Three various communication technologies to communicate our organizational objectives to our leaders in our company as well as to all of our employees will work the best for all of our offices. Three communication technology ideas may seem limited in scope since there are a myriad of options to choose from. Yet, I believe these three will be our foundational communication technology products that will benefit our company’s objectives the best where our message will be heard loud and clear to all of our offices throughout the U.S.
Today’s communication methods have drastically changed for the better or for the worse if not used properly. I believe that there are three main communication technologies we must use to be able to communicate our message to our employees and they will then be able to provide more concise information to our clients.
Social Intranet is our Communication Center
Our social intranet will be our center of our communication technology. This will allow our employees, according to The Cavazza (2011) website to inform, share knowledge, create communities in our company, and collaborate, as well as process business data. These five key areas will help us funnel our message clearly and concisely.
The important part is not “social”, it is “intranet”, the place where employees gather, share and work (Cavazza, 2011). Thus our intranet is to help us make sure our message is what we want to say as well as make sure everyone one of our employees are reading from the same message sheet. Spreading the information to all levels of our company is as important as spreading the right message. Our social intranet will make sure our messages and company objectives are being heard to every employee, not just those closest to the C-level offices.
Video Conferencing Should Also be Included in our Mix
Video conferencing has many advantages for our company. Our company is mobile and our offices our spread out throughout the U.S. We must have a technology that allows us to communicate also in person no matter where we are. Video conferencing will allow us to conduct business faster and thus saves us money and will increase productivity.
One of our goals is to cut travel cost and this will help do that. According to ClearOne (2013), “The ability to be in several places at once without leaving your office is the next frontier and driving business productivity” (para. 2). This will also save “windshield” time and thus make our employees more productive.
Many times our key employees are out of the office with clients or working from home. The video conferencing allows our employees to not be tethered to their office. We have already provided our key employees with videos, laptops, and tablets. With this technology they are able to be on a conference call anywhere at any time.
Our leadership trainees as well as all of our key employees have to make decisions quickly. Many times this leads to wrong decisions. Video conferencing will also help take the guess work out of these decisions. Seeing the reactions of those participating in the video conference allows our company to see if those decisions are spot on or can cause challenges just by seeing the expressions on our fellow team member’s faces.
Our offices have enough bandwidth to make our video conferencing a daily activity for our team members. We have been using conference calling but that has its challenges. Seeing our fellow team members facial expressions will and body language will make our meetings more effective.
Chat rooms, private and group messaging must be in our mix.
Since our business offices are spread out in different time zones we must have a way to communicate effectively to a select group of employees. This software will allow us to do just that. According to Elcom (2016), “It’s an effective form of communication for busy employees and managers. Instant messaging makes updates on projects and general team discussion much easier. This works well when employees or team members are spread across different geographical locations and different time zones” (para. 8).
There are many times we have not had the answer our clients are asking us. Having a chat room to ask a group of employees can help get that answer quickly. This allows for better customer service and retention.
But having this type of communication technology will help disseminate information throughout our organization better and faster as well as be a tool to educate our team members.
There are a lot of other great communication technology options we can add to our mix as opportunity permits. I believe these three communication technology options, I have suggested, will provide us the best methods of bringing our organizational objectives to our employees as well as make our company more productive.
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References
Cavazza, F. (2011). From social intranets to collaboration ecosystems. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/fredcavazza/2011/11/30/from-social-intranets-to-collaboration-ecosystems/#41f473296125
ClearOne. (2013). The top benefits of video conferencing for your business. Retrieved from http://www.clearone.com/blog/the-top-benefits-of-video-conferencing-for-your-business/
Elcom. (2016). Communication tools used in modern day business. Retrieved from https://www.elcomcms.com/resources/blog/communication-tools-used-in-modern-day-business