Communicating in the Workplace

Outside of technological advancements, few things have changed in the workplace over the past few decades as dramatically as communication. The days of the supervisor barking out directions at the morning meeting and the direct reports sitting and nodding along are a distant memory. 

Workforces are more diverse, more spread out, and the value of their contributions to the success of the company have never been more apparent. Without effective internal communication, productivity suffers, employee engagement diminishes, and employee loyalty is damaged. A study from McKinsey reports that productivity can increase by as much as 25% when teams communicate well.

The post COVID-19 world has shaken up how business is done and organisations must adapt to new rules and new scenarios in order to stay at the top of their industries. This article will discuss several key points to delivering more effective communication in the workplace. 

Prepare a Plan
The key stakeholders in your organisation need to be on the same page when it comes to the basics of how communication will be handled internally. Like the basics of storytelling, you need to establish the what, where, when, why, and how of your communication protocol. If one team’s leader is tight-lipped about everything, while another is sharing the nitty-gritty details of every meeting they are a part of, you are going to experience an inequality of how employees feel they are perceived and trusted. Communication from the top of the organisation should be planned and structured so that it happens on a regular basis in channels that are the most effective for employees based on their defined preferences. You must consider the time factor: Don’t send emails on Friday at 16:00 and expect everyone to remember what was said Monday morning. The same goes for trying to communicate change right before a holiday period. Plans offer stability to your communication patterns, and allow employees to get comfortable and familiar with those patterns. They become conditioned to it, and it makes them more malleable to changes in policy and less likely to express fear or anxiety when something new is rolled out.

Communicate Visibly
Technology makes it incredibly easy to roll out automated emails and memos from the person at the top of the organisational chart every fortnight or so, but effective communication goes way beyond a few paragraphs in a mass-delivered email. Most companies these days have staff members working remotely - either for work-life balance or because they are outsourced talent living abroad. Technology makes remote working effective, but nothing out there can replace the camaraderie established by working in the same physical space as others. In the limited time since working remotely exploded in popularity, studies have found that 38% of remote workers feel uneasy about workplace changes as compared to just 27% of those working onsite. Utilising video technology to engage remote workers on a more personal level keeps them feeling a part of the team and allows them to develop better relationships with leadership that they might not see in person on a regular basis, or ever. But it’s not just remote workers that need reassurance or reminders regularly. No matter how well-worded our messages are, having visual reminders of those messages is a highly-effective way to keep them top of mind for employees on a day-to-day basis. Get creative! Use white boards and wall art to highlight the key themes and phrases that your braintrust is promoting in its written messaging. Engage employees in informal discussions and casual settings to get a better barometer on how well your messaging is being received.

Establish Targets to Measure Effectiveness
Companies in every industry are using analytics to measure their external effectiveness, so why not do the same for how well things are going inside your own house? Using simple analytic software can help any company measure how well received its communications are, how many employees are engaging with new messaging and protocol, and which channels are securing the highest open and read-through effectiveness. Knowing how to best communicate with your employees, and how to let them best communicate with leadership in return, is often every bit as important as what the messaging is saying. Giving employees more than one venue to send and receive communication through ensures that you’re creating multiple touch points in your communication plan. An application like Slack that offers multiple channels for different levels of communication and can reduce response waiting time significantly because of the convenience factor. It also dials up employee engagement., which can reduce the possibility of employees seeking greener pastures by as much as 87%.

Take Action When Warranted
Even the best-laid plans of action are not always guaranteed to work successfully. All the best technology and planning can still fall short if the people operating the communication plan aren’t up to speed on basic skills and fundamentals. Perhaps the most important of those is to learn how to listen to what employees are saying to you. Too many firms are so intent on perfecting their presentations and messaging to their employees that they forget about what is being said back. Employees are the ones on the front lines of any business, down in the muck talking to customers on a day-to-day basis. Their insight and experience should be invaluable when a company is planning its way forward, and overlooking their information can be a death blow to profitability and success. Another soft skill that many companies find themselves lacking is to communicate information that employees actually want, not just things that the key stakeholders think they need. It’s all well and good to get messages about how to use the new access cards when working after hours or how often to change one’s email password, but what about tips that help employees access their benefits more effectively or help them de-stress during the work day. Employees want to feel like they are being seen as people, not merely as worker drones buzzing around the hive all day. 

Conclusion
Communication is a delicate balance inside a company of any size. Organization of that communication is an essential first step to being effective. Treating your employees like people instead of just workers will up their engagement with the messaging you are sending, and ensuring that there are plenty of visible reminders of who you are and what key points you are trying to get across will go a long way towards dialing up effectiveness and awareness in the workplace.

By Boards Direct