GREENINDUSTRY

Essentials Effective Internal Communications

Effective Internal CommunicationsThere are many components to an effective internal communications strategy at a green industry company, but the top need is clarity. For the company and its employees to be successful, team members must understand what they are expected to do and when they are expected to do it so the company can serve its clients efficiently.

It sounds simple in principal, but it takes effort and discipline in practice. It all starts at the top by setting easy-to-follow guidelines on what good communication is and how to be consistent.

Starts At The TopA company’s vision, mission and core values are the outline for its internal communications approach.

Your vision describes what your company aspires to be. The mission statement explains what your company does on a daily basis to reach the final vision. Finally, the core values outline principles to help you run your business. All three should guide the way you and your team members communicate internally and externally.

Companies that don’t have these business basics in place should consider having their leadership teams create them. Those that do have them in place should talk about them often. It’s common for companies to create a vision, mission and core values and quickly forget about them. They are useless if they aren’t discussed daily and if management does not acknowledge team members who operate by them.

For example, RJ Lawn & Landscape in Des Moines, Iowa, does a great job reinforcing its core values with a poker chip system. Managers carry five different colors of chips—one for each

u BY JIM CALI & JASON NEW

Principals, McFarlin Stanford

of the company’s core values. Every time a manager sees someone acting in a way that represents a company value, he or she hands out a chip to the whole crew. As an incentive, the chips are redeemable for popular co-branded company apparel, like Nike hats and Eddie Bauer jackets.

Other ways to acknowledge employees who operate by the company’s values are in internal newsletters, on company’s social media and during morning huddles.

Successful companies tie in small wins to the company’s vision, mission and core values, which fosters buy-in and keeps everyone moving in the same direction.

Team member buy-in and trust are essential for effective internal communications. Three leadership principles to help you achieve buy-in include:

1. Lead by example. Company leaders should never operate with a “do as I say, not as I do” mentality. Behave how you expect employees to behave.

2. Follow the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.3. Empower your team. Share information, rewards and power with team

members so they can solve challenges and improve service and performance. Giving team members skills, resources, authority, opportunity and motivation – and holding them accountable for the outcomes of their actions – will contribute to their competence and satisfaction.

Set ExpectationsClarifying your expectations about internal communications sets up your team for success. Here are a few tactics to focus on. Create a consistent way your team communicates. This consistency shows clients

a sense of urgency and eliminates internal bottlenecks. For instance, the 5/10 Rule dictates that team members acknowledge and respond the same day to emails, phone calls or texts received before 5 p.m. Emails, phone calls or texts received after 5 p.m. need a response by 10 a.m. the following day. At the minimum, employees should acknowledge a message and reply stating when they will have answer.

Only handle it once (OHIO). This concept is designed to eliminate bottlenecks. OHIO applies to every item that comes across your desk (or smartphone). When you receive a message or request, do something with it: delegate it, complete it yourself or put it on your schedule for when you can complete it. Owners are often guilty of holding up action because they don’t immediately act on requests that come their way. New managers, too, are frequently overwhelmed by the volume of information that flows through them. The OHIO principle helps the whole team keep things moving.

Conduct one-on-one meetings with those who report directly to you. These weekly, hour-long meetings provide clarity and consistency, eliminate repeat conversations and drive results while creating a strong team. One-on-one meeting agendas differ based on what level they’re occurring. For example, the owner may meet with departmental managers to cover sales and financials, while a production manager may meet with his foremen to discuss budgeted vs. actual hours on jobs.

Create departmental standards. Create consistency and transparency by establishing expectations around when departmental tasks will be completed. For example: The finance department may process accounts receivable on Mondays and Wednesdays for better cash flow, process billing daily and of course process payroll on Wednesdays. The operations team may approve timesheets daily and conduct a daily safety briefing during morning start-up. Sales and marketing may be expected to conduct annual property walks to review improvements, schedule weekly social media posts and complete visits to the top 20 clients.

Share your calendar and set time management expectations with your team. You can manage your time more effectively by sharing your digital calendar with your team members. This step eliminates time-consuming phone and email tag sessions and allows easier meeting scheduling because all team members can see other team members detailed calendars. Be sure to block out time for your one-on-ones and other standing commitments like sales meetings, productions meetings or company events.

Make The Most Of Your Weekly One-On-One Meetings

There are three keys to hosting successful one-on-one meetings with your direct reports.

1. Be prepared and productive • Take notes and create a system for

following up on to-do’s (with deadlines). • Drive progress by helping team members

complete items during meetings. • Define the metrics your company uses

to track success. Review these with department leaders.

2. Be consistent • Commit to the same block of time each

week. Start on time, end on time and don’t move the meeting unless bleeding or vomiting. (just kidding - but it should be a true emergency)

• Review the past meetings, discuss in-progress items and plan for future to-do’s.

• Follow up on the items you said you would do.

3. Create the right environment • Come with the right mindset: This

meeting is meant for training your leaders to review goals, identifying where they need help from you and driving progress and accountability together.

• Be focused and don’t multitask. Discourage interruptions to the meeting by setting boundaries around what’s considered an emergency.

• The ideal number of direct reports is eight. You should not have less than five or more than 12. Don’t overcommit.

• Spend time with them at their desk to see how they operate

What Meetings Should We Have?

Consider this: People spend one to two hours a day in meetings. That’s a lot of man-hours. Let’s get the most out of them.To start, every meeting should have re-occurring agenda with assigned topics to report on so that each person attending knows they are there to add value. This agenda should be shared in advance on the calendar invite. It is an outline of what will be covered, in what order and for how many minutes. Begin and end on time and keep it positive. Team members should leave rallied around a common purpose and goal motivated to win.

Here’s a sample meeting schedule for a green industry company.

Daily huddles Morning start-up, Afternoon prep

Weekly Production meeting (per department), Sales meeting (per department), Finance meeting, Training/safety (per department), Marketing meeting, One-on-ones with direct reports

Monthly Leadership meeting, Departmental review, Inventory review

Annually Team retreat, Team events, Annual reviews

Establish traditions. Being consistent about company traditions creates memorable experiences and a healthy team environment. Be intentional with events that will drive the culture you want. For example, an annual leadership retreat for management to set goals and review company initiatives. Developing a holiday party for the same time each year that provides a great experience for team members and their families, so you have 90% attendance or better. Make a habit of acknowledging people for your company anniversaries. Birthdays are nice, however that is something they already get from their family and friends. Who but you will thank them for another year of service to your company?

Set metrics. Do you have clear goals set for each position in your company, and do your team members know what they are? If not, it’s time to establish these metrics and share them with your employees weekly, so they’ll know when they’re winning and when they’re falling behind. Review these goals regularly and empower your team members to make changes to improve results. Don’t forget to celebrate the wins.

Prioritize onboarding. You only have one chance to make a good first impression. Onboarding is your opportunity to set the tone for an employee’s tenure with your company. • Who should do the onboarding? In a smaller company, the hiring manager and

the owner should onboard the new hire. In larger firms, it may be the person’s direct supervisor and a human resources person who handles it.

• Things to cover include the history of the company; the vision, mission and core values; the internal communication expectations outlined above; and the plan for the person’s first 90, 180 and 365 days on the job.

• Finally, don’t forget to paint a vision of the company’s future, the employee’s career path and growth opportunity for all team members.

With an eye on the company’s vision, mission and core values, a set of internal communications policies should come together easily. Execution is where many fall short, but healthy companies understand execution is vital to their stability and growth.

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