1. Empowering open relationships

Connected companies know that success is driven by relationships — inside the company and out. When these relationships are working well and communication is open, the company is more likely to prosper. New studies from Forrester Research reveal that 99% of employees at the most connected companies feel they understand why decisions are made by leadership. But nothing kills connectedness faster than a lack of transparency: At the least-connected companies, only 5% of employees understand leadership decisions. This feeling of being “on the outside” has strong negative impacts on company cohesion, culture and productivity.

2. Identifying and solving pain points

Some of the most common communications tools, like an intranet, also require the use of additional solutions to work effectively. For example, when your CEO rolls out a new objective on your company intranet, do they also have to send an email? These limited tools also make it hard for employees to widely share information or search accumulated knowledge. At connected companies, leaders focus on ways to meaningfully improve their communications toolkit.

3. Choosing tools that make conversation easy

Connected companies use tools that empower employees, make communication more open and encourage people to share their knowledge and expertise. They make it easy to participate in two-way conversations, especially between different work groups or roles — between frontline employees and the home office, for instance, or leadership and everyday workers. A connected company platform helps solve these issues and bring the company closer together, which raises the overall ambition of its employees. Those who feel their voice is heard are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work.