Inform and consult your employees

Communicating and consulting - ways and means

Depending on your business' size, nature and structure, the type of information you are sharing and the input you hope to get, there is a variety of ways to communicate and consult with employees.

To communicate individually , you could use:

• one-to-one meetings - for issues specific to the individual
• telephone calls - for homeworkers and other offsite employees
• email - employees can respond at their convenience

Face-to face methods of communication include:

• group or team briefings - discussion and feedback on issues directly related to the group
• quality circles - groups that meet regularly to solve problems and improve quality
• large-scale meetings - to present the business' performance and long-term objectives to employees or exchange of views
• cascade networks - briefing small groups of people who tell others the same information, to get information across quickly without having to call a meeting
• inter-departmental briefings - to promote a unified approach within larger businesses

Written methods include:

• company handbooks - combines company and job-related information
• company newsletters - in print or through email, presents information about the business and its people
• employee information notes - reports the business' activities and performance
• departmental bulletins - informs on a sectional, departmental or wider basis
• notice boards - encourages communication between employees
• intranets - stores company information in a structured way for employee access
• email - communicates with employees in different or isolated locations

Consultation methods include:

• joint consultative councils/works councils - regular meetings of managers and employee representatives
• joint working parties - resolves specific issues and includes managers and employees
• trade unions - aim to improve terms and conditions for their members
• informal emails - promotes feedback forum so employees can consider and put forward ideas at times convenient to them
• annual staff survey or questionnaire - allows for giving frank views if employees can reply anonymously

Read about employee communication and consultation at the Acas website .

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• Why good communications are important
• Legal requirements for communications
• Consulting your employees
• Communicating and consulting - ways and means
• The art of good communication
• Examples of good practice
• The role of training
• Here's how asking employees for ideas improved our business

 

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