Best Practices For Effective Workplace Communication

Or all the reasons. Until recently, each was kept separate largely because they were separated by technology, but the logistics, tactics and negotiations of business demand we pair each aid to each aim. Whether you’re a CEO or an associate, an owner-operator or a temporary worker, effective workplace communications are those that dispatch information strategically.

Adopting effective communication at work isn’t about improving office culture, or courteousness. Communication best practices ripple and affect sales. According to Salesforce, a leader in sales lead services, all of this deliberate interpersonal effort are simultaneously internal and customer-facing. The benefits of effective communication in the workplace spill over into successful customer interactions and good customer service, so workplace communication extends beyond your staff and on to the customer experience.

OfficeSuite UC® for Effective Communication at Work

We ask for and respond to pretty straightforward queries at work, like scheduling a lunch or snagging a copy of the quarterly budget. We also communicate about matters that give us cause to examine our intent and purpose, like commenting on a performance or competing sales plans. The benefits of effective communication in the workplace rise along with the complexity and nuance of the message, and strong communicators consider how they’ll make a point, what tone they’ll deploy and what range of responses they’re in for.

While effective workplace communication is largely tied back to effective individual communicators, having the right workplace communication technology can improve communications across the board.

Here are a few of the tools a unified communications solution, such as OfficeSuite UC®, offers that can further these efforts:

• Instant Messaging: How many problems — big and small — have been solved over an IM? More than we can imagine. These days employees are constantly trying to dig out of their email. It’s like a bottomless pit of communication. Of course, not every communication is best suited for IM, and email is still highly effective. But emails can sometimes get lost in the shuffle. A direct message to a colleague, on the other hand, is most likely going to get a quick response. Instant messages, or chat, really changed the game of workplace communications.
• Presence & Availability: Often this is thought of as merely a feature of IM, but it’s a separate tool in itself. Having the ability to see when coworkers are available, in a meeting, out of the office, presenting or screen sharing ensures that communications are sent at the most opportune times, or at least sets the sender’s expectations on when they might receive a response. This tool also prevents internal interruptions as coworkers can see when their colleagues shouldn’t be interrupted.
• Screen sharing: Before screen sharing existed, how many times did you wish you could just show someone what you were seeing, but you couldn’t because you weren’t physically in the same place? Today, screen sharing is a communication best practice, speaking and showing everything from training to helpdesk troubleshooting to collaboration on presentations and proposals. A screen-sharing application gets everyone on the same “page.”
• Video Conferencing: This is the tool that’s making remote working truly mainstream while allowing businesses to expand their client base to a larger geographic footprint. There is no doubt that “face time” is an important component of internal collaboration as well as customer relationships. Now video conferencing applications enable face-to-face workplace communication regardless of location.

The applications above, and more, are typically available in a UCaaS (unified communications as a service) solution. This online, cloud-based communications platform can be used by employees on their desktops in the office as well as on their mobile devices or laptops from any location. There are no limits to a staff’s ability to communicate and collaborate with the right UCaaS solution.

As you pursue new opportunities or markets — as you add talent or devices or locations — UCaaS keeps step. And if you suddenly need to scale down, UCaaS doesn’t saddle you with unwanted technology or long-term commitments. Your communications investment should be made where it’s most impactful — in your people. Not in your hardware.

Finding the Right UCaaS Solution

The first step in finding the “right” solution is to evaluate which features and tools you need as well as your budget and IT management capabilities.

Kinetic Business by Windstream has an award-winning workplace communication platform that will check all your boxes.

OfficeSuite UC®, a 100% cloud-based communications solution, includes:

• Hundreds of calling features and unlimited calling
• Mobile twinning (calls ring simultaneously to office phone and mobile phone)
• Company-wide chat (instant message)
• Real-time presence and availability
• HD video conferencing
• Web collaboration and screen-sharing tools
• Visual voicemail and speech-to-text
• Online faxing

Why Choose OfficeSuite UC®

OfficeSuite UC® also allows you to use any device, anywhere, anytime to control all the settings and features of your phone system, including updating auto attendants and managing call routing, placing and receiving calls, joining or starting a video conference, messaging coworkers and sending and receiving faxes. Do it all from your mobile phone or device of choice. And its award-winning intuitive interface allows employees to self-manage features that required IT support in the past and makes adding new lines and users a breeze for admins.

And … it comes at a great price, starting at just $19.95/mo per seat. Learn more at officesuiteuc.com.

Convinced yet? We are. But regardless of which platform provides the most effective workplace communications for your business, UCaaS solutions provide an important upgrade to modern voice communications alongside the collaboration benefits, and they trim budget lines for communications, too. An average business may spend up to three-quarters of its IT budget maintaining, even repairing, old technology systems.

Here’s to improving workplace communications and furthering your business goals in the new year. Happy Collaboration!