4 Ways to Facilitate Effective Communications in the Workplace
Effective communication in the workplace can help improve collaboration, engagement and the employee experience. Below please find insight about the importance of effective communications, and four related strategies CHROs (and anyone!) can leverage to support their teams.
Effective communication in the workplace builds strong team relationships, empowers healthy manager-employee collaboration and helps organizations advance toward their goals. Yet creating the conditions for effective communication — both at the individual level and between departments — can be challenging. Internal barriers, bad work habits and a lack of clear expectations can all contribute to communications issues.
Fortunately, chief human resource officers (CHROs) can take the lead in developing a communications plan that positively impacts every level of the business. To accomplish this, CHROs must know the importance of communication, understand its potential barriers, and clearly define what effective communication means. From there, HR leaders can take steps to help ensure that messages not only have clarity and purpose, but also to foster trust across the organization.
"Effective communications and change management strategies, plans, and processes are the cornerstone of any organization," said Mary Schafer, vice president of change management and communications at ADP. "When teams communicate openly and transparently, they can help build trust, avoid misunderstanding, and build an organization where everyone feels included and valued."
What is effective communication?
Effective communication involves exchanging ideas, opinions, knowledge, and data between two or more persons so that the message is received, understood, and delivered through the proper channel. In business contexts, effective communication is an integral factor in reaching desired objectives and goals.
Characteristics of effective communication include clarity, timeliness, correctness and consideration. Communications should also be reliable and complete to support appropriate decision making.
Importance of communication in the workplace
When members of an organization effectively communicate, they can more easily build strong relationships, work together as a team, and motivate each other to accomplish common goals.
Effective communication in the workplace can also facilitate creativity and innovation in problem solving when communications processes are streamlined, and employees feel free to share their ideas. In addition to supporting the work at hand, these advantages can help businesses maintain transparency, reduce misunderstandings, develop trust, and foster productive relationships.
Types of communications channels
There are several types of communications channels in the workplace. The most common are in-person, voice and video, and written communications In-person communications may consist of one-on-ones, team meetings and organization-wide meetings. This communication style can allow conversation to flow both ways in real time. One-on-ones can be great for performance reviews and relaying sensitive information to individuals. On the other end of the spectrum, all-hands meetings can be appropriate for annual organization updates or ensuring that everyone receives the same messages.
Voice and video messages normally take the form of direct phone calls, conference calls, video chats or pre-recorded videos. These communication methods can be useful when in-person communications are not possible. Like in-person communications, voice and video communication may be conducted one-on-one, with teams or with the entire organization.
Lastly, written communications can be an efficient way to deliver messages that can be either formal or informal. Written communications can be targeted to specific individuals or to a whole organization, and they often take the form of direct emails, mass emails, text messages, or instant messages.
"Don't forget about non-desk employees, like those working in manufacturing, retail, hospitality, or healthcare for example, sometimes lack company-issued email addresses or regular access to a computer, smart phone or tablet," adds Schafer. "This inherently makes delivering communications regarding workplace organizational changes (such as pay frequency change and/or new time off policy messages) challenging and can cause remote workers to rely heavily on HR and managers for information."
HR leaders can ensure their communication channels are people-centered by choosing message delivery methods that will reach their intended audiences, be taken in the proper context and reflect their workplace values.
Barriers to communication
Barriers to communication, both written and verbal, refer to the obstacles that prevent or interrupt the flow, exchange, and access of information in or outside an organization. There are many potential barriers to effective communication in the workplace, and they can arise at any point in the communication process.
For instance, barriers can originate from the sender due to the wording, preciseness or timing of a message. On the other hand, barriers involving language skills, technical problems or inappropriate communication channel choices may create problems on the receiving end.
Barriers can also be due to factors in the environment itself, such as noise, poor lighting or other distractions that could distort how messages are delivered and received. On top of these conditions, lack of management communication skills can exacerbate barriers even more.
4 strategies for building effective communication in the workplace
CHROs can help their team members overcome such obstacles by taking steps to foster effective communication. Here are four approaches that can help.
