Taking Steps to Improve your Internal Communications: Develop Consistency

This is part 3 of our series helping you to improve your internal communications, check out part 1 here.

When I hear the word consistency, I think back to the first day of my first internship and those dreadful Monday meetings I had heard so much about. Everyone shuffling in, holding their second cup of coffee trying desperately to get it down to maintain some semblance of alertness. But by the end of the meeting everyone was happy, ready to start the day, and inspired to do good work. Little did I know, but these employees looked forward to these meetings: they trusted their managers and wanted to succeed, knowing it would push the company onto higher ground.

Among other reasons, there were two focal points that made these meetings so effective: they were consistent, and they gathered feedback from employees.

Humans prefer consistency as it gives them peace of mind and allows them to focus on their activities at hand rather than what they are going to do next. For example, people working in low income, unstable jobs show more signs of chronic stress than those who are unemployed. This really reveals a lot about the brain and what it desires to function at a healthy state. Employees need a schedule of guidance and gratification in order to stay engaged at a company, according to a Gallup poll, employees whose managers hold consistent meetings are three times as likely to be engaged.

Beyond consistent meetings, managers also need to establish a “rule of order”. This is due to the staggering 46% of employees that never leave a meeting knowing what they’re supposed to do next. These employees are disengaged and would rather skate by, putting in the bare minimum the entire process. To combat these employees, make meetings engaging again and look for new ways to encourage employees to interact during the meeting. Establish a rapport, and maintain it while still bringing something new and exciting to the table every week, understand that employees need encouragement and sometimes a little kick forward to get the gears in motion, but most of all, stay consistent.

As anyone can tell you, working in an environment where you feel you have no control over: the final product, your manager, or the day to day life of the office is a tasking atmosphere to walk into every day; alleviating that tension is part of a manager’s job.

This can be done by combining two methods, provide feedback to employees on their performance, and gather feedback from employees to provide them with the ability to affect change in the organization. From the outside looking in, it would appear feedback would be an obvious part of both employees and managers days, but according to Interact 37% of managers report being uncomfortable giving feedback, on top of the 69% of managers who report being uncomfortable communicating with employees in general. Without this feedback managers will continue to feel alienated from employees, and employees will feel disengaged and uninspired to work.

Breaking out of this cycle is not easy but very simple: start to consistently communicate with employees. You can start small, but begin to communicate with them until the awkwardness has faded, and from there simply provide feedback that will help the organization move forward.

If you enjoyed this read part 2 here