Communication is the lifeblood of any business. And it’s one of the most basic functions of any management team.
In our last blog we looked at why it’s so important to establish a communications strategy. This week we’ll be taking a look at how you actually go about creating one.
A good communications strategy ensures information is communicated across your whole business clearly and consistently, letting everybody know what’s expected of them and why.
Making sure that everybody is informed and feels understood themselves means your employees are more likely to successfully communicate your business’s core messages to the outside world.
An effective communications strategy helps your business perform to its full potential
We develop and implement communications strategies with all of our clients. Whatever provisions you already have in place, we provide you with the foundation you need to identify where you are going and how you are going to get there.
So, what does a communications strategy look like exactly? Something along the lines of the following 10 steps:
1. Vision: Create and publish your company vision.
2. Values: Collaboratively create and publish your core values.
3. Organisational Chart: Produce a long-term organisational chart – including roles that haven’t yet been filled.
4. Positional Contracts: Develop positional contracts for each role with relevant KPIs.
5. Reviews: Implement a structured review process on a quarterly or sixth month basis.
6. Rules: Create ‘rules of the game’ for dealing with basic everyday behaviour on a company-wide level.
7. Meeting Calendar: Create a company-wide meeting structure with clear agendas and put these meetings in your calendar, making sure you stick to them.
8. Targets: Use your targets, KPIs and core values to create monthly or quarterly themes.
9. Awards: Have monthly or quarterly ‘awards’ in several categories.
10. Suggestion box: Introduce a clearly defined ‘suggestion box’ policy.
These steps are by no means exhaustive, but they should give you some idea of how the process works. Equally, the structure isn’t set in stone and most SMEs business owners tend to start somewhere in the middle, dependant on what measures they already have in place.
So, how does your existing communication strategy compare to the points above? Does it cover all of the stages? If you’re unsure how to begin developing your strategy, why not chat to us about it and we can help you get started?
For more information or to discuss your current communications strategy with us, contact us on 0113 394 4559 or enquiries@nextlevelbd.co.uk.