One of the HR department’s functions is to maintain effective communication towards employees and remove obstacles in cross-team communication.
When hybrid working environments came into the first plan, communication became essential.
It enhances information flow and quality of collaboration processes, contributes to employee engagement, and maintains innovation levels. To cut the story short, it’s an integral part of tech business success.
Defining your goals affects internal communication
Defining your goals is the first important rule when improving virtual workplace communication.
Asking yourself if you want to increase employee awareness levels on what's going on in the company or maintain an already established ‘being part of family’ feeling defines the initial footprint of an internal communication strategy.
Whatever you choose as your next goal, acquiring feedback from your employees and senior management will be essential.
Large companies have the luxury to rely on internal communication teams, and in that case, optimization starts with constant communication between the HR department and internal communications. Unfortunately, smaller companies or startups have to redistribute tasks on already employed people or, as in most cases, the company leadership.
Employee engagement struggle
Virtual workplaces brought more flexibility and productivity to employees. More or less, every tech company is prone to have offices in different countries to stay close to software developers, or they offer remote working environments. In both ways, HQ needs to communicate, distribute tasks or evaluate achievements.
Distributing information, in this case, brings consequences for your internal communications. Among other things, this means that you need to be aware of the cultural differences that are tremendously contributing to overall employee engagement.
Especially new hires are entirely reliant on the constant information feed. Virtual onboarding becomes seriously strained if the information is struggling to find its way. Creating an online repository, digitally document company output or creating video guidelines for new employees (e.g., get to know your team introductions) allows easier information flow.
Not only does it give them an overview of the various platforms and tools that are being used inside a company, more importantly, it tells them to whom they can go when having further questions.
If you want to go to another level, think of establishing the Head of Remote function. A fully committed individual to ensure a constant flow of communication between employees and different teams.
If done right, problems with internal communication in virtual space will be minor, and you will feel improvements in team building, innovation, overall business growth, and innovation momentum being stable.
But what about the recruiting dimension vs. internal communication?
Tech companies closely collaborate with external recruiters, where hiring managers must establish a close connection in-between. Lack of understanding can create many problems (e.g., Failing to identify the right candidate with the desired skill-set and an inefficient hiring process).
To get the best talents, make sure they understand software developer roles and responsibilities and realistic expectations.
Operationally, recruiters and hiring managers should attend regular tech team meetings when discussing team capacity and required hands on deck. Listening to what the team is doing at the moment and understanding the skills needed to succeed in group tasks makes the job easier.
Conclusion
Honest and effective communication can create strong teams.
Especially fast-growing companies or startups might feel disconnected from their employees. That brings a lot of problems driven by large appetite recruiting plans.
Your employees are the best employer brand ambassadors out there. Knowing how hard it is to attract tech talents nowadays, it’s crucial to maintain optimal employee engagement levels largely contributed by well-executed internal communications.
