As Scoro makes the transition to a 4 day work week, we’re sharing a series of frameworks – across seven different focus areas – based on our key objectives for long-term success. In this post, we’re taking a closer look at Communication.
With the onset of the 4 day workweek, Scoro will only have 32 hours a week to get work done. And in order to be as efficient as possible moving forward, we will need to streamline communications to make the most of the time that we do have at our disposal.
Streamlining communications for efficiency
According to research, effective communication can drive productivity by 25%.
With the 4 day workweek cutting eight hours out of our employees’ schedule per week, it’s imperative that we double down on our communication tactics and do all we can to increase efficiency and free up time to focus on what’s most important.
Part of this is recognizing that communication methods and techniques that work in our current set-up might not adapt as well to the 4 day work week, so we’re making it our priority to bring in new initiatives and re-evaluate old tactics.
Outlining our objectives
In order to streamline our communications, we’ve drawn up a set of objectives that will enable us to create a ‘next-steps’ strategy and be used as a point of reference when measuring our progress. As with all squads, we sought employee input and got their opinion on current communication practices and what they thought could be improved. Based on employee feedback, our objectives are to:
- Agree on general communication etiquette/philosophy to be aligned in everyday interaction
- Standardize the usage of the communication channels and develop a companywide framework for responding to communications
- Cut back on unnecessary communications that zap time and energy, while leaving room for watercooler conversations that foster connection
- Develop a company-wide knowledge base to make the access to information easy for everyone
Our roadmap to success
To help us meet our communication objectives, we have developed the following roadmap to succeed:
- Building a shared understanding about the value of time and effective communication: explaining the “why” is always one of the cornerstones when managing change.
- Creating guidelines for internal communication: These will lay the ‘ground rules’ for internal communications: what channels to use by message type and what to keep in mind when using them
- Cutting back on unnecessary meetings: Delivering meetings that provide value and purpose to employees, that are well prepared, structured and facilitated.
- Quiet hours: Carving out ‘quiet hours’ (no meetings and limited communications) so that employees can focus on important projects and tasks that add value to the company. In Scoro we have chosen Wednesday to become a meeting free day.
- Leveraging work management software tools: Using our own task matrix, shared calendars, and projects and milestones, to keep track of tasks and give employees a clear visualization of what needs to get done and when. This will help us better communicate our goals and expectations to fellow team members and avoid miscommunication.
- Creating principles for async communications: Agreeing on the main principles of async communication channels such as Slack, shared files and email.
- Following up on meetings: Improve team communication by following up on meeting actions and expectations within a certain time frame, so that everyone has clarity on what they need to do.
- Document and share: Most communication should end with reusable summary, avoiding parallel discussions and repetitive introductions.
- Assigning dedicated team ambassadors: Representatives of the ‘communication’ squad who will assess the implementation of new frameworks, rally for other employee ideas or improvements, and continue to initiate new processes for streamlined comms.
Measuring progress
In order to gauge the progress of our ‘communication’ squad, we need to regularly measure outputs to get a better idea of which initiatives are having the most impact and which areas need to be improved. We will measure our progress through:
- Staff pulse surveys: Gathering feedback from the team via staff pulse surveys on what they think about current communications initiatives, their ideas for improvements, and what their preferred communication channels are.
- Revenue and customer satisfaction: Regularly analyzing sales and customer satisfaction. As our internal communications become increasingly efficient and streamlined, this will be reflected in our external communications with stakeholders.
Preparing for challenges
Communication is a focus area that plays a key role in every part of an organization. Within every one of our squads, an element of communication is present. This makes it even more important that we optimize and streamline internal and external communications, as it will likely have a knock-on effect on the progress of our other focus areas.
And while we anticipate a few challenges, namely the adoption of new frameworks and initiatives, we’re confident we’ll be able to tackle problems head-on. By getting our team involved in the conversation, we’ll be aware of any arising concerns and nip them in the bud before they become a problem.
We will continue to share updates on the progress of our communication squad as we transition into a 4 day workweek.