Interdepartmental communication mistakes that need to be corrected right now
Every business- large, medium or small scale, engages in interdepartmental communication at some point or the other. And such communication is essential to be able to achieve the common business goals, by bringing all the teams together. However, as organisational behaviour will have it quite often, cross-department communications end up being unsuccessful, not because of anything else but mostly due to the common mistakes managers make. It is not only the responsibility of the HR manager but also of the department heads to ensure effective and seamless communication among their respective departments.
As an online recruitment specialist and recruitment software provider, we at TalentSpa, provide HR thought-leadership and believe that HR managers of the “Organisation 2020” need to identify and correct these four common interdepartmental communication mistakes.
Mistake 1- Ignoring other departments
Most often than not, we tend to stick to our own departments and domains, and not care much about what goes on in other divisions. Whatever the reason might be, it is not the most prudent way to grow as a professional or a team player. In such cases, the HR manager needs to step in and encourage team members to interact and approach other teams and get to know the entire staff. Employee development programs can help boost such interactions. Reaching out to other departments can also help employees to gather know-hows on different subject matters, thus increasing their learning curves.
Mistake 2 – Working in silos
Sitting in your own cubicle and not knowing what’s happening around the organisation is one of the most outdated office behaviours. With millennials as your human resource, HR managers need to break the physical barriers within the organisation and let employees explore other departments and divisions to understand respective roles and how everyone’s performance contributes to the ultimate organisational objective.
Mistake 3 – Jargonising every communication
Imagine that you, a marketing associate, is sitting in your company’s monthly meeting and someone from the Finance team mentions EBITDA. You would feel alienated, wouldn’t you? Unless of course you are well-versed with finance terms. Similarly, when you are sharing a new sales strategy to the accounts team, keep words like Churn Rate, CPI, COS etc, at bay. It is good to know your domain well, but when you are in a cross-departmental forum, it’s better to keep communication simple so everyone understands and can be part of the discussion.
Mistake 4- Communicating without purpose
Nothing happens or can happen without an end objective. So is the case with cross-departmental communication in an organisation. Whether it is as simple as sharing a department’s achievements or as serious as changes in hiring policies, the messaging must include a clear objective- direct or subtle. How do you want the other departments to get involved? What is the purpose of such communication? What do you want the employees to do about the message? It is important to create action items for employees across departments so they can implement accordingly.
To err is human but to rectify is true leadership. By duly addressing and fixing these interdepartmental loopholes, future organisations can avoid conflicts and yield a better output. For everything else, there are market insights and updates straight from our social platforms. Join the conversation today at Twitter, Facebookand LinkedIn.