Perhaps the single most important part of business is good, clear communication. Your point has to be made well and be understood by your audience, be they staff or potential clients. The clarity and succinctness that you convey your information with is important and if it’s lacking you could end up with staff doing completely the wrong job.
But simply telling your staff what’s required of them and what your plans for the business are may not give them the clarity they desire. That’s why there are tools to aid communication within your business and a number of them are simple enough to use.
Let’s look at some.
Audio/visual aids can help business communication in a number of ways. It’s important to remember that everyone is different and every individual processes information in their own unique way. As a business it’s not only a good idea, but a necessity, to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Hence why numerous businesses use multiple audio and visual tools during presentation sessions. This approach is often referred to as a “multimedia presentation” and can include a number of disparate mediums:
· Written
· Visual
· Auditory
· Interactive methods
Better Retention Rates
There are a number of reasons to adopt more multi-faceted business communication methods and one of them is the fact that it increases employee retention rates. According to the US Department of Labor OSHA Office of Training and Education:
“…retention of information three days after a meeting or other event is six times greater when information is presented by visual and oral means than when the information is presented by the spoken word alone.”
Using a multitude of communication methods has a clear benefit on the learning and understanding that employees derive from the information given. The combination of sight and sound, along with physical written handouts, is a necessary component of information retention. Most experienced training organisations will use some sort of mixture of the above-mentioned learning techniques.
Save time with visual aids
Time is an important commodity in a business and something that needs safeguarding. A business wants to spend its time in the most cost effective manner and visual aids can greatly help in this pursuit. Visual aids should be used if the subject is complicated or contains too much information for a simple oral presentation. Pie charts, diagrams, graphs, photographs, and animations can make information much easier to absorb for your listeners.
As we’ve mentioned, time is valuable, so the importance of effective implementation of training and communication cannot be understated. Remember that visual aids can encompass a wide array of techniques and it’s worth finding the ones that work best in your business and best for your staff.
Auditory Aids
Auditory aids can be used in multimedia presentations but using this technique is likely based on your budget. Make sure you consider the effectiveness of a technique before employing it. You could however opt to hire a professional speaker that is well versed in adult learning concepts and one that has a working knowledge of the subject in question. This speaker can offer an interactive experience that sticks with your staff and reminds them of the key learning objectives that your company wants to convey.
Live trainers can also add personality to a program that could be seen as dry. The professional speaker can add clarity to any points or concepts that are unclear and with their specific professional knowledge can go into a great deal of detail. Speakers are also there in the flesh, which means that they can provide special attention to the staff members present. A pre-recorded talk doesn’t have that kind of interaction and there’s no easy way to gauge how well the information is coming across.
Give your audience handouts
Your audience is a captive one, so it’s a good idea to give them something to read. This can fill in any lulls in the conversation and keep them on point. You could use the handout to give them a guide to what the presentation will cover and this can reinforce the concepts being taught. The handout will also allow audience members to refresh their knowledge at a later date and the handout can provide further information and research on the subject.
As mentioned earlier, everyone learns differently. Some of your staff will learn best from written material and handouts can be an effective part of business training and communication. A good tip is to add some sort of interactive section to your handouts such as a short quiz, or a fill in the blank question and answer section. Just make sure it relates to the subject you’re covering.
Engagement is important when it comes to learning, and so is your audience’s ability to retain that information. Provide them with stimulating audio/visual tools and you’ll find you have a much more responsive audience. If you keep up the good teaching you’ll discover a new, better trained employee pool and one that understands clearly what’s required of them.