Your employees may be excellent at their jobs, with the analytical skills and technical knowledge they need to succeed. Without good communication, though, that work may all be for nothing. Strong communication skills allow teams to remain organized, get work done faster, and plan ahead more effectively. Without it, important information that allows projects to move forward may be delayed, costing your business in terms of both finances and employee morale.
Activities That Improve Team Communication Skills
There are several activities to improve communication skills that you can implement in your office, from simple open door policies to enjoying Northern Virginia team building activities. Consider using one of the following ways to build better communication within your office.
Open Door Policies
Your office doors don’t literally need to be open at all times to institute an open door policy. In practice, it simply means that employees are encouraged to stop by at any time to ask questions, address problems, or discuss work projects. An open door policy helps everyone have faster access to information about the business, which can in turn help solve problems more quickly. When it’s easier to access information at a moment’s notice, instead of constantly working to schedule meetings in advance, your entire staff will feel more engaged with their projects. Knowing that help is always available encourages employees to give and receive it more openly, which, in turn, facilitates communication and helps keep everyone informed of the latest office news.
Project Management Software
When you’re busy with several multi-step projects and need a progress report on each one, emails containing important information can easily get lost in the flurry of updates. Instead of having constant meetings or endless email chains, consider using a project management software to communicate the status of each project. In this way, your employees can update their progress on the platform and show everyone else on the team what’s happening, without risking the information getting overlooked. Provide training to your employees to ensure that they understand how to properly use the software, and ask them to consult the program on a regular basis to receive and give updates in a timely manner, as failing to do so could delay projects.
Identifying Group Leaders
Another way to ensure that important information is properly distributed is to assign group leaders for each team or project. This person can act as your point of contact, allowing you to give and receive updates with one person, who can then communicate that information to their group, instead of managing multiple email chains and ongoing discussions. Streamlining your communication process makes that communication faster and more effective while keeping it focused on the topic at hand. Be sure to choose leaders who demonstrate the ability to stay organized, adhere to deadlines, and communicate clearly.
Conducting Surveys
Whether they’re trying to address a problem or simply make a suggestion for process improvement, employees often find it difficult to bring up their concerns in the workplace. Conducting regular surveys can help ease this tension. Quarterly surveys asking employees to anonymously provide feedback can encourage them to openly discuss their needs without feeling that they will be negatively impacted by speaking up. This allows your company to address these needs with minimal disruption to employees’ peace of mind at work and provides them with an opportunity to safely address areas that make their workday more difficult. Remind employees to respond to the survey, but let them know that they’re always welcome to bring up their concerns at any point throughout the year if they need to be attended to more quickly.
Engaging In Team Building Activities
Getting out of the office to enjoy a team building activity together can jumpstart communication skills. The new environment will keep employees engaged while they work together throughout the day. Escape rooms are a popular new team building activity because they require cooperation, communication, and critical thinking to solve puzzles and escape. Participants only have one hour to find the solutions to these puzzles, and learning how to share information and make decisions while under pressure is essential. Your employees will be able to take the skills they learned while solving puzzles back to the office for improved team communication long after the experience.
Speak With Bond’s Team Building For More Information
Speak to Bond’s Team Building for more information about activities to improve communication skills, increase innovation & creativity and to schedule your team building event. Bond’s Team Building offers corporate onsite and offsite team building activities, as well as corporate retreats to allow your employees to strengthen their skills and develop new ones. Our Northern Virginia team building activities also promote a healthy working environment, fostering new and improved relationships among employees. To schedule a team building activity, contact Bond’s Team Building or call us at (703) 372-9920 today.