1. Offer communication training
It's estimated that managers spend as much as 80% of their workday communicating. However, according to a survey conducted by OnePoll on behalf of professional learning company AVADO, communication was found to be the top skill managers are missing.
Effective communication can enable managers to understand employees' needs, build relationships and drive performance. CHROs should therefore prioritize communication skills to ensure their managers can relay messages that not only inspire and motivate, but also improve internal communications, information sharing and employee engagement.
Training managers to communicate effectively is essential to making this happen. Yet a Gallagher's 2022 State of the Sector report revealed that only one-third of businesses offer tailored communication training. The report also shows that more than half of employers want to reengage their teams around purpose, strategy and values; and 39% of employers expect they'll need to adapt their communication channels to engage the workforce better as they move to newly implemented models of hybrid working. Another key priority for 31% of businesses is enhancing people manager communications. This may suggest a disconnect between what employers expect and what their employees need.
To remedy this divide, CHROs can offer seminars, coaching and structured mentorship to promote better communication in the workplace. This can be accomplished through in-person instructor-led training or virtual instructor-led training. Employers also have the option of choosing asynchronous, private online courses that can scale with their organization.
Keep in mind that HR leaders can also incorporate communication skills into reviews, evaluations and the hiring process to identify leaders who may need additional support.
2. Build interpersonal and interdepartmental relationships
When people know each other and have established trust, it's much easier to have difficult conversations or ask for help. That's why it's important for organizations to focus on building strong working relationships, both interpersonally and interdepartmentally.
There are several tactics CHROs can use to help their employees build better relationships. For instance, they can start by breaking down interdepartmental barriers to eliminate silos between departments and promote effective communication throughout the workplace. HR leaders can also implement knowledge sharing and collaboration opportunities, such as cross-team collaboration, department-wide huddles and intergenerational cooperation to foster communication even more.
To encourage employee bonding, employers could allot time during work hours for team-focused activities. Socialization opportunities that allow employees to connect outside of their primary work roles can also promote bonding. HR leaders may want to deploy internal social media tools to make it easier for employees at different sites to connect, communicate and get to know each other.
3. Streamline communication channels
Conventional wisdom suggests that providing employees with a range of communications channels makes it easier for them to stay connected. However, approach this with care, as the need to monitor emails, text messages, chat messages and notifications from a range of systems could add significant stress to your employee base.
CHROs should determine what types of communications issues the organization is having and then take a deep dive into the technology and tools currently in use. In some cases, improved communication may be achieved by investing in new technologies. In cases where employees are overwhelmed, or there are currently too many competing variables to streamline communications, finding ways to simplify the organization's communication platforms and approaches can help.
Taking the right action might involve scaling back on communications platforms, developing policies on how to prioritize different channels, or working with managers to create a communications strategy that will meet their teams' needs without overwhelming your employees.
4. Address underlying structures that impact communications
Sometimes, organizations that struggle with communications actually have issues with their underlying structure. Consider this example from the Harvard Business Review: An organization onboarded employees with vague job descriptions, and it was easy to do so early on because new hires had access to senior managers and visibility into the business's goals. As the firm grew, this approach became less tenable, and people began to complain that there were communication breakdowns. However, analysis revealed that the problem wasn't communications — it was a lack of clear definition of job responsibilities.
HR leaders can help by investigating what's really happening with complaints regarding communications. They should have regular conversations with employees, conduct engagement surveys and continuously examine workflows. In some cases, true communication issues exist. In others, complaints about communication challenges may be tied to different issues, such as overly complex processes, a lack of transparency throughout the organization, or other management challenges.
Promoting effective communications in the workplace pays dividends across an organization. From better cross-team collaboration to stronger manager-employee relationships, taking a few key steps to improve communications can increase productivity, teamwork and employee engagement. CHROs who can drive meaningful changes in this important strategic area stand to make a significant positive impact on their organizations.
Now more than ever, if your employees can't find the right fit where they are — whether that's with compensation, benefits, culture, engagement or career path — they are willing and able to go somewhere else. Businesses must evolve to survive and thrive. The question is how?
