Strong and effective teams are built on good communication. It helps everyone understand their role, what is expected of them, and how they fit in to the wider team.
If you’re a line manager, then you have a key role in communicating to your team and keeping them informed, including about:
- Our direction of travel as an organisation, your team objectives and priorities, and your current areas of focus and improvement
- Team culture – our values, how we treat each other and how we want it to feel for our colleagues and patients
- Celebrating success and sharing good news.
Some things to consider
- How can you make your message as clear as possible for the reader or listener? Is it written simply, in words everyone could understand and with a clear call to action?
- What information do you receive that your team need to know eg. from meetings you attend?
- Do your team members work different shifts? How will you keep everyone informed if they are working at different times and aren’t always present all together?
- How will you engage with them on changes and invite them to share ideas or feedback?
Some suggested tools and tips
Regular team meetings can be one of the most effective ways to communicate as a team, share updates, and discuss what's working well and what you could improve on.
If your team work different shifts that make meeting together difficult, then consider how you will share information and updates with those who aren’t present afterwards.
Email is a big part of most of our roles, but we all know it can sometimes be hard to find the important information.
Consider using a standard template for messages to your team that makes it easy for them to pick out the key information and to know what they need to do with it.
This can be a great way to communicate with colleagues as most of us already have it on our phones and use it regularly.
We suggest confirming with colleagues that they are happy to do so, especially if you’ll be sending work messages to their personal phones or outside of work hours/shift patterns.
If your team share a physical location, then noticeboards or displays can be a great way to communicate.
Remember to consider who will keep these updated so that information stays relevant and colleagues can easily see new messaging.
A regular newsletter can help you compile all the key things your team needs into one place, and also give a great space for celebrating successes and team news.