We have spoken plenty of times before about the importance of effective communication. Whether it’s for staff retention, collecting feedback, or reducing errors, internal communication is an integral aspect of any business’s daily operations. 

But today we’re going to look more specifically at the subject of sharing information across your organisation. After all, any successful business relies on their staff being on the same page, operating with the most up-to-date information, and being able to access whatever insights they need, as and when they need them.

However, despite this, 74% of employees feel they are missing out on company information or news. So what are the common problems your large-scale organisation may be suffering from when it comes to sharing important information?

Convoluted processes

Convoluted processes are a big culprit for eating into your teams’ efficiency and productivity. No matter the information being shared – daily updates, audit checks, a change to safety or security policy – the simpler the processes for accessing relevant information, the more efficient and productive your staff are free to be. The less time they spend searching for a piece of information they remember seeing but aren’t quite sure where they saw it, the more time they have to do their actual jobs.

To carry out daily safety or audit checks, nobody wants to undergo a long-winded process to see what’s already been carried out and what still needs to be done. Your staff will want to quickly visualise what’s expected of them, get it done, and go back to everything else they need to do. The more streamlined the process, the less time these daily tasks will take up.

Sensitive data

Matters of GDPR and data privacy show how important it is to be careful with how you’re sharing information. How do you weigh up making documents easily accessible while also being sensitive to data restrictions and guidelines?

In some cases, internal documents will have restricted access based on job level, location, or authority. Sometimes you want to share information externally to your supply chain or partners. And these people won’t always have the same clearance as your internal staff.

This can be a difficult balance to strike. And while a logical alternative may be to share information on an individual basis to ensure people only see what they’re meant to see, this also opens itself up to human error and is largely impractical for a fast-paced business environment. Not to mention the fact that the people you’re sharing with might be hundreds of miles away in different time zones.

So the question becomes how to ensure only the right people see the right documents, while still making sure it’s an easy process for users? But then if someone changes job role, are they still eligible? And if they’re promoted, do they now have all the information they need straight away?

Constantly changing information

All information is subject to change. For example, health and safety procedures, event cancellations, or a changing venue. These are all likely to change at some point or another.

Plans change, policies change, and businesses need information sharing processes that can reflect this. Systems that allow you to make changes live to all documents in real time, and also ensure everyone is working off the same, correct information. This is why hard copy documents are so outdated. You can’t edit them after they’ve been received and you run the risk of staff members working off different versions of the same document. Preferably, everyone should have access to a constantly updating database that has the most current version they need.

Hopefully, this list demonstrates just how much slight problems may be slowing you down. And how easy it is to fix them. It only takes slight tweaks to your systems and processes to significantly boost your productivity.

At Inform People, we make organisation-wide information sharing simple. With real-time access to all business documents from any device, the opportunity to limit access to information by authority-level, and quick visualisation of all checks, tests, and audits, we help everyone across your business become more informed. To find out more, get in touch with us via email or on +44 (0)161 713 4104.