Communication is highly important in facilitating productivity in a company. When tensions rise between management and employees due to weak or inadequate communication, it is often up to HR to take a leading role in promoting more effective interaction. The following strategies can work quite well in many businesses.
Promote Communications Training
Some organizations can benefit from specialized communication training. This may involve requesting the services of a management consulting firm that can offer suggestions and ideas for training programs. In-service training, workshops, and classes can be arranged to focus on topics like professional writing and speaking, managerial communication style, and diversity appreciation. Each corporate climate is different, and training can be customized to meet certain communication needs.
Serve as Liaison
HR personnel may include a person or a division that addresses disputes, conflicts, or the need for mediation when employees and managers cannot work efficiently together. An assessment could be made to identify the crux of the issue, with recommendations to follow as to the most appropriate remedial actions to take. HR might also fill the role of coordinating communication within the organization to ensure everyone is on the same page. People sometimes don’t always meet the information needs of their colleagues, and we also don’t necessarily listen as carefully as we should. Considerations like these can be evaluated by HR staff.
Develop Communications Protocols
The ways in which a company’s employees communicate may be at the heart of most misunderstandings. Spoken directives may come across as less insistent than if they were distributed in a print document. Electronic communication is faster and sometimes more permanent than print documents. An online website with safety guidelines may be less accessible to employees who share a computer, suggesting that a printed manual distributed to all or with a central copy readily available might be more effective. Consistent guidelines let everyone in the company know how information will be circulated and accessed.
Designate Unit Leaders
When departments within an organization are struggling to interact meaningfully, HR can establish unit leaders to coordinate essential information exchanged within each department and the company overall. Having a point person on hand to streamline communication may take pressure off the managers and employees who cannot easily share information.
Because communication is a vital tool for every company’s success, it helps when HR is able to orchestrate the policies, guidelines, and media that helps everyone to stay connected. With their help and support, communication problems can be avoided or readily dealt with.
