Top 10 Communication Channels for Your Business

Effective business communication is more important than ever in any workplace team members. Whether you're a business owner, a marketer, or a leader in your field, the best thing you can do to sustain your business is to choose the right communication channels. Aside of traditional verbal communication and facing communication with facial expressions.

COVID-19 has forced many to work from home and adjust to new routines. As a result, engagement and productivity have become a major challenge. According to Gartner.com, 74% of companies plan to shift to remote work indefinitely post COVID-19. This means increasing importance of modern communication techniques, new hardware and software involved and need for employee engagement become more and more important. Creating and maintaining solid information flow in your business will keep your employees informed, engaged, and committed.

How to Open Remote Work Communication Channels

Before we explore details and benefits for your business, let's highlight 3 values you should practice to guide your employees through this pandemic. To communicate effectively be empathetic, flexible, and transparent. Empathy during these times is important. Employees are under a high amount of stress right now, which can make it more difficult to focus on work tasks. It is crucial to empathize with their new reality. Flexibility is necessary as well. Some of your employees might have young children who need their attention. Allow extra time for your employees to complete their assignments. Finally, be transparent. This is not a time to sugarcoat anything. This is a time to practice effective communication to meet the needs of your employees so they can get the work done. It’s necessary to use business communication that are efficient and easy to use. If they are not, it is a poor communication and it could create disorganization and time waste.

Types of Communication and Definitions We Use

Communication channels refer to the methods that people within an organization use to communicate with each other. They help resolve any internal issues. The most important channel to explore in this article is digital. It includes email, internal communications, software, and intranets.
As a business, your top priority is to make the workplace and workflow efficient for your employees. When you achieve this, your employees will be more productive and will put more effort into their work. To choose what is best for your organization, you need to identify your purpose, goals, and objectives for communication. How do you do this? Answer these 4 questions:

Who Is Your Audience?

Your audience is anyone within your organization. This could be your employees, but it could also be an expert, a peer, or whoever you report to, such as a supervisor.

What Message Do You Want to Send?

Is it a formal or informal message? Is it urgent? Is the message for everyone within the company, a small team of people, or your supervisor? Is the message contain sensitive information? Does the message need a response or is it one-way communication?

Why Are You Communicating This Message?

Whenever you want to communicate something to your company, it is important to identify your goals. Do you want to inform, educate or entertain your target audience?

How?

• In-person: one-on-one meeting, company meeting, team meeting
• Written: mass emails, company newsletter or blog, digital alerts
• Video: conference call, video chat, phone call

Due to the state of the world right now, in-person communication is not a workable option, but written and video communication is still useful and relevant to remote employees.
While employees still find mass emails and frequent updates through company newsletters useful, many are relying on conference calls and video chatting. Employees can record videos to refer to later, and they can meet virtually in real-time to send and receive feedback.
These questions will inform what delivery option you use. Now that you know how to establish your reasons and goals for delivering messages, here are top 10 you can use at work.

10 Communication Channels for Your Business

Now that many employees are working from home, the efficiency and accessibility will improve internal data flow and increase productivity in many ways.

1. Social Intranet Software

An Intranet can be a valuable network for organizations. It is an exclusive space for employees to get corporate information including policies, company updates, and important announcements.

Top intranet software: Microsoft Sharepoint, Axero, Simpplr

2. Collaboration tools

Group messaging and chat tools are forms of instant communication that end the need to send emails. They are great tools for those times when an employee needs an answer immediately.

Employees can share files or images in their group chats. They are also beneficial for employees in different locations and time zones.

Top collaboration tools: Slack, Microsoft Skype for Business, Google Hangout, Google Meet

3. Project management

A combination of project planning and task tracking capabilities creates an efficient business performance profile. These tools are a smart way for businesses to track the status of ongoing projects and rank tasks.

This eliminates any confusion about task assignments, responsibilities, and deadlines.

Top task management tools: Trello, Teamwork, Wrike, BWA Cloud

4. Planning tools

Planning tools maintain organization, save time and establish internal communication. Their built-in features track deadlines and stay on top of internal workflow. You can share calendars, folders, and important documents to ensure all employees are on the same page.

Top project management tools: Excel, Google Drive, Trello

5. Survey tools

It is important for employees to know that their managers are open to hearing feedback on how to improve the workplace environment and workflow. Surveys help collect data on current attitudes and perspectives about many aspects of your company.

In the end, it provides insights that can inform internal changes. It will serve as data that you can look back on to see if the changes you made were effective.

Top project management tools: DeskAlerts, Survey Monkey

6. Discussion Forums

Discussion forums in the workplace serve as open communication for employees to share organizational knowledge, updates, and concerns. It is also a way to build a sense of trust and community among employees.

Top forum platforms: Zendesk and vBulletin

7. Internal Blogs

Company blogs are normally found on your business’s intranet site. Their main function is to encourage discussion and stay up-to-date with the latest news of the company.

Internal blogs are usually written by the CEO, senior executives, or experts within the organization. The aim is to share important company information, problems, and solutions.

8. Internal Newsletters

Company newsletters remain one of the most effective forms of internal communication. This communication channel aims to deliver relevant news and messages to employees and management.

As long as the newsletters are visually effective and contain information that employees want to read, they can contribute to a positive team culture.

Internal blog tools: Mailchimp, Hubspot, Benchmark

9. Video Conferencing tools

Video conferencing is a part of every company. Video conferencing software allows us to connect remotely to hold meetings with colleagues.

It is especially useful for companies in different geographic locations around the world. It enables employees to communicate face-to-face, without being in the same room together.

This has allowed colleagues to continue communicating and executing their daily work tasks despite social distance restrictions, which have made meeting in-person impossible.

Video conferencing tools: Zoom.us, Google Hangout, Webex

10. Alerts and Notification tools

Alerts and notification tools are an instant way to deliver urgent messages and notifications to employees. These messages are often delivered through their computers, smartphones, and other channels.

The messages will appear as pop-up messages and push notifications. It is the perfect support tool for emails. If employee inboxes are flooded with emails, the next best thing is to send alerts and notifications

Alerts and notification tools: DeskAlerts

Audit Your Company's Communication Channels

Start this process by auditing which channels you do and do not have. Next, identify what areas within your company need improvement.

If you don't want to solely rely on emails to send urgent messages, install alerts and notification tools. If you want to improve the workplace environment, use survey software to get feedback from employees.

Get Started Today with Right Workplace and Workflow

Effective communication requires appropriate channel.

In the wake of COVID-19 and the likelihood that most companies in United States and overseas will permanently move to remote work, knowing which delivery way to use to your company’s advantage is crucial.

Trends are showing that digital and written communication will be the foundation of workplace communication moving forward.

When you are equipped with these knowlage, you can improve your company’s efficiency and productivity.

For more tips and advice on business, marketing news, search engine optimization, and communication tools, check out our blog.