Let’s open this topic with a powerful quote: “Two monologues do not make a dialogue.” It seems that business communication in the past was in the form of a monologue. It was a top-down communication where employees would just get the messages from the higher ranks. How employees felt about it, or what their thoughts or ideas were, was of less importance.
Luckily, those times have changed quite significantly in the last few years. Among many benefits that the digital era brought, reviving the lost art of communication might be one of the biggest.
And although employers started realizing how important two-way communication is, they still struggle to choose the optimal internal communication tool and/or to engage their employees to start using it.
If you continue reading, you will find out why you need to have an internal communication tool and what kind of features it should have. Let’s start.
Why Should You Have The Internal Communication Tool?
As we mentioned in the beginning, productive, two-way communication is the basis of everything. It is especially important when it comes to getting messages across different teams and channels. The less transparent and open communication is, the higher the risk of things getting lost in “translation”. If we refer that to the business area, delayed, incoherent, and confusing messages lead to poor and delayed delivery, too. Not to mention all the stress and frustration on both sides. When there is noise in the communication channel, employees become demotivated and tend to lose their vigor. And guess what: it affects their productivity and delivery.
Therefore, employee communication is a factor that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Exchange of ideas, opinions, and brainstorming on all levels in an organization is something that can boost your business’s success. When everybody in the organization feels they have a say, when they feel that their opinions and suggestions are valued, they become more motivated and inspired to continue contributing. And this could be the thing that sets you apart from your competitors.
However, did you know that more than 50% of companies lack a long-term internal communications strategy? Or even if they have the strategy they lack metrics to check how effective their internal communication tools are. In their effort to boost employee communication, many companies tend to use too many communication tools. And then they are in the same boat as organizations that don’t use any tools. So, how to know which tool will work best for your organization?
How to Choose The Right Tool?
When trying to find the best internal communication tool, you need to take a few things into account:
One Size Doesn’t Fit All
There isn’t a universal tool that works magically for every organization out there. What works for one doesn’t necessarily work for the other. You shouldn’t just blindly follow what tools other players from your industry use. Just because you are in the same industry, there is a small chance that you are running your businesses in the exact same way. What’s more, internal business processes, management, objectives, all those things differ.
You need to make an assessment: which internal communication tool like the fax app for iPhone does the job for you? What are your organization’s needs and requirements that this tool can meet?
To get answers to these questions, well, you need to brainstorm even more questions:
● Who will use this tool? We aren’t implying that you don’t have a say in it, but in reality, tools are there for the team. If your team/employees don’t feel comfortable with the tool, if it doesn’t help them, then the tool isn’t the right fit. What also matters is the team’s size. It is highly unlikely that you will be using the same tool for a team of 5 and 55 people. Take into account the tech-savviness of your team. You can’t expect a non-tech team to shine with a high-tech tool. Figuring out who will use the tool will bring you closer to the decision-making.
● How will the team use the tool? Is your team fully remote? Or hybrid? Or onsite? Will your team access the tool from their mobiles, computers, or both? The answer to these questions will definitely narrow down your options and make it easier to choose the right tool.
● What is the (main) thing you want to achieve with the internal communication tool? For example, if you are a project management company, you will use tools that help you monitor tasks and processes better ( Asana and Trello, for example). If on the other hand, you are an e-learning platform, you will benefit most from collaboration tools such as Google Docs, Google Sheets, Slack, Zoom, etc. Before you start onboarding all the tools that seem interesting to you, you need to define the main goal you want this tool to achieve. Have you noticed how the tool selection narrows down after each point we cover?
Research and Compare
When you provide answers to all the questions above, you will definitely get closer to what your optimal tool should be like. Then it’s the right time to do some research and compare similar tools. Only by comparison you will be able to see which internal communication tool has most of the features you need. Think of it as market research when you try to find your target audience. It is the same process.
● Features: This is probably the most important thing you need to check. There are many great internal communication tools, but if they don’t have features that will deliver on your needs, they are useless to you. It again all boils down to that one size doesn’t fit all. Your goals will be a defining factor in what tool you will use. You want to be sure that your chosen tool has features and functionality that are relevant to your business.
● Easy to Use: We’ve already mentioned this one earlier: not every tool will feel the same to your team ( remember our example about a tech-savvy team vs a non-tech one?). Even if your desired tool delivers features you need, but your team finds it too complex to use, or it is hard to implement, then it isn’t your tool. Keep searching. You need an intuitive and hassle-free communication tool.
● Budget: Unfortunately, perhaps there is a perfect internal communication tool waiting for you, but your (tight) budget says no. That is frustrating, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t find a similar, cheaper tool to suit your needs. A word of advice: Don’t just check the price of a tool, take into account all the costs that might come with it.
Put The Tools in Practice
You know it yourself that things look much different on paper than in “action”. You need to check how the tool you want rally functions, and what might be its flaws that you don’t get to see when you are just reading about it. There isn’t such thing as a perfect product, so you need to see if you are ok with those flaws. Will they affect achieving your goals? Will they disrupt the team?
The best way to see the tool in action is to schedule a demo. Demos are a great opportunity to see how a tool actually works. It will give you a much clearer picture of what you can expect. Demos might make you change your mind and go for a tool you initially weren’t so thrilled about. Apart from demos, you can do free trials and test the waters, too.
It is clear by now that to find the optimal internal communication tool you need to think about your team and the way you will use it. You also need to think about its functionality and how it will help you achieve your goals. But it all depends on the team. They will be the ultimate judges. Therefore, you should listen to your team’s needs and see how they feel about the tool. Let’s wrap things up the same way we started, with a quote: “Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.”
