Don't police it, policy it: The importance of a communication policy

Image credit: Pavan Trikutam on Unsplash.

Does your team know how and what to communicate during a crisis? Stop feeling like the office police officer! Have you considered implementing a communication policy? If you have, when was the last time you updated it?

I believe that it is all about consistency. Consistently doing something, in a certain way (good or bad), will build (or breakdown) your reputation. An updated communication policy has numerous advantages and will help everyone in your organisation to know what is expected from them regardless of the communication scenario.

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Here are six reasons you need to invest in a communication policy today.

A communication policy assists with:

• Preventing mixed messages from being sent; get everyone on the same page about when to communicate what to whom.
• Organisational awareness and reputation building: effective communication is key when building awareness about your organisation. Wrong messages can have a negative influence on your organisation’s reputation. 
• Linking the correct channel of communication with the right message to reach the desired audience.
• Identifying the right person to communicate the message: we don’t want the whole team sending out conflicting messages. 
• Clearer communication: a communication policy helps with clear and consistent messages. 
• Yielding the correct information during a crisis situation and ensuring that everyone is staying true to the organisation’s vision and mission. 

In essence, the communication policy will assist your team to know exactly what the protocols are when it comes to communicating different scenarios internally and externally as well as highlighting important do’s and don’ts during a crisis situation.

The question you should be asking yourself is not why a policy is important? But rather, how have I survived so long without one!