Communication between the management team and the workforce is absolutely vital to the success of any organization. What becomes an obstacle, however, is not the company’s capability to communicate between themselves – it’s their commitment to it.
Too often you’ll find a company that believes scheduling meetings and sending out daily newsletters can substitute for holistic engagement. While these are great means of connection themselves, you cannot rely on them to keep your staff fully informed and connected with their management.
Business communication is defined by the interaction between two people to reach a common goal, rather than one person speaking in the direction of another. Your employees should be welcome to speak back just as easily, especially if it helps them more thoroughly understand their role.
In most cases, meetings and emails just won’t cut it; they’re too one sided and don’t provide the engagement employees need to feel satisfied and informed.
Here are seven reasons communication is vital to company success in any sector
1. Increases overall productivity
Sometimes the hardest tasks aren’t the ones that require the most work, but the ones that require the most knowledge. We’ve all been in situations where we couldn’t get a project started because we didn’t have a complete grasp on what to do, which becomes a situation that stunts progress and hurts the quality of your output.
If your business thrives on communication, a worker who’s struggling to understand a responsibility should be able to get in touch with a superior and obtain a clearer idea of the work at hand. In cases like this, it’s the accessibility of these superiors that determines the speed at which the work is complete. So managers should be scheduling one on ones and keeping them on the calendars. Regular, ongoing meetings will allow employees to ask questions and will help managers identify when they need to help their direct reports course correct and/or provide feedback to support their employees.
If you rely on team meetings to check in with your staff without having time for one-on-one questions and advice, your team could work more slowly and make more mistakes because you weren’t available to help them out on an individual basis. Make it clear that you’re happy to take questions and offer assistance around the workplace.
2. Keeps leaders engaged with their team members
Staying in touch with your workforce can also help you from becoming lost on the managerial side of your business. The most dynamic way to keep your finger on the pulse of your team’s success is simply by keeping track of their progress and proximity to their goals. The only way to do that? Communication.
When your employees update you on their status, you can not only offer advice, but get a holistic impression of how far along your team is on what their projects and goals are. There’s no advantage to staying at your desk and crossing your fingers hoping goals get completed. Be an active part of their journey, help them out, and find a new ability to plan ahead.
3. Fosters innovation
Effective communication isn’t just found between management and staff, but among staff members themselves. Management shouldn’t fear the sound of conversations coming from the office – or in the case of remote teams, additional meetings between members of your staff where you aren’t invited – they aren’t always a distraction.
Encouraging your team to communicate freely opens the gates for trading ideas, collaboration, teamwork, and even further productivity via shared progress. Working together is always superior to working alone — shared knowledge has been used to create almost everything. Down the line you may support team members creating shared goals as a way to foster deeper collaboration as part of team-centric view of success.
Let your staff collaborate! You might be surprised at what they achieve.
4. Creates deeper relationships
A lack of communication can not only leave a staff unsure of their direction, but can also result in them seeing their manager as aloof and dismissive. It’s not just a cliche to claim you should get to know your employees – it can genuinely help productivity and satisfaction.
Consistent collaboration with your team acts as a catalyst for success by developing trust and increasing job satisfaction. You might even find that workers are willing to take more risks and think more boldly since they feel more comfortable under your management. This, in turn, will encourage more communication, and the cycle will continue.
Creating interpersonal relationships with your workers is an idea that some managers completely abandon. Set yourself apart and stay in tune with your team.
5. Makes the customer happy
It’s true – pleasing the employee can help please the customer, and effective communication is the key. For one, a workplace that excels at communicating often produces a better product at a quicker pace, thus inherently serving the client well. We’ve all been on the other end of a company who fumbles your request/product due to miscommunication between their team.
There’s also quantifiable evidence that a satisfied workforce can result in a satisfied customer. A 2018 study by Yale researchers Nathan Yang and Ahmed Khwaja found that salespeople who reported themselves more engaged were not only more likely to successfully upsell their products, but received better feedback from the same customers.
6. Promotes the success of your remote staff
Everything we’ve mentioned so far becomes even more vital when part of your team works from home. Collaborating online can be a tough task when mainly relying on email correspondence, since misunderstandings can arise and back-and-forths can become painfully slow.
The best way to develop a relationship with and offer help to your remote employees is by setting up time to video-chat, even if it’s only for thirty minutes. You can get updates, offer feedback and advice, and clear up confusion before it becomes a larger issue.
This, in turn, helps them become more engaged with your office’s culture. Consistent connection to the team also gets them more recognition by their peers for their achievements than they would receive if they felt like a distant figure.
Any communication shortcomings you have in your office become exacerbated from the point of view of someone working remotely. Make sure to keep in touch with your at-home crew as much as you would someone sitting outside your door.
7. Curbs turnover
Taking all possible steps to improve communication in your work environment will have a long-lasting effect on your company’s overall culture. When work is done more smoothly and relationships are grown more fully, your staff will recognize the growth and feel happier to be a member of the team.
Communicating positive feedback is a particularly effective means of promoting a good culture; companies with employee recognition programs see 31% lower turnover rates. Less turnover means your team stays tighter, communication becomes easier, and so forth.
Just in case efficient production and a more satisfied clientele wasn’t enough incentive to develop a connected workplace, consider the renewed vitality it could bring to your employees.
For more on engagement and how communication is one of its biggest drivers, go here!