Unifying Dispersed Teams: 3 Key Ways Communication Closes the Gap

Regardless of where your employees work, communicating effectively with an asynchronous or geographically distributed workforce always comes with its challenges.

But whether your employees are working on the frontline, factory floor, out in the field, from their own homes, in different time zones, or working shifts or flexible hours, there’s a fine art to engaging them.

A well-informed internal communication strategy is required to purposefully connect your employees and ensure they’re enabled to do their jobs well and feel a sense of belonging. Today’s best communicators don’t strategize in isolation; they strategize inclusively, meaning they seek to understand and involve their audiences in developing their communication, channel, and engagement strategies.

All within the remit and influence of Internal Communication, here are three critical ways that communication professionals can strategically build the bridges between an organization and its people, no matter where or when they work:

1. Build an Inclusive Communication Culture

Over the past couple of years, not only have working patterns and working locations changed or shifted dramatically, but arguably, employees' expectations in relation to work and what their employer provides for them have had a seismic shift, too.

IC can build bridges between the organization and employees by building a solid foundation where employee opinions, ideas, and needs are articulated and valued and help shape the business’s functioning.

Underpinned with a clear purpose as to what the employee voice will help inform, IC can, for example:

• Create working groups to improve or evolve the communication strategy
• Host focus groups to seek feedback and ideas on how to strengthen company culture to foster a greater sense of belonging
• Set up a network of communication champions to consult and advise on key communication campaigns to ensure messaging, materials, and plans meet the needs of differing audiences
• Facilitate Think Tanks to help inform, ideate, or generate solutions to challenges related to employee engagement, knowledge sharing, building a culture of trust, or enabling managers to be better leaders or communicators, for example.
• Set up digital solution boxes or ideation competitions where employees can contribute solutions to problems or share best practices and then facilitate leadership or working group sessions to discuss them and take the best ideas forward.

2. Develop a Well-Informed Channel Strategy

Despite the unprecedented levels of communication and connectivity available today, a recent study reported that 50% of remote workers feel lonely at least once a week, with many feeling isolated and left out.

These alarming statistics simply reinforce the need for IC to deeply understand their audiences and their needs to influence and improve the employee experience at work.

Most organizations rely on several tools and technology to get the work done, yet many of them are outdated, not integrated with one another, difficult to access, or duplicative.

Having too many tools and channels can impact worker productivity and cause confusion and frustrations, leading to information overload and increased and unnecessary stress.

While IC can’t govern all platforms or channels, nor should they, they can help employees have a better work experience through the content and channels over which they do have responsibility or influence.

Understanding which channels and content dispersed workers use most will be a valuable exercise in informing the right channel approach. Where possible, gain insights from the user data for each platform. Then, talk to colleagues to understand the richer picture—what works well, what frustrates them, and what their main information, access, and communication needs are.

Identify any obvious gaps and opportunities to improve the dispersed workers' experience and connection with their work and colleagues. For example, enable online platforms to be accessible from mobile devices, work with IT to embed single-sign-on to improve the mobile user experience, simplify your channel usage, and even consider one source of truth with one central communication hub.

Then, create and share a simple channel guide for employees and ensure this is embedded into the new starter onboarding program, too. This will help employees understand where to go and what to use each platform or channel for, and it will help them be more informed, connected, self-sufficient, and productive.

3. Take a People-Centric Approach

A dispersed workforce invariably creates a more diverse audience. There never was a one-size-fits-all approach to communications, and the diversity of employee needs today only reinforces this.

Always informed by employee insights and feedback, communicators who provide a tailored and people-centric approach to communication will make a significant impact on the employee experience.

• Translate global communications into local languages, incorporate region-specific updates, and be mindful of cultural nuances to ensure everyone feels included, respected, and informed.
• Schedule newsletters, updates, or announcements at times that accommodate different regions. Include diverse stories, profiles, and examples that represent employees from across the globe.
• Provide channels and opportunities for colleagues to share knowledge, collaborate, or connect with others who share the same passions and interests to build trust and foster social connections between team members across sites, locations, and time zones.
• Organize virtual town halls, Q&A sessions, or social events that are purpose-led to foster a sense of community among remote workers and ensure employees can ask questions live and feel included.
• Promote peer-to-peer recognition platforms where employees can give and receive public praise. This will reinforce the organizational culture and contribute to team morale and building a sense of belonging.

It’s evident that a dispersed workforce creates its own challenges, but applying these core tenets of communication best practices will positively shift the employee experience to one that feels more inclusive, connected, and engaging.