As our organizations grow, the need to disseminate information to more employees, through one or multiple locations, becomes more of a challenge.
To prevent any breakdowns, here are a few ways to streamline communication so that everyone on your body shop staff is kept up to date and aware of what’s going on within the organization.
During my time at Lefler Collision in the Evansville, Ind.-area recently, there were many times throughout the year where we needed to communicate about insurance meetings, volunteer opportunities, employee work anniversaries and birthdays, or holiday parties. Having almost 80 team members throughout four locations, we needed to ensure everyone was informed and on the same page. While we initially sent out information via email attachment or printed newsletter, many employees did not have a company email address and printed newsletters can be time consuming to create, not to mention costly.
To overcome those challenges, we created employee communication boards for each location’s breakroom and a private Facebook group for employees and spouses only.
The employee communication boards are large bulletin boards placed within each breakroom. These boards help centralize all of the information, volunteer opportunities, and other important company information. Prior to these communication boards, printed flyers would be sporadically placed near the time clock, the breakroom, the door leading to the wash bay, and so forth, which made it confusing as to where to find important information. And, it made our shops look cluttered.
These new communication boards were a much more visually appealing and organized way to provide our employees a central place to stay up to date with what was going on. It also provided us the perfect place to hang that month’s employee birthday and anniversary photos.
Also, in the past, our human resources administrative assistant mentioned that the majority of calls she received were from employees and spouses that had questions regarding benefits or insurance. So, to create a space where everyone could stay informed with what was going on, she came up with the idea to make the private Facebook group for Lefler Collision. There, she eventually posted about upcoming insurance changes, information, and employee recognition. I utilized this group for our marketing and community involvement by highlighting upcoming volunteer opportunities and sharing photos after events.
That private group was a huge asset in attaining more involvement from our employees and allowing those from different locations more opportunities to get to know each other better. This private Facebook group helped us operate as a more unified organization.
I hope that by implementing one of these ideas that it will assist your organization in streamlining communication, ease your mind to ensuring information has been sent to all of your team, and that your staff will feel more unified and in the loop of what’s going on within your organization.
