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The Importance of upward communication and how to get there

By Dmytro Okunyev - Chanty
Founder & CEO

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By Dmytro Okunyev | Founder & CEO - Tue, 09/06/2022 - 13:00

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It almost feels offensive to say "boss." Further evidence of its unfavorable connotations can be seen in its derivatives, "bossy" and "to boss around." Everyone always gripes about how demanding, pushy, or poor at communicating their supervisors are.

But are all bosses destined to have a reputation for being oppressive with no chance to redeem themselves? What if a manager is so friendly and hands-on that you can't tell them apart from their subordinates when they say, "I'll show you who's boss," and they mean it literally?

Supervisors like that do exist. They have accepted the strength of collaboration tools to engage with their workforce and encourage them to offer their opinions so they may share their "boss abilities."

In this article, we’ll explain the benefits of collaboration tools and how they can aid in communication. We will also discuss some advice on how to improve your upward communication and finally some good tools that you can use for this purpose.

What is upward communication?

Upward communication is the method through which lower-level employees of an organization can interact with senior management directly to offer comments, concerns, or recommendations regarding the regular business operations of the organization. Companies are increasingly embracing upward communication to promote a participatory workplace culture. Choices that benefit employees are more likely to be made by businesses that encourage upward communication.

Their Importance

The emergence of virtual work, social estrangement, and ongoing organizational change are fundamentally altering how employees interact with one another and with their supervisors. Here are some of the benefits of upward communication:

  1. Eliminates communication barriers

Knowledge barriers are frequently caused by an abundance of irrelevant content. Meaning that crucial information for a professional could simply be lost. Why does information disappear in your organization?

To overcome this difficulty, effective internal company communications and the utilization of the appropriate communications technologies are essential.

  1. Improves interdepartmental communications  

It is exceedingly challenging to maintain efficient interdepartmental communications within businesses without a comprehensive communication plan. Employee productivity depends on their ability to communicate and collaborate effectively.

For instance, your marketing team and research department both need to be communicating effectively, and your business office and IT division both need to be working together.

  1. Employee-manager relationships

Even if some managers are still bad at taking input from their team, the majority of them are learning the value of this strategy.

According to Qualtrics, 60 percent of US employees had the means to provide feedback on their own employee experiences but just 30 percent claimed their company actually takes their opinion into account.

  1. Workplace transparency and trust

Employees are considerably more inclined to trust their employers and managers when they feel empowered to voice their opinions. Companies are now proposing new options for employees to participate in upward communication as workplace trust plays a significant role in defining a pleasant employee experience.

  1. Enhancing knowledge-sharing efforts

The enhancement of information-sharing best practices is one of the key objectives that businesses are attempting to accomplish through internal communications spending.

Employers must make it simple for employees to share knowledge inside their businesses in a world where people are continuously learning and developing new skills.

Knowledge sharing and organizational knowledge suffer from a lack of a well-defined internal corporate communications plan.

Here are some collaboration tools that encourage upward communication:

  1. Chanty
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chanty.com

 

Chanty is a team collaboration tool that provides a smooth user experience for all kinds of teams. With a simple and easy-to-use interface, it allows you to search through the message history, make audio and video calls, send voice messages, and a lot more.

The integrated task manager in Chanty is a useful feature that makes it easy to convert any message into a task. Additionally, Chanty's teambook acts as a central location for all of your tasks, interactions, and the information that you share.

Pros

  • Efficient search tools to locate essential information
  • Share multiple contents under a single roof
  • Save innovative ideas with pins
  • Code snippets with dev-friendly formatting
  • Kanban board view

Pricing: Chanty’s free version offers limited features for up to 10 users whereas the business version costs US$4 per user per month and offers unlimited features.

  1. ClickUp
2

An all-inclusive productivity tool, ClickUp, not only allows you to keep all of your work in one location but it also has plenty of fully customizable capabilities, a flexible structure, and an appealing user interface, making it one of the most cutting-edge project management applications available right now.

On a single platform, you can organize, monitor, and communicate on any project, establish marketing strategies, handle production cycles, construct the ideal process for you and your team, and do a lot more.

Pros

  • Real-time reporting capability
  • Time-tracking ability
  • Third-party integrations
  • Project planning and scheduling
  • Easy task management

Pricing: The free plan offers limited features while the small team plan costs US$5, the midsized team plan is $12 and the multiple teams plan is $19. There is also a customizable enterprise plan.

  1. Venngage
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Even those with no design experience can make attractive content using Venngage's simple interface. Infographics, reports, posters, promos, and social media images are just a few for which templates are available.

The product from Venngage offers interesting visual elements to add to your learning and development program, which helps to keep your business informed about crucial choices and procedures. Save yourself the frustration of having to learn how to utilize difficult design software, let alone comprehend design principles and trends.

Pros

  • Customizable templates
  • Multitudes of images available
  • Interactive infographic elements
  • Publish your new infographic
  • Different templates for multiple uses

Pricing: The free plan includes limited features with five designs and six image uploads. The premium plan costs US$16/month/user, the business plan is US$39/month/user, and the enterprise plan starts from US$499/month for 10+ seats.

  1. Envato Elements
4

The most popular marketplace for creative folks to offer their digital content is Envato. Many individuals pick their marketplace, studio, and courses to buy files, employ contractors, or gain the skills necessary to design effective presentations, websites, films, apps, graphics, and other types of content.

The four distinct products that make up the platform are Envato Market, a collection of thematic elements; Envato Studio, a freelance marketplace; Envato Tuts+, an instructional library; and Envato Elements, a creative asset subscription.

Envato provides users with a selection of online markets that address various business needs. For instance, Envato Elements comes highly recommended if you need a solution for your design items. Envato provides access to a wide range of products for creative digital assets.

Pros

  • Multiple templates
  • Royalty-free music
  • Various sound effects
  • Variety of graphics
  • Multiple fonts

Pricing: The Envato Elements individual plan starts from US$16.50/month while Teams is US$10.70/month. There is also a customizable Enterprise plan.

  1. Hive
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Hive is used to manage teams, plan projects, assign responsibilities, and streamline workflow procedures.

The platform is the first democratic project management tool. Their product is developed by users, for users. Hive links all facets of your work with adaptable task layouts, native email, budgeting, group chats, and file transfer.

The application combines project management and AI, bringing together under one roof capabilities like automated task management, personalized workflows, templates, communications, and teamwork.

Pros

  • Easy-to-use interface
  • Ability to use Gantt charts
  • Keep track of team and task progress
  • Easy collaboration and communication flow
  • Flexibility to display information

Pricing: Hive Teams is US$12/user/month when paid annually (or US$16/user/month when paid monthly). Hive Solo is free forever for teams up to two people. Its enterprise solution offers custom pricing plans available upon request.

Wrap Up!

Proper communication can make a difference because it consumes a significant portion of your working day and determines the direction of your company. It's becoming increasingly crucial to ensure that everyone in the company understands how, when, and why they should interact as more and more individuals choose to work remotely (and the issues that entails). Therefore, it is imperative to spend money on technologies that make communication simpler, more effective, and more enjoyable. An organization-wide environment that is coherent and flexible will be made possible by having a decent selection of channels for communicating.

Photo by:   Dmytro Okunyev

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