Communication Is Key – How To Show Your Shift Workers Their Work Is Important
Publié le 19 October 2021
For business leaders wondering how to show your shift workers that their work is important, you must always remember that communication is key.
It is a well-known fact that effective communication is a vital practice of any successful organization. If employees feel cut off from the work of the upper management, it may lead to bitterness, disassociation from the company culture, and, ultimately, lower productivity. This problem is especially pronounced with shift workers since they often lack even basic access to internal company communication.
Having an engaged and close-knit team of workers is a sure way to create a pleasant work environment and increase productivity. It is, therefore, crucial to create effective two-way communication channels with shift workers, especially for companies that rely heavily on this type of employment.
The difficulties of engaging shift workers
Shift workers often feel alienated from the company they work for, which is due to several reasons.
Firstly, shift work is usually organized into three eight-hour shifts during a 24-hour period, with a shift manager assigned to each shift. The problem is that upper management, HR department and office staff usually have a typical nine-to-five schedule. This means that shift workers can directly contact these staff members – who might address their problems for less than 40% of the time they are at work.
Furthermore, shift workers commonly perform tasks in maintenance, construction, logistics, healthcare and similar fields, where they don’t have regular access to a computer and emails. In addition to this, companies rarely compose personalized communications for shift workers, making them feel more like an inanimate asset than a person.
Shift work statistics show that three of the top four benefits shift workers want are:
- Schedule transparency and flexibility
- Recognition and support
- Effective business communication
You may notice that the first two are closely related to effective communication, while the third one explicitly demands it.
Inadequate communication with shift workers, as well as all employees, can cause them to disengage with the company. This can lead to a host of problems, including lower productivity, workplace injuries, and even theft.
Research conducted on 400 companies found that the losses of large companies due to poor internal communication amount to $62.4 million per year, per company. Even companies with less than 100 employees stand to lose an average of $420,000 per year.
Consistent communication, whether in person, over the phone, or via email, improves employee engagement. This leads to employees feeling committed to their work, which leads, ultimately, to higher productivity.
Creating a company culture that includes shift workers
Like all other employees, shift workers need to have a sense that their work is meaningful and respected. If a company doesn’t have a strong culture and a well-defined mission, employees might not feel like their work is making an important contribution.
The aforementioned statistics show that 96% of shift workers want more respect in the workplace. You have to remember that respect is a two-way street. If your shift workers aren’t receiving a basic level of respect, they are unlikely to have much respect for the company, its office staff, or its mission.
Apart from ensuring that respect for all workers becomes an integral part of your company culture, you need to allow shift workers to provide feedback and suggestions. Show them that their voices are being heard, instead of treating them like faceless pawns in the revenue game.
You can start by assigning a representative from the management to visit shift workers during their working hours at least once a week, and simply listen to their concerns and suggestions. Making an effort to talk to shift workers during their work hours will show them that they are an important part of the company.
Furthermore, build a flexible and adaptable schedule that draws on feedback from your shift workers. Publish the schedule well in advance, and allow them to swap shifts if they so desire.
A pleasant work environment with a flexible schedule can significantly increase employee productivity, having a measurable positive effect on the bottom line.
How to improve communication with shift workers
Establishing direct communication is fairly easy with workers on the first shift, since managerial staff is also at the workplace during their shift. However, with workers on the second and third shift, this becomes a somewhat difficult task, seeing as the majority of office staff isn’t there at the time.
Apart from assigning a managerial representative to visit shift workers during their shift, there are other ways to advance communication with shift workers and make them feel like they are an integral part of the company.
Start a company newsletter
A company newsletter can be used to keep shift workers in the loop of company information. It can be a simple document that contains announcements, policy changes, team news, and interesting or useful information that isn’t directly related to work. It should be simple enough to easily distribute through multiple channels, such as email, the break room bulletin board, or social media groups.
The newsletter should only include topics that all staff will find relevant, as well as recognition for great work. It is also important to keep it short, so as not to strain the attention of your employees, and make them simply skip reading it. You can fine-tune the newsletter over time based on employee feedback.
Create a cross-device communication platform
Surveys show that 85% of workers regularly use more than one device for work-related communication. It is thus necessary to employ a communication platform that allows access from multiple devices, especially since, as we’ve mentioned earlier, shift workers usually don’t have access to a computer or similar device during most of their shift.
Poor timing is often the cause of miscommunication with employees. By allowing shift workers access information at their own preferred time, they are more likely to remember it and act upon it. In turn, this will lower error rates due to miscommunication.
A shift schedule for example: if delivered to employees a month in advance, it can be easily ignored and forgotten. Ensuring that the information is delivered at the time when it is relevant and only to those affected is a sure way of getting your message across.
Allow for two-way communication
To communicate efficiently, the receiver of the message needs a way to acknowledge that the message has been received. This means that, for example, a shift worker who receives an assignment needs to be able to inform the shift manager that the assignment is being handled. Similarly, if shift workers wish to trade shifts, the shift manager should be informed of this in order not to cause issues.
In addition to practical concerns, your communication platform can be used to include shift workers in the decision-making process. You can use it to conduct surveys of employee satisfaction, and to collect feedback on policies, scheduling, or any other concerns your employees might have. By enacting policies and practices in response to employee feedback, they will see firsthand that they have an impact on the organizations.
Organize regular meetings with all staff members
An all-hands meeting should be just that – a meeting of all employees. It is therefore crucial to ensure that every employee can attend the meeting, be it in person or via video call.
The meetings need to be held at least quarterly, and at a time when all staff members are available. You should keep in mind that this will most likely be outside of work schedules for some shift workers. However, aim to please the majority, and have most of the staff at the meeting.
The meetings must allow for questions and suggestions from all employees. Additionally, you should make a recording of the meeting available for those team members who couldn’t be there in person.
Conclusion
Ineffective workplace communication leads to employee disengagement, which in turn leads to lower productivity and a plethora of other problems. If you don’t ensure effective communication between your staff members, your company could potentially lose a significant amount of money.
Excluding shift workers from company communication will exclude them from feeling like they are a part of it. It is therefore crucial to set up communication channels for shift workers to provide feedback and suggestions. Due to the nature of their employment, communication with shift workers requires special effort and the implementation of multiple communication channels.
Improving communication leads to improved engagement and increased satisfaction of your employees. This will lead to higher productivity and, ultimately, to higher revenues. Communication is key for both employee happiness and business success. Therefore, the time and resources spent on advancing communication with your shift workers will surely prove to be a good investment.
