How Do You Keep The Team Informed?

Like most manufacturing companies, we have numerous departments that handle different tasks required to make our product. We have systems in place for communicating the details that must be shared between departments to get the job done correctly. But oftentimes the information on the ‘Big Picture’ is not as easily communicated to everyone. So how does a company resolve this dilemma?

Some companies hold regular company-wide meetings where everyone joins together and is informed about what is going on. This is great for sharing news that will affect every employee (such as changes in health insurance coverage). But it takes a lot of time away from the work day and there are usually some individuals who miss the meeting due to vacation, business travel or sick time.

Our company gets the news out with an internal newsletter. We receive input from the managers of every department and put all the news in writing. The newsletter is distributed to all employees and they can take it home and enjoy it at their leisure. The newsletter allows us to congratulate milestones and individuals who put in extra effort. It informs everyone about upcoming trade shows and marketing plans, new technologies being released by Engineering, the latest production machinery purchased to improve manufacturing and the happy news we all love to hear about – births, weddings, graduations, etc. If your company doesn’t have an internal newsletter, I recommend you start one. It is well worth the time spent putting it together and getting it out.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.