How to Improve Staff Communication in Your Business

| March 26, 2020

How to Improve Staff Communication in Your Business

We know that there isn’t a part of our lives, whether that is in our places of work or our homes, that effective communication isn’t of paramount importance. Excellent communication is one of the essential elements of success, happiness, and loyalty. As your business becomes more successful and your team enlarges in size, the way your team interacts with each other will become increasingly more critical.

Engendering an open and honest environment in which your team feels that they are heard and can hear others is vital. With that in mind, this article looks at a few ways you can improve communication in the workplace.

Be the change you want to see

If you are leading by example, then your team will be more likely to follow suit. This is important for managers and leaders throughout your organization, so make sure your management team is encouraging active listening and offers an open forum for feedback and ideas. This top-down view of excellent communication will trickle down to every level, even improving your customer service.

Be open and honest

Traditionally, big decisions were raised, debated, and decided behind closed doors, only the privileged few being engaged with the process. Unfortunately, this approach can fuel a resentment filled and distrusting culture. NDAs aside, it’s essential to involve your employees at all levels and ensure that any critical decisions are effectively and transparently explained to them.

Engage with online platforms

Software is an increasingly imperative part of improving employee communication at all levels. Whether it’s via online meeting platforms to facilitate remote working, collaboration, and meetings or using employee feedback and employee engagement portals to understand better how your staff is engaging with their experience of your organization, online tools are ideal. Using cutting edge communications technology can vastly simplify and thus massively benefit your internal and external business communications.

Factor in some downtime

Long working hours that aren’t balanced with periods away from core tasks can take their toll. Makes sure your staff don’t burn out or lose motivation and productivity levels by helping them to maintain a positive balance between work and rest. Cognitive abilities will decline, along with the ability to process emotions effectively if the balance is one-sided; this will inevitably be reflected in a drop in effective communication. Encourage time away from desks and screens between bouts of work, preferably outside and preferably with meaningful movement. Recharged batteries will always produce better work and affect better communication.

Corporate team-building exercises

Organizing events external to the office environment allows employees to communicate and cooperate under less informal circumstances and in a different location. These external corporate experiences can range from simple nights out, to more sophisticated bonding experiences that encourage problem-solving and improve communication skills.

Positive, effective communication is such a crucial element of your business success. Ensuring that you take the time to lead by example, provide the right training and resources and encourage the conditions for cooperation means communication will improve, and your business’s bottom line will benefit.