How to Boost Interdepartmental Communication and Collaboration

Interdepartmental communication and collaboration (C & C) is hard to achieve in large organizations with many departments. Silos are commonplace, and as Lighter Capital can confirm, a serious problem. They make information sharing and shared objectives next to non-existent, which has a detrimental impact on the overall efficiency of the company and can create toxic cultures with unhealthy rivalries between department members. Here, the Eagle Chamber of Commerce discusses the importance of interdepartmental C & C and offers some strategies to boost it in your company. 

Why interdepartmental C & C matters 

Good interdepartmental C & C can bring many benefits to the company as well as to internal and external stakeholders: 

• Efficiency and productivity: Departments can pursue shared objectives together with fewer communication delays and more harmony, leading to less waste and more productivity. 

• Unity and morale: Employees across departments can feel like they’re part of the same team, even if they’re in different departments. It’s easier to have a unified, healthy workplace culture. 

• Customer experience: If departments collaborate together effectively at various touchpoints, sharing key customer information as needed, the customer journey becomes smooth and seamless. 

• Expansion and skill sharing: When employees and departments mix openly and freely, people can pick up valuable skills from each other. It’s easier to keep the organization growing.  

Failure points when it comes to C & C

C & C is hard to achieve in many organizations for similar reasons. Here are some common failure points: 

• Distance: Physical separation between departments makes it hard for employees to C & C. Departments are often located on different floors, in different buildings, and sometimes, even in different cities. 

• Us vs. them: “Tribalism,” or excessive identification with an employee’s own department, can create a feeling of separation from the rest of the organization. There’s no sense of shared purpose. Sometimes, this leads to employees being at cross-purposes.

• Lack of incentive: Many organizations fail to recognize or reward C & C. In most companies, individualism and individual performance are prioritized over group achievements.

• Lack of C & C protocols: Implementing C & C across departments requires a structure in place. Think communication processes, a platform that facilitates communications, collaboration goals, shared work processes, and similar.  

Strategies to boost C & C

By understanding common failure points and carefully studying conditions in your organization, you can come up with strategies that boost C & C between departments. Below are some highly-effective examples: 

1. Make C & C a part of your company’s identity 

You could make C & C a core part of your company’s identity, expressing it through your branding, your values, and how you operate in general. For instance, managers could be encouraged to prioritize and embody C & C whenever possible. This would change the way employees perceive the company and each other – if C & C is expected of them, they’ll be more likely to comply. 

2. Implement a standard communication and business software framework for the whole company 

Implementing the same business software and communication system across departments puts everyone on the same page when it comes to working. Employees will have an easier time sharing information and collaborating on work processes. Make sure all important files that need to be shared between departments and individuals exist as PDFs in a companywide sharepoint, like your intranet. PDFs are preferable to Microsoft files when it comes to sharing, since they can be sent more securely with the option to encrypt, and they can be opened on a variety of devices without losing their quality or ease of usability. You can use Adobe Acrobat’s PDF editing tools to edit the images, text, format, and other features of your PDFs so they’re always up to date and your teams have everything they need to work together well.

3. Use business process management (BPM) to eliminate obstacles  

Business process management is a discipline to automate and optimize business processes. It works by analyzing how people, systems, and data interact, and then removes obstacles and automates where possible. Previously laborious business operations are streamlined, and employees have an easier time making decisions. This allows them to communicate and collaborate more efficiently. 

There are a number of options for business process management frameworks. Make sure you constantly monitor the effectiveness of the framework you use and then act on the info to improve the process and output.

4. More meetings, open information sharing, and shared work projects

Setting up meaningful meetings between department heads and employees, individually and collectively, can help everyone get into alignment with each other. Encouraging open information sharing, or better yet, establishing open information sharing protocols between departments, can also help. This doesn’t need to happen within the confines of the office. In fact, scheduling “walking meetings” by taking group strolls around the block can get teams out in the fresh air, which may help open up employees’ creativity. Finally, starting more shared work projects can also help. 

5. Offer rewards and recognition 

Incentivizing C & C in various ways, big and small, can make employees more amenable to working with each other. For instance, you could offer gifts, coupons, or end-of-the-year bonuses to employees who C & C and recognize their achievements in various ways. 

6. Strategize joint reporting to investors and other stakeholders 

Preparing a business report for the leadership and investors is a task that departments frequently collaborate on together. Typically, this requires information to be collected between departments and compiled in a report. Make this a C & C building experience for everyone involved by assigning tasks like joint research responsibilities and collective report writing.

7. Use common apps and tools to be more collaborative 

There are popular everyday use and specific business-use apps out there that can enhance C & C. For example, Google Docs has many collaborative functions like in-document annotations. Trello, the project-management tool, allows real-time collaboration with task management features. Microsoft Teams offers department-wide collective messaging and video conferencing features. 

Successfully boosting interdepartmental C & C will be an uphill battle, but the rewards are well worth it. According to statistics from Zippia, you can expect a productivity increase of 25 percent due to better communication. The other rewards are a more efficient organization with a healthier culture, more satisfied employees, and happier customers.    

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