As companies evolve from a small startup to an established organization, there are a lot of new challenges they’ll have to face. One of those challenges is maintaining a strong culture of communication among your growing team. We asked a panel of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) members the following question:
“Though exciting, growing from a small office to a much larger organization comes with its cultural challenges. What’s a particularly effective way to stay in touch with your employees, and why does it work?”
Tips for Building a Culture of Communication
Here’s what YEC community members had to say:
1. Hold Frequent (But Not Too Frequent) Check-Ins
“When we first started Fortress, we stayed away from doing too many internal meetings. We empowered our employees and let them fly on their own. As we’ve grown, we’ve found the value in having weekly check-ins or touch points or stand-ups with our team members. This helps everyone stay engaged and gives me a better vision on our team from every angle.” ~ Joel Mathew, Fortress Consulting
2. Encourage One-on-One Interactions with Key Leaders
“Keeping a personal connection through regular connection — whether it be scheduled one-on-one meetings, or a regular calendar reminder to reach out by phone or email — is crucial to not only keeping your finger on the pulse of the company but building and maintaining connection and loyalty. Keep in mind, leaders are not always the directors and managers: There are game changers at every level.” ~ Joey Kercher, Air Fresh Marketing
3. Send Out Periodic Employee Surveys
“An anonymous employee survey gives you insight into the general atmosphere in your company. The anonymity allows people to speak their mind freely, share their pain points and even suggest great ideas to improve the company culture.” ~ Duran Inci, Optimum7
4. Set a Company-Wide Team Lunch Hour with No Meetings
“The best way to encourage togetherness is to get people together. Lunch is the natural time to do this. Whether you offer free lunch or not, one small trick is to “no-meeting” lunch hours. Your objective as you grow is to create serendipitous interactions between all colleagues, so that everyone can feel connected to different parts of the business.” ~ Aaron Schwartz, Passport
5. Create an Online Group
“My team is spread out over three locations. We have a company facebook group to share things like their kid’s Halloween costumes, events anyone is performing in, and general news. It’s a lovely way to keep in touch and get to know each other.” ~ Rachel Beider, Massage Outpost
6. Use a Messenger App
“Once our team started growing, we moved away from internal emails and started using Slack, which is a messenger application for businesses. Slack works great because there are different channels for different teams. We have an all company channel, a marketing channel, engineering channel and so on. Communication has been a lot faster than email which has made a huge difference.” ~ Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner
7. Take Advantage of Video Conferencing
“Video conferencing enables a remote team to feel closer together. While everyone might be scattered around the country or world, with video conferencing, team members can stay in touch. It offers a more immediate experience than phone or email or instant messenger. I’ve even had happy hours via video conferencing.” ~ Jean Ginzburg, Jean Ginzburg.com
8. Host Group Meditation Sessions
“My company has recently started doing group meditation, which has improved communication at all levels of our organization. Meditation helps clear the mind and improve attention, which, in turn, affects gestures, eye contact and tone of voice, and, ultimately what goes on inside us when we talk to others. I have noticed that we are all much more mindful of how and what we communicate.” ~ Shu Saito, Fact Retriever
9. Implement Two Regular Standup Meetings
“Have two standups in your organization. One is the morning stand up — 15 minutes with your executives. The second is a five-minute stand up that your managers have with their respective teams. It will allow you to have a good daily feedback loop of how things are progressing within the company.” ~ Nicole Munoz, Nicole Munoz Consulting, Inc.
Photo via Shutterstock
Yes. It is important to strike the balance in frequency. You like it to be frequent but not too much that it hinders productivity.