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Effective employee communication in the workplace is important for overall success. There can be no results if workers don’t see eye-to-eye and focus on common goals.
There is a significant gap between what workers want and what HR and managerial staff want to implement in contemporary corporate environments. This gap can disappear by facilitating better, more effective employee communication.
What is the impact of implementing such a change on employee productivity, and is prioritizing communication sustainable?
Effective employee communication in the workplace
Every business is driven to increase productivity, profit, and growth. There can be no business without these three factors. However, all three factors directly correlate with employee engagement.
Meaning if employees feel underappreciated, underpaid, and unheard, they won’t give it their best. This can lead to talent leaving your company to look for a job with a higher focus on communication and productivity in the workplace.
Moreover, hiring new talent will become difficult due to bad press and brand image instilled by ex-employees. How can you avoid this and improve communication in your company for everyone’s benefit?
What does effective employee communication mean?
What exactly constitutes an effective, productive working environment? According to SHRM, communication is a vital component of any organization. A two-way connection between staff and HR and managers is important, as it is everyone’s role to contribute.
The impact of effective communication on organizational performance extends to everyone from ground-level staff to managers, VPs, and board members. It’s why developing and maintaining good internal communications can be transformative for a business.
Effective communication constitutes objectivity, mutual understanding, and goal-oriented workflow. While clashes of views and personalities can still happen, they can and should be resolved face to face or with HR as an intermediary.
Who facilitates effective employee communication?
Whose role is it to facilitate effective employee workplace productivity? Creating an inviting working environment where communication is important is in everyone’s best interest. It is not the duty of HR executives or team leaders to force change onto everyone.
Instead, everyone on staff is in charge of maintaining a culture of good communication in the workplace. Any seminars, team building activities, or training can and should be attended by all executives and team members regardless of their skills or experience.
Creating an environment where everyone is welcome to speak their mind, albeit objectively and with respect, is always good news for the company. No worker has ever complained about working in an inclusive, respectful environment where effective communication and productivity go hand-in-hand.
How can communication improve productivity?
The reason why effective communication is important is that it leads to better productivity. But how does one correlate with the other? In practice, employees have to talk to one another on a moment-to-moment basis.
Staff members collaborate on different projects, whether it’s servicing customers, delegating project roles, or creating content for social media videos for the company’s LinkedIn profile. University students are a great example of how communication is important. They spend countless hours working on an essay, personal statement, or research paper in isolation.
However, when it comes to doing a grammar check, they often need outside help from writing experts or their colleagues and professors. “Could someone please write my paper for me?” is what usually comes to mind for students who are looking for writing experts to collaborate with.
This shows effective communication extends not only to companies but to other facets of life such as school, social life, and hobbies, to name a few.
Without communication, productivity will quickly stagnate. This can lead to poor end-product quality, a dip in morale, and brand image issues. Effective communication is essential for any business which wants to continue its natural development.
Tools for effective employee communication
Beyond improving your employee’s communication skills through training and team building, you can also use dedicated tools to do so. There is a wide range of project management and remote collaboration tools available online.
Many of them are specifically designed to improve overall productivity and allow for more effective internal communications management. Here are a few select tools you should consider for your staff:
- Google Workspace
- Trello
- Empuls
- Asana
- Basecamp
- Hive
Why is effective communication important in the workplace?
How can communication improve productivity in the workplace? We can break it down into several crucial benefits of effective employee communication to answer that question.
There are no downsides to making sure that your team members are heard. Both remote and face-to-face communication can incredibly benefit your business’ workflow if you let them. Here are some of the things you can look forward to:
1. Objective resolution of office conflicts
Poor communication is bound to rear its head in your workplace once in a while. With practical employee communication elements in place, it will be much easier to overcome them.
Staff members who understand that they belong to a larger organization with people who share common goals will resolve their disputes more quickly and effectively.
2. Improved PR for your business
Public relations management is an integral part of any large business to attract the press. If employees feel neglected and underappreciated, they may speak against the company and look for employment elsewhere.
