Effective Interdepartmental Communication

Most medium to large companies is organized into departments. This makes it easier to keep several operations separate and managed by trained professionals for different tasks. For example, most of those that sell products or services have a customer service department, which handles people’s problems and inquiries. For the business to be successful, departments must maintain effective communication between them.

Interdepartmental Communication

It is the process through which several departments send and receive messages between them. For communication to be effective, one department must send the other a clear and comprehensive message that is clearly and completely understood. If it does not happen, there will be problems. Ineffective communication can lead to confusion, lack of morale and frustration among employees and departments.

Importance of Interdepartmental communication

It ensures that all departments are in the same line when changes occur at work. One can make a change that affects another. If the first does not communicate them to the other, there can be confusion, frustration and anger. Without effective communication, a company can end up in chaos, with a lack of motivation among employees and a lack of trust and respect among departments.

It creates a vibrant and trustworthy corporate culture. Employees feel more powerful and able to rely on the decisions of other departments. The leaders of the organization trust the departmental leaders and the clients have faith in the word and the reputation of the company. Effective communication enables people to be informed, make changes when and where they are needed, and be comfortable dealing with problems that arise between departments and there are no resentments or unwillingness to deal with their members.

How to Improve Interdepartmental Communication

• Make them interact
• Hold weekly leadership meetings
• Make it contextual
• Set company-wide, high-level goals
• Form cross-departmental teams
• Hire someone to act as a bridge
• Use general channels
• Create clubs
• Throw social events
• Set up quarterly retreats
• Hold team lunches

Types of Interdepartmental communication

The oral communication is usually carried out by department leaders by telephone, video-conference and personal messages. The written ones are commonly made inter-departmentally in the form of emails and memos. Another type is when the communication is corporate, and the main leaders of a company in the form of a message, whether by newsletter, email or other methods.

Interdepartmental Communication Strategies

The evaluation of a need is an objective overview of the effectiveness of departmental communication. It is usually done by communications specialists who provide a detailed report of weaknesses and strengths in the areas of communication between departments. He can interview the members of an organization, provide measurements and determine the satisfaction among the employees and the areas that need improvement. Communication is a continuous process of improvement.