Introduction
Every company needs to be able to communicate effectively. For some organizations, communication is life or death. Both large and small groups need to be able to talk to each other and share information. The question is how to do this effectively in a way that works for everyone.
Problem Statement
Every company has a way to communicate with employees. However, the procedures may not be consistent through all departments. Unfortunately, this can cause major issues with informing new employee and effectively conducting inter-departmental communications.
Beyond that, many companies have outdated communication systems. Having a system that is up to date can keep your company moving forward.
Previous Options
Through the years, there have been many different types of communication in a company. Each company has its own system. However, some of these systems are outdated or confusing.
Written Memos – One of the most popular and still prominent forms of communication is written memos. These are a great way to get information to people. However, a written memo has become more time consuming and less effective than it was in the past. These can get lost, overlooked, and even thrown in the trash. On top of that, depending on the number of employees the company has, and the number of memos created per day, a lot of time and effort goes into writing memos.
Email – Since email is generally quicker and easier than writing or typing out information and handing it to each person individually, email has become an important means of communication in the workplace. However, this too has problems. Missing people in the email can cause employees not to get the information they need. Personal emails, which may be against policy, may end up being used. Though email is a much more effective form of communication than written memos, it is still lacking.
Solution
Having a company-wide website for communication is an effective solution for companies of any size. Using SharePoint, employees are able to get memos, interact with each other, save and share documents, and more.
Not only does a SharePoint website allow users to communicate, it is also a great tool for storing information. If your company uses a lot of technical information, for example, using a wiki page on SharePoint can be extremely beneficial.
Keeps Everyone on the Same Page
One of the problems in the past has been that each department may handle communication differently. With a SharePoint website, everyone in the company is able to see memos, notes, and more in the same way. This makes it easy to move around the company.
Instant
With a website, you can quickly and easily update the information and you don’t have to worry about trying to get that information to each employee. They will be able to see it as soon as they go to the website. This saves a significant amount of time and energy and ensures that all employees are seeing the most recent version of information.
Doing More Than Memos
Effective communication is much more than simply talking to one another. In a business setting, good communication also includes getting documents quickly to one another, making sure appointments are scheduled correctly, and even keeping track of data. With a memo, this is simply not possible, while doing each of these things individually can lead to stress and frustration.
Online, it is easy to keep documents together where anyone can access them. There are many features to a SharePoint website that are a natural part of company communication.
Implementation
Setting up a SharePoint website is simple. You can create the site yourself using web parts and templates, or if this is not something you are comfortable doing yourself, there are companies dedicated to creating SharePoint sites. Hiring a SharePoint speicalist to build a company platform is another viable option.
Once the site is created, it is important to make sure that everyone that will be using it understands what they need to do. To get the most out of the system, training in the many functionalities built into SharePoint is recommended.
Unified communication happens almost instantaneously when companies switch to using a website. Whether you are working in a single building or many locations across the world, everyone in the company can stay in touch on a SharePoint website.
Summary
Communication in a company is one of the most important parts of keeping a company going. Being able to effectively communicate with everyone in the organization can reduce miscommunication, lost information, and more. With a SharePoint website, communication becomes a simple task. No matter how high-tech or low-tech your previous strategies were, a SharePoint site can act as the natural successor to your organization's communication system.
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