As a business owner, you are the central figure that creates the company culture, including promoting diversity and LGBTQ opportunities. You can help departments develop relationships and foster communication among employees. Here, PinkBanana.biz shares a few ways you can boost interdepartmental communication in your office.
1. Use Online Tools for Collaborative Presentations
There are many forms of business technologies companies can use to collaborate on projects and streamline communication. For example, Google Docs has in-document annotations, allowing everyone with access to make suggestions for the rest of the team to see. Trello is a great tool for project management that allows you to manage tasks as an administrator and has features for real-time collaboration. Flowdock allows workers to chat privately and in groups, integrating customer support tools so that they can troubleshoot inquiries from clients.
When your team needs to collaborate on a report to present to leadership, they can access simple online tools to make the effort more effective. For example, using an online PDF tool, they can easily keep all their information in one file, adding pages wherever necessary.
2. Take a Look at What Does Not Work
Finding out what collaborative efforts are not working for your employees starts with communication. Have meetings with the team to discuss collaborations that are not fruitful, and talk with members individually to assess what elements of team projects that are not working. Most importantly, Fast Company suggests listening to their complaints and making an effort to solve problems with sincerity, particularly when it comes to LGBTQ concerns.
3. Break Down Physical Barriers
Research shows that physical barriers in office design can inhibit collaborative and communicative efforts in the workplace. You can help promote communication by simply assessing the design of your office. Are employees in cubicles? Do you keep departments separated by walls? Consider an open floor plan. It can be as simple as opening up doorways or creating more community space. For example, you can add more conference rooms and implement technology so that employees can handle all aspects of their jobs together in one cohesive area.
4. Use Process Mining
Process mining is an effective way to improve interdepartmental communication because it enables organizations to make better decisions based on improvements to existing business processes. By discovering how business processes are actually performed, companies can identify weak spots where processes take more time or resources than necessary.
When you check it out for more info, you’ll find new strategies and procedures that promote smoother coordination between different departments, leading to improved communication throughout the organization. Process mining also provides a valuable insight into the dynamics of different services and groups within an organization, offering a powerful window on how well they work together.
5. Implement Team-Building Exercises
Team building is absolutely essential to creating an office environment that nurtures communication and collaboration. You can do things outside of the office, such as coffee once a week or going on an annual retreat. You can also make team building a daily effort. When you have a new project and need to create a team to manage it, pull people from every department. This allows them to work together when they normally would not and get to know people from other departments.
6. Get the Company Involved Goals
Company goals on every level should be a team effort. If you want to foster a family culture where employees feel comfortable sharing their ideas, you need to make everyone feel like they are an important part of the company. Not everyone will be comfortable voicing their opinions right away. Betterworks points out that you can offer anonymous communication and foster trust by using their input and giving recognition when you do.
By taking steps like developing team-building exercises and using process mining and helpful online resources, you can improve interdepartmental communication for your business. Remember to keep yourself in an open line of communication as well. When LGBTQ employees feel comfortable talking to the boss, they will share more ideas and constructive criticism. Over time, you’ll notice your employees generally stay, and your company thrives.
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