In contrast, good communications can lead to more positive press coverage and improved brand image.
3. Increased job satisfaction and retention
Workers who are satisfied with their treatment will stay on board with your company for far longer. Higher retention rates translate to more experienced staff and opportunities to groom individuals for leadership positions.
This is practically impossible if team members feel like they don’t belong in the company due to a lack of understanding.
4. Improvement of existing skills and learning new skills
Once an effective employee workflow is in place, people will be more encouraged to share their skills and knowledge.
Learning from one another is a fantastic perk of effective internal communications. Workers will learn new skills and improve existing ones by simply working together.
5. Cultivation of a team-oriented office culture
If everyone feels appreciated and welcome in the company, they will naturally gravitate toward a team-oriented mindset. This means that employees will share their workload more fairly and efficiently organize their time.
As a result, they will manage deadlines better, spot mistakes quickly, and improve the quality of their final output.
Impact of effective communication on organizational performance
Here is how effective communication impacts an organization's progress.
1. Role of the individual in fostering communication and productivity in the workplace
Effective employee communication in the workplace does reflect on an individual’s performance and productivity. Every business consists of a microcosm of individuals aligned towards a common goal.
That goal is often manifested in its mission statement, long-term goals, and the office culture it fosters.
A single underappreciated individual who doesn't have a voice in the company can spell doom for the entire workplace. 96% of employees believe that empathy is one of the important ways to improve retention, with only 50% of them stating their CEOs are empathetic.
Once someone starts acting differently, everyone will begin to notice the difference more openly. It's why any change toward a more approachable work environment is always good news.
2. Public relations ramification of encouraging effective office communication
Managing a company's PR image is far more difficult if employees are dissatisfied with their treatment. Even if you have journalistic or publication connections for good PR, disgruntled workers and ex-staff can speak against your business.
This is why fostering a positive working environment with good communication is essential from day one. Don't burn bridges and enable employees to speak their minds on important company issues and development initiatives.
Mistakes in facilitating effective communication in the workplace
Here are the five basic mistakes to avoid while facilitating effective communication in the workplace:
1. Forcing top-down change is wrong – employee feedback and cooperation during the change are important.
Top-down employee communication management is not a good idea, especially in large enterprises. It's best to facilitate bottom-up feedback as much as possible. This will give employees agency and autonomy, ensuring their voices are heard.
2. Not asking for external help or failing to use communication tools to facilitate better office relations.
Effective communication is fostered through communication skills development. You can invite coaches, trainers, and HR agencies to train your staff. This is an excellent solution if you don't have dedicated HR staff to onboard.
3. Enforcing a communication change and then forgetting about the initiative – requires constant cultivation.
Preaching about a change towards effective employee communication and subsequently not doing anything about it is terrible.
Take the time to redesign how employees work together in your company and enforce those new standards. Cultivate better communication in the workplace, and your team will feel that much better about it.
4. Asking employees to change their work and communication habits overnight is a slow process.
Changing how employees perceive communication and productivity in the workplace will take time.
Effective employee management and changes to habits will come slowly and never overnight. Be patient with your staff and let them know that there's a support system in place for their communication process improvement.
5. Failing to recognize and acknowledge everyone is making to make the communication change.
Even if the change is slow, it is still happening – you need to acknowledge that. Get in front of your staff, issue a statement, or write a handwritten "thank you" note to everyone in the office.
Let them know that you are actively listening and are thankful for their efforts to communicate effectively.
Facilitating effective communication and productivity in the workplace
The answer to why effective communication is important in the workplace is a simple one. Employees who are heard and understood are far more likely to give their all to a company.
Failing to improve the communication process in your business can have disastrous effects on its longevity. Moreover, fewer clients will be inclined to work with you, and hiring new staff will become harder.
Start facilitating a work environment that fosters clear and open communication and orients your staff toward common goals. In doing so, you will begin to transform your workplace and enable employees to communicate and collaborate more meaningfully.
