How To Improve Corporate Communication Using SharePoint Online

Information sharing between departments is crucial to a company’s success, so it’s important to put corporate communication front and center. In addition to building a cohesive team, effective communication also ensures that all staff members are up-to-date about all company information shared by top-down management.

One of the main causes of problems in the workplace is that employees are not fully informed of important developments like:

• Changes in policy that will impact behavior in the workplace.
• Product development priorities are shifting as a result of changes in stakeholder focus.
• Communications from other divisions containing urgent or crucial information.

 

SharePoint’s collaborative technology will help you save time by eliminating unnecessary wait times when forming teams and delegating tasks. Let’s take a closer look at the two most important ways in which SharePoint can facilitate better teamwork and communication.

Microsoft Teams and SharePoint Integration

Microsoft Teams is a popular platform for internal communication and collaboration, allowing users to hold video conferences, send instant messages, and more all within the confines of their company or department. SharePoint, however, allows for even more advanced forms of collaboration.

Is Sharepoint A Good Fit For Your Business?

If you link your SharePoint and Teams accounts, any files you upload in Teams will be stored in your SharePoint document library. This makes them easily searchable through a streamlined interface. If you and your team have a SharePoint Teams Site, you can easily upload and share files, delegate tasks, and discuss and edit draughts.

Each department can tailor these settings to their own needs. This gives them greater control over the communication tools that matter most to them. You can have your HR team work together to create official documents. Such as, a new sick leave policy or a streamlined fact sheet on health benefits. After making edits, you can easily return to a previous version of the document rather than creating a new one from scratch. This can simplify the tracking of changes and cut down on any potential for confusion.

HR staff can use a shared folder that is secured by user permissions to safely store and share sensitive data. Some examples of such documentation include time sheets, attendance logs, meeting minutes, and other records of interactions between management and staff.

On top of that, your HR manager has the ability to change the permissions for any and all internal documents. This includes restricting access to sensitive information to only the people who need it. Also, keeping track of who has viewed and changed which files.

Read also → Top 10 Benefits of Microsoft Teams

Online Collaboration Space or SharePoint Communication Site

A SharePoint communication site has everything you need to reach your audience with company updates, business news, or even a humorous anecdote. It also functions as a centralized hub from which you can manage your projects’ websites.

The site serves as a feed, where members can update one another on departmental happenings and share relevant documents. You can restrict who can post and who can view content on the site, making it ideal for larger businesses that want to restrict posting to, say, department heads. Then, you can make documents only the administrators can see, like a tutorial on updating the discussion forum.

Key Features of SharePoint Communication Site

Contents Page Widgets/Homepage Web-Parts

As soon as you begin working on a website, you’ll have access to a wide variety of templates. And each of these has its own special collection of ‘web parts’.  These elements are fundamental for bringing life to a website. You can personalize the home page by adding dynamic content or eye-catching visuals. Make sure that content best describes your business, and explains to customers about meeting their needs. You can also feature pictures of your products, employees, or recent successes.

Website Layouts As A Subject

You can use the hero, news, events, and documents web parts when you pick a topic site template. Highlight brand-appropriate visuals or highlight upcoming events by placing them on a simple calendar. It also helps to keep your news blocks organized as excerpts, making it easier for viewers to find the best stories in an uncluttered layout. Use the featured content web part to organize your document collections if you’re thinking about setting up a document library.

Modes of Exploration & Editing

Using the tools available here, you can fine-tune the internal workings of your communication website. Such as by updating old draughts in advance of the future publication date or switching to edit mode for improved site navigation. External users can access your content, and you can update your look by uploading a new header or logo.

Sharepoint communication sites can be as private or as open as you like. In some companies, only employees are able to access the site, making it perfect for disseminating company-wide memos and other important documents. Some businesses create a website exclusively for their current customers to read company news and updates. Both have merit, and the right choice will largely depend on the specific requirements of your team.

Let’s go back to the human resources scenario. Your company’s human resources department can keep everyone up to date with all the latest information by creating a SharePoint site for internal communication. These records may include things like employee contact info, health benefits details, and other paperwork related to starting work. HR can also share more time-sensitive information. For instance, who will be out sick or taking PTO each day or changes to employee benefits plans, via these channels?

When it comes to larger organizations, in particular, a SharePoint communication site can be an excellent tool. Because it fosters better communication between departments. Company announcements, policy manuals, and answers to frequently asked IT questions like ‘How do I reset my password?’ and ‘Where can I find the shared drive?’ can all be posted here.

Additional Features of SharePoint

SharePoint’s in-built Web part functionality makes it simple to create new content quickly and easily. The following web parts will allow your teams to better communicate and collaborate while also integrating with other Microsoft applications.

News Web Part

Whether it’s company updates or attention-grabbing headlines, you can’t go wrong with the news web component. Publish blog articles, update the state of your company, and highlight official company news all using SharePoint and use it as a news stream. This web component is highly flexible. It lets you alter its appearance and even enables audience targeting to share the news with a certain demographic.

Announcement Web-Part

By using the SharePoint homepage to publish these announcements, selected team members may ensure that they are seen by all employees.

For instance, if a member of the HR department makes an announcement with a deadline, such as one about healthcare open enrolment or a pending retreat. This message will automatically go to the archives as soon as the deadline passes.

Applause for PowerApps

Microsoft has a PowerApps called ‘Shoutouts’ that employees may use to give recognition to one another. You may make these messages more unique by adding your own graphics and reactions. And you can even configure it in a way that any message a user sends to a team member will also be forwarded to that person’s manager.

By fostering an atmosphere of mutual appreciation and active encouragement, you can boost both teamwork and morale. Corporate communication is more important than ever in today’s increasingly dispersed workforce. In situations where teams need to work together to fulfill deadlines, disseminate employee information, or maintain tabs on a complex project’s many moving parts; SharePoint can facilitate communication between team members and supervisors. You can contact our SharePoint consultants if you have any questions about Microsoft Teams and SharePoint Online.