It has become more evident than ever: any
business that wants to be successful needs to have the proper means of
communication established. For many years, this meant utilizing email for
business correspondence. Now, while email still has a valuable place in
business operations, users rely on messaging platforms that almost ensure that
they get their point across instantly.
Turning to a messaging platform for their
communications, at least internally, has given many businesses (small and
medium-sized included) a litany of operational benefits, including:
- Increased collaboration - With an instant
messaging platform at their disposal, businesses of all sizes have seen their operations
increase in speed, efficiency, and convenience. This is a direct result of the
ability users have to instantly communicate with one another.
- Improved team building - It’s one thing to
give your team the ability to exchange information more quickly, and entirely
another to have a team grow familiar and comfortable while working with each
other. A messaging solution can allow a team to get to know one another through
the casual conversations that they will ultimately have when not discussing business
information.
- Intuitive platform - Instant messaging does
more than allow users to communicate more efficiently, it also allows them to
refer back to those messages to pick back up in the workflow. Keeping a team
member up to speed is a lot easier when they have access to the information
that was shared, thereby allowing them to pick up where things left off.
However, as beneficial as this solution has
the potential to be, instant messages also have the potential to be just as
distracting and counter-productive as they are useful. Fortunately, there are a
few ways to reduce these negative effects with a few guidelines.
- Reinforce the rules - When it comes to the
potential distractions that your company’s instant messaging solution could
present, you want to be proactive in laying down the law. Make sure you
establish, communicate, and enforce any acceptable use restrictions that you
see fit to avoid the “You never told us that…”
conversation with your employees. Of course, you will also have to lead by example
and abide by these rules yourself.
- Remind your staff of how fast “instant” is -
The speed of instant messaging is one of its greatest benefits, but if that
speed isn’t taken into account, it could lead to miscommunications down the
line. In fact, there are plenty of messages that aren’t well-suited to the
quick and dirty communication style that instant messages encourage.
- Restrict casual messages - Let’s be realistic for a moment: your staff
is going to use your instant messaging solution to carry on non-work-related
conversations. That’s just going to happen. While this is more or less harmless
when it is done in moderation, make sure you gently remind your employees that
their instant message application should be used primarily as a tool to help
them get work done, and even then, not all messages are well-suited to the
instant format.
No matter how you slice it, adopting an instant messaging platform will require you to better communicate with your staff. Emerge can assist you in implementing such a solution, as well as many others to promote business productivity. Reach out to us at 859-746-1030 to learn more.