Mala McAlpin Do you have a large team of alternating employees? Or maybe you have staff members that sometimes work half-days? If you fit into either of these categories, you know how difficult it can be to keep your staff all on the same page.
This is crucial not only for general news and updates, but also for tasks that cross over multiple team members; that either take a prolonged long period of time, or aren’t finalised before that team member leaves for the day.
For example, have you ever had a client call to say they had received a voicemail from your receptionist but nobody else knew what the call was regarding because a different staff member was working at the time? Or maybe you’re reorganising your filing system and expecting it to take a couple of weeks to complete?
These small breakdowns in communication may not seem like a big deal to some, but they can instantly give an impression of unprofessionalism to your brand, as well as confuse your team. Other items of business that might require snappy handover could include any special offers or discounts, a last-minute staff meeting, an incident involving a client, a problem with a payment, a client leaving a personal item behind, orders being placed, technical issues, a meeting, or countless other events.
So how do you ensure that every member of the team, along with the business owner and/or manager, stays up to date with one another? It’s likely that not every member of your team has an iPhone, so group texts won’t always be the easiest option. Unlike texting, social media and apps will save writing messages to individuals, and unlike emails, these apps and socials will also allow every team member to see one another’s responses – saving everyone a lot of time!
Say goodbye to hundreds of post-it notes at the front counter – here are some great solutions for quick team updates:
Create a Facebook group – an excellent choice for very large teams. You can post announcements, create events, post photos easily, upload files, and instantly share other relevant Facebook content that your team may appreciate!
WhatsApp group – a free chatting app (through wifi) that’s incredibly simple to use, staff members can be added using their phone numbers and from there, you can create a group chat for your team. You can make calls too, send photos and videos, as well as use the app on desktop.
Staff diary – if you want to keep things old-school. Keep it at your reception desk or in your lunch room and staff can write down any notes they want to pass on to the rest of the team each day. This will also allow staff to pass on physical documents like letters, recepts, orders, etc.
