Integrate your interstate offices

7/1/2014

Integrate your interstate offices

Once your company's at a stage where it has multiple offices across the country, it's important that they feel like they're working on the same team. Communication and regular contact is the best way to achieve this.

Online systems
It's important that you make use of the latest technology to keep your offices in sync with updates and in communication with each other. Meetings with conference or video calls will help people stay updated of what's happening where. Keep time zones in mind when organising company-wide calls.

Regular visitsmultiple offices
While keeping in touch through phone calls and emails is important, nothing beats a visit from the bosses to show that an office is deemed important. As well as catching up with what's happening in each location, it also gives you a chance to meet newcomers and show your face to various workers.

Cross-office teams
As well as the bosses working closely with each office, it's a good idea to have people from different offices working together. For efficiency's sake, it's best to keep at least the core of each department in one place, but having teams help out on projects from multiple locations can help create a feeling of unity across offices.

Next-day delivery
If your offices are working on a big project that needs documents or props sent between them, make sure you pay for the best delivery available. Skimping on costs can lead to delays which, in the long run, may end up costing you more money than slower delivery saves you. For instance, Pack & Send offers four options to help get your goods where they need to be on time – so they’ll arrive by 9 am, 10 am, 12 pm or 5 pm depending on your deadlines.

Company-wide celebrations
Company parties are great team bonding exercises, with Christmas parties or business anniversaries a great way to get people together. It's usually a good idea to let offices have individual parties at one point of the year as well as one annual get-together for everyone. Changing the location of this celebration, rather than making the same workers travel every year, can help people feel more involved and valued.

Making people feel like they're working towards the same goal despite the different locations can help improve productivity and morale.

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