Why Effective Communication Between Managers & Employees Matters

At any workshop discussing relationships of any kind, communication is the first talking point. Without effective communication, relationships are unable to develop any kind of long-term trust or honesty, and goals remain ambiguous and unfulfilled until any hope of a lasting connection fades away. Although this scenario usually refers to experiences within friendships or romantic relationships, the same errors are just as common in business settings between managers and their employees. In this post we talk building communication within your team and how to become more efficient in the process. 

Improve Accessibility With Technology 

In an article published in 2009 from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Chris Dede emphasizes that collaboration tools have become more sophisticated; this means colleagues can interact with each other from locations across the globe without ever meeting face-to-face. 

Field activity management software has the biggest impact for teams that aren’t centrally located in a geographical sense. Dede highlights that in today’s modern workplace, field activity management software helps people to accomplish otherwise unachievable goals.  

Video can also help improve accessibility -- if a picture is worth a thousand words a video is worth a million. When you’re able to discuss your goals for reps in a one-on-one style, your words will mean much more than they would if you had sent your reps an instructional text message, suggests Mike Volpe, startup marketing guru and CMO at Cybereason.

Mobile apps designed for field reps streamline the data analysis process. Instead of enduring the lengthy process required for reps to manually record their field observations, Mobile CRM tools like Repsly empower brands to create customizable forms, communicate with members of their team and their managers, and clock in and out of locations all while tagging activities with GPS data.

Maintain Strong Internal Communication 

In his article,  “What Does Effective Communication in Organizations Involve?”, Leigh Richards delves into strategies organizations can utilize to improve internal communication.  These strategies emphasise understanding the tools, skills, and measurements of communication necessary between employees on different levels within a company.

Field Management apps like Repsly bring team messaging into one easy-to-use and central location. 

Messaging within a field team app can help to foster internal communication on a personal level between reps and managers. If the manager of a company is not invested in creating strong internal communication, there will be be a lack of open and efficient communication from the start.

Without a push for honest communication in an organization, employees may feel excluded -- this damages company culture and stunts overall growth. This is especially true of remote field employees who may never have the opportunity to connect with employees and managers who work from the back office.  

Open communication doesn’t stop within the company. Strive to be transparent when you communicate with your team, and even when you communicate with the public, because it will encourage trust in your brand as a whole.

Provide a Strong Foundation of Resources 

Countless resources are available to the managers of growing brands. It’s hard to log onto Twitter without being invited to the next webinar, workshop, or convention.  Some of the best information available can be accessed from resources you already have, and if you’re at a loss there’s virtually unlimited access to management communications resources online.

Check out these free management communications resources to get started:

• Mindtools.com
• Management Library
• Alison.com
• Field Team Academy

Resource Feature:

Field Team Academy is a free, online certification course for people who work as part of a field team. In the first track, Field Team Academy connects you with training videos from brands and industry professionals that give you the ins and outs of field marketing. Getting a certification is free and looks great on your LinkedIn profile.  

Use these tools to become well-versed in both face-to-face communication and digital means. Social media is invaluable in the workplace, and field team management software can function as productive internal social if done correctly. Your team will benefit from your new understanding of the nuances of communication, and you’ll see an increase in overall morale when everyone begins to feel more connected.

Instill High Performance Standards 

Every business needs some way to monitor the vital signs of their sales. Basic measurements and data, easily collected by mobile CRM apps, help brands to make sure that they’re growing at an appropriate pace and achieving high performance standards overall.

Once you reach this point with your brand, establish a framework for success and build internal communication from the ground up.  Continuous improvement is built around this framework and based on the idea that open communication within the company is necessary to notice areas for improvement, make changes to build the brand further, and reevaluate the state of the company using data and analytics before beginning the cycle over again.  

Valuable information collected from this process should be shared with managers and lower-level employees to foster a culture of perpetual growth and high standards.

After they are established, don’t allow expectations that you set for your reps to fall through the cracks. Regularly update personalized documents for each rep that outlines your priorities for their performance and your goals for them in the field. When you check in with reps during one-on-one meetings, looking back at this living doc will help you to hold them accountable for the expectations you have for them.

Author James Humes said, “the art of communication is the language of leadership.” If you collect data from your team and talk to them about their progress while independently pushing towards improving your own communication, your brand will have no choice but to become more cohesive. Field management software can help you to achieve these goals.

By using personalized forms alongside geographic tracking, connections will form to bring your reps together- even if they are remote.