Effective horizontal communication enables organizations to comprehensively tap into the skills, talents, insights & unique knowledge of their employees. Horizontal communication happens within teams when members coordinate about tasks, resolve conflicts & take efforts to reach a common goal. Horizontal communication also takes place between cross-functional teams for the same purpose.
The quality of work in an organization is significantly determined by the quality of horizontal communication. So, it is of paramount importance to take measures focused on enhancing horizontal communication.
How can a digital pinboard like CircleYard improve horizontal communication?
The CircleYard ‘Administrator’ of an organization has the permission to create customized categories for employees to post.
Some category ideas can be:
- General or Gallery where images, videos & audios can be posted.
- Q&A where a question can be asked & answers can be requested. Questions can range from anything random to as specific as product reviews or opinions.
- Surveys where surveys can be conducted to get a general idea of what employees think about something or just as a fun activity to break ice.
- Employee Recognition where an employee can post real-time feedback about their peer or manager & rate them in a task.
And, here’s how these can improve horizontal communication:
- Encouraging balanced conversations with ‘General’
While the formal style of communicating helps in keeping everything to-the-point & controlled, informal style of communicating allows flexibility & builds rapport. A category like General, where employees can post images, videos & audios, encourages company-wide conversations while providing a fine balance of both styles. These conversations serve as ice-breakers between different teams. This forms a proper base for horizontal communication between teams, who might not be working on the same project today, but might be assigned the same project down the line.
- Building Collective Intelligence with ‘Q&A’ & ‘Surveys’
Collective Intelligence is shared intelligence that arises from collaboration & combined efforts. Categories like Q&A & Surveys provide a platform to discuss ideas, take surveys, ask for reviews & post questions which lets employees contribute to what truly matters to them. This especially helps organizations with a distributed workforce, as CircleYard transcends the limitations of physical proximity. It can be used in real-time via web, phones, tablets & kiosks by teams based in different locations as well as employees working remotely, eventually enhancing horizontal communication between them.
- Documenting real-time feedback with ‘Employee Recognition’
Normally, feedback is documented for the sake of organization’s processes. However, the real purpose of doing so is to continuously monitor an employee’s growth. A category like Employee Recognition allows rating anyone in the company. Not only can a manager rate a subordinate but vice versa can also be done. This can be done instantly via handheld devices or web thus documenting feedback in real-time rather than keeping it just verbal. Eventually, since there is a history of feedback, performance reviews become easier & in fact, improve considerably. This has a noticeably positive effect on horizontal communication. Also, it brings a sense of motivation in teams to do well at work every day.
Final Word:
When horizontal communication is managed well by organizations, results can be seen. Efforts taken in the right direction result in better work performance, growth & retention. So, it is extremely important to continually assess & innovate in this regard. CircleYard is one such innovation built for organizations which want to get their communication right.