Mastering Team Communication: 5 Challenges and How to Solve Them

If you struggle with internal team communication, you’re not alone.

Many businesses struggle to implement effective communication strategies, resulting in 50% higher chances of missing goals and 33% higher rates of turnover!

Those are some pretty big percentages that can drastically affect your bottom line.

If you constantly feel out of sync with your team, then these 5 common challenges may sound familiar. Keep reading to learn how to solve them:

2.7 billion workers, or about 80% of the global workforce, don’t sit in offices and work from the field. As a result of not being in the same physical location, communication can be much more difficult, and many businesses struggle to resolve this.

This can lead to team members missing out on team updates, important trainings, safety updates, and procedural changes.

Solution: Choose a communication tool that allows you to instantly send the right message to the right team members without funneling down communication. You should be able to segment your team by role and send messages as needed to the right teams–or to the entire team at once.

Using texting apps, such as WhatsApp, or email to communicate with your employees can lead to missed updates and announcements. This often happens because work-related messages get mixed with personal ones, making it challenging for employees to distinguish and prioritize them. This can result in major communication roadblocks.

Solution: Look for a method of communication that’s designed for and dedicated specifically to work. That way, everyone’s work-related messages and announcements are in one place, making it easier to stay aligned with your team and eliminating important information from getting lost.

Ensuring that all nondesk employees have received a message or update is particularly difficult when relying on texting, chat apps, and emails due to the lack of read-receipt functionalities. 

Without a system to track and confirm this, it’s difficult to know if every employee has read important updates, especially in a field setting where attention may be split or there may be connectivity issues.

Solution: As a manager, you should be able to instantly see if an employee has received and read a message. Look for a communication tool that comes with read receipts and notifications to provide message confirmations. 

Relying on multiple communication channels leads to messages getting lost or overlooked because they’re distributed between different platforms. This makes it tough for nondesk workers to stay informed, and it’s equally hard for managers to make sure everyone receives important messages.

Solution: Choose a single app that comes with multiple communication channels, such as instant messaging, a public newsfeed, an employee directory, and a place to store important team documents. That way, all work-related communication is in one, centralized place.

Employees often struggle to access information from the field, such as safety manuals or training materials. It can also be harder to check in with managers with questions, forcing them to rely on their own judgment or delay tasks until they can establish communication.

Solution: Communication shouldn’t stand in the way of getting the job done. Make sure you can reach your employees directly no matter where they’re located, and vice versa. You should also take advantage of a digital knowledge base to store all important work-related information that employees can access on the go.

Connecteam: Team Communication Made Easy

If any of these team communication challenges sound familiar, don’t worry – you’re not alone. Fortunately, there’s a solution that can help you solve them.

Introducing Connecteam’s employee communication app: Connecteam helps you fill in internal communication gaps and streamline the entire flow of information within your business, all from one accessible app. If you are still exploring alternatives, check out our guide to the best team communication apps for small businesses to find the ideal fit.

Here’s how:

• In-app chat for all work-related communication: Connecteam offers a secure platform that allows you to instantly communicate with your employees in secure 1:1, group, and company-wide online chats. This allows your entire team to stay connected wherever you’re working from and to remain productive and focused on the job with work-dedicated messaging. 

• Company-wide newsfeed for updates and announcements: Share company updates, announcements, and shout-outs with your team through the company update feature and allow users to comment and react – just like on social media. This is a great way to keep your entire team in the loop and engaged and reach everyone at once.

• Include read-receipts for message confirmation: As an admin, you can maintain a clear overview of who viewed and read team updates and messages. You can easily ensure important information gets across with notifications, pop-up updates, and reading confirmations.

• Employee knowledge base for easy access to work-related information: Create, organize, and share documents, policies, and training materials with Connecteam’s knowledge base. You can store all of your important work documents in one place so employees have everything they need right at their fingertips.
  

The knowledge base also automatically updates content across everyone’s mobile devices, so everyone has all the latest information at their fingertips. As an admin, you can also monitor and keep a record of which users viewed each relevant document and when.

These are just a few of Connecteam’s team communication features. The app also comes with customizable surveys and live polls, an employee directory, task management capabilities, and tools to manage company events.

All of these features allow for a seamless flow of communication across your team, ensuring that important updates are delivered throughout the company quickly and efficiently. 

Take Your Business to the Next Level

A team communication strategy is essential for ensuring your staff have the necessary information to do their jobs. In addition, effective communication helps build a positive company culture by fostering team engagement and employee morale.

Fortunately, if any of the challenges we’ve listed sound familiar, there’s a simple solution: take advantage of a customizable employee communication app, like Connecteam, and say goodbye to communication roadblocks for good.