or hold a press conference. During this phase, keeping the audience in mind is of the utmost importance.

Communication is a two-way street.

Once the message is communicated with the staff and the company’s publics, you will begin to receive feedback. This is where those Q&As you distributed might come in handy. The feedback may be good, bad or ugly. Either way, it’s important to stay on top of it. If you receive the bad or ugly feedback, don’t ignore it. Be ready to respond to your “haters.” Ignoring what your publics are saying or responding with “no comment” will only cause problems.

Being proactive will only help you in the long run. Your message may be negative in nature, but with thoughtful procedures in place, you can at least try to avoid unnecessary drama. Can you think of a time when established communication procedures would have helped a situation?