Great communication increases productivity and is essential for any business because it improves employee morale, engagement, productivity, and job satisfaction. Communication is also essential for improved teamwork and collaboration. Effective workplace communication contributes to improved outcomes for individuals, teams, and organizations.
People perform their tasks more effectively with clear, constant communication. For instance, if there is a shortage of materials, effective communication enables employees to address the issue without confusion or duplication, allowing the business to return to work swiftly. If employees are clearly informed that they must order from the supplier at a certain minimum stock level, the business will continue to operate smoothly. A message that lacks clarity, such as "keep an eye on material levels," will inevitably lead to confusion, disagreement, and business problems.
You must always keep in mind that your employees are simply performing a task; they will do exactly what they are instructed to do, and if these instructions are not consistently communicated to them, it is the fault of the business owners, not them or middle management, who are manifestly unqualified for the position.
Excellent communication also results in the exchange of ideas. This subsequently increases innovation. Effective communication within any business boosts morale and productivity, fosters trust among employees, increases loyalty, and can prevent major problems from arising; and when problems do arise, everyone should be aware of their role in resolving the issue because they have been informed.
Great Communication Increases Productivity
Productivity is a measure of economic performance that compares the output and inputs of production.
Labor productivity: measures the total economic output (revenue) produced per hour of labor.
Capital productivity: measures the effectiveness with which capital (such as apparatus) is employed to produce a particular output.
Material productivity: assesses the total economic output per unit of material employed.
Productivity is calculated by dividing output by input. The objective of measuring productivity is to determine how to generate more output (goods produced or services rendered) per unit of input (materials, labor hours, machine time). An essential component of any business is productivity growth, which involves producing more goods and services for the same quantity of labor.
The world's population is increasing, and consequently, the demand for products over any reasonable time period is rising steadily. Obviously, this is not consistent across all market sectors, but as the global economy develops, it is essential to increase productivity and operational efficiency to remain competitive.
Using digital tools for communication and automating repetitive duties (both production and administrative) has significantly increased the opportunities for all manufacturing companies to increase their productivity.
When contemplating how improved communication could lead to increased productivity, you must consider the following:
Digital Communications Tools
Providing employees with access to efficient systems is one of the secrets to increasing manufacturing productivity. This can be accomplished by integrating mobile solutions to increase production line or off-site efficacy.
This creates an ongoing advantage of constant communication throughout the organization and significantly increases the likelihood of producing the correct products on time.
Use AI
The most successful manufacturing companies across all industries utilize technology to provide their remote workers with simple access to communications, collaboration, and data. Companies should embrace AI as a means of enhancing productivity and a technological asset to their schedules, deadlines, and workforce output.
Create a Mobile Communication Strategy
Internal mobile communication is capable of more than just information management and distribution. Businesses with an internal communication strategy perform significantly better because employees and employers have a trusting relationship, which is essential for a goal-oriented team.
Your company should establish a single portal for systems and data within the organization for enterprise-wide access, so that managers and employees can access everything they need through a single, intuitive interface. Fluid, real-time communication systems facilitate effective collaboration and expedite problem-solving, allowing employees to contribute valuable insights and ideas for fostering greater innovation.
Workforce Education
Emerging operational technology is transforming the manner in which companies’ machine, cut, and manufacture products for increased speed, safety, and productivity. These developments necessitate a distinct set of skills for the workforce to perform their jobs. With a mobile communication tool, businesses can educate and train their current employees to bring them up to speed with technological advancements. Training employees increases employee engagement by removing them from monotonous production lines and providing them with more autonomy to perform more fascinating tasks.
Safety
As businesses incorporate all things digital, it is essential to regularly update your safety messaging to correspond with your new systems. Using a workforce app, it is simple to ensure that every employee has viewed important communications, and it is also straightforward to trace this.
A mobile application can determine which employees have read messages and who requires follow-up. A mobile communication tool can reduce incidents in the workplace, resulting in uninterrupted workflows and increased productivity.
Diversity
The manufacturing industry has been experiencing a developing labor shortage and skills gap. This is due to the fact that more than a quarter of the labor force is over 55 and approaching retirement age, and individuals under the age of 35 are not considering manufacturing careers.
To attract candidates from a more diverse talent pool, manufacturing businesses must develop new recruiting strategies. For instance, employers should focus their recruitment efforts on women obtaining degrees in engineering at universities.
Not only will this create jobs and increase the manufacturing workforce to improve production capabilities, but a greater diversity of perspectives and opinions will also result in a more innovative company with a wider range of products.
Keep Institutional Know-How
Another significant disadvantage of an aging workforce is brain outflow; their knowledge is lost. This can disrupt operation schedules and significantly delay production as managers discover system flaws they were unaware of. They must make do with less information and train new employees on how to perform tasks, which causes a cascading effect that slows everything down.
With a digital platform that integrates systems and data, knowledge remains on-site when employees retire or transfer jobs, enabling business continuity and uninterrupted workflows.
Better Group Productivity
A business is more productive when everyone collaborates to achieve a common objective with minimal conflict and perplexity; these are enormous time wasters. Facilitating collaboration is essential for a business that relies on frontline employees operating on multiple production lines.
Utilizing a quality mobile collaboration solution connects employees and enables coworkers to collaborate, resulting in increased productivity and innovation.
Crisis Communications
Covid altered the entire world. With little forewarning, production lines came to a sudden halt as a result of a severe decline in demand in the manufacturing industry. For the viability of your business, it is essential to be ready for any crisis that may disrupt operations.
Business continuity and crisis communication strategies should include digital tools to automate systems that can continue performing tasks when humans are unavailable, as well as the designation of a crisis management team to keep employees calm during challenging times and workflows running for continued productivity.
Go Lean
If your business has not yet considered a lean operations strategy, now is the time to do so. Improving operational efficiency to eliminate waste, reduce costs, and increase productivity is the fundamental premise. Lean businesses use techniques such as reducing on-site inventory to reduce overhead costs and utilize a digital workplace as a communication center so that everyone can communicate in real time and access company information as needed.
Great Communication Increases Productivity
If communication is improved, service organizations can also experience increased productivity. This approach examines the business as a whole and endeavors to identify key operations to be performed, examines alternative ways to perform them, devises alternative methods, eliminates wasteful practices, and enhances system-wide coordination. A systems-based approach to the physical handling of products, layout, job design, and merchandising, for instance, has enabled productivity gains in the grocery retail industry.
The systems approach to service can be implemented via hard technology, soft technology, or hybrid technology.
Hard technology refers to the substitution of machines and tools for humans (such as automatic car washes, airport x-ray surveillance equipment, automated car parking, automatic vending equipment, audio visual equipment, and computers).
Soft technology refers to the substitution of pre-planned systems for customized service operations. The systems may incorporate technology, but their primary characteristic is that they are designed for optimal results (e.g. fast food restaurants, pre-packaged excursions).
Hybrid technology is when equipment is combined with planned systems to provide greater order, speed, and efficiency to the service process (for example, limited service, rapid repair facilities for automobile exhausts, tires, and brakes).
The manner in which service activities are conducted can have significant effects on productivity. The approach emphasizes mentality and outlook as much as it does tools, techniques, hardware, or engineering. However, the combination of labor division and industrialization of service can yield novel solutions to age-old issues.
The key is excellent communication, because when systems change, it is crucial that any problems be reported both upwards and downwards; new systems bring change, but this change must not be set in stone; it is crucial that there is open communication to ensure the best outcomes for the business, its owners, its employees, and, of course, its customers.