The Best Guide for Organizational Communication (2022)

“Learn how effective employee communication contributes to both the success of the company and its employees.”

In modern workplaces, it is essential for achieving success to have efficient communication between coworkers. Unfortunately, statistics have revealed that only 32% of employees have rated their company’s communication as exceptional. To better understand the topic of employee communication, it is essential to ask what exactly is employee communication, what are the common difficulties associated with it, what advantages does effective employee communication have, and which techniques should be adopted to further promote effective employee communication? This guide aims to provide answers to all of these questions. Let us begin exploring!

How is Employee Communication Valuable?

The sharing of thoughts, emotions, and information among employees and their employers is referred to as employee communication. It serves as the “glue” that binds a group of individuals and an organization together.

Improved cooperation, engagement, and productivity improve an organization’s core thanks to an effective communication system. However, if done incorrectly, it may have a detrimental effect on the workforce and the company.

Basic communication issues.

Let’s look at some of the basic communication issues that organizations encounter:

Bad management:

Employees become puzzled and frustrated when management is unable to effectively communicate, respond to questions, define goals, or make their points.

Cultural difference:

Especially for companies with clients or staff from other countries, modern workplaces are frequently more varied than ever. For successful cohesion and teamwork, appropriate solutions and a collaborative environment must be developed for bringing people from different backgrounds together.

Lesser feedback:

Discourse quickly loses effectiveness when communication is one-way. The productivity of your employees as well as the goals and objectives of your business may be negatively impacted by a communication barrier caused by a lack of appropriate feedback.

Bad written communication:

A wide range of communication channels and platforms are used by organizations to convey messages, including written communication in the form of newsletters, emails, corporate software, and more. Make sure your material or document is clear and understandable to the intended audience.

Obstacles to nonverbal communication:

Pages are often associated with content that remains applicable over a period of time. But when you’re trying to distribute data that are dependent on the passing of time, such as a poll or event, you must then make efforts to re-publicize that page, making sure that it appears at the top of the page. Once the event or poll has ended, although it may be worth preserving its results for its archival value, it is no longer desirable for it to take the prime spot. When this is a regular occurrence, this situation can quickly become overwhelming, creating difficulties from the standpoint of page management and user experience.

Irrelevant info:

While most businesses benefit from accessibility, it is not a good idea to give staff access to unnecessary information. Remember that privacy and relevance are essential in the job. Make talks that are private or public accordingly instead of simply dumping a tonne of unrelated information on all of us.

Communication channels

At work, there are several channels to communicate. The following are the most typical ways that information is sent and received at work:

• Verbal communication
• Visual signals
• written communication
• Nonverbal cues

Asynchronous communication is a modern innovation that is valued and frequently used. Teams who work remotely or in different time zones benefit most from this method of communication.

Advantages of strong employee communication

Transparency, attentiveness, succinctness, optimism, fostering a sense of belonging among staff members, and unity are a few of the essential characteristics of successful communication. Practicing these values in practical work environments can provide countless advantages. Among the major advantages of effectual worker communication are:

Improvement in employee engagement

Employee communication is a key factor that influences the level of employee engagement. By allowing employees to access the necessary information for carrying out their work duties, and by providing a platform where their opinions can be heard, a greater sense of connectedness, inclusivity, and productivity will be established, leading to a more dedicated and committed workforce.

Improves the working environment for employees

A company’s employees are more likely to be comfortable with their jobs if it promotes open communication in the workplace. By creating a welcoming workplace that is enjoyable to work in and keeps people interested in their jobs, a transparent and trustworthy atmosphere fosters employee happiness.

Maintains coordination among all employees

If communication between employees and management is not efficient, it can cause several difficulties, including the potential for misunderstandings and stalled processes. On the other hand, effective communication among personnel assists in avoiding and quickly addressing problems, thereby aiding in the preservation of an amicable environment and allowing for greater collaboration.

Assemble multiple teams

A department in an organization serves a specific purpose and performs a specific function. Each department relies on the other for success, both individually and collectively, so it is crucial to communicate with one another so that collaboration and support can take place. When a single department is cut off from communication, the entire organization suffers. Conversely, a team of departments working together can benefit the organization as a whole.

Promotes innovation

Workplaces that promote employee viewpoint and idea expression tend to be more innovative than those that don’t. Employees who are encouraged to speak up and challenge the status quo frequently contribute insightful ideas and effective strategies that advance both the individual employees and the company as a whole.

Common employee communication channels

Employee communication is no longer just restricted to voice calls and in-person interactions in today’s world. There are a lot of communication channels to connect at the workplace. Here are some of the most popular channels for employee communication:

1. Workplace success platforms

Employee engagement systems, such as Creative Social Intranet, are a new, engaging approach to bringing the entire company together in one platform. It promotes a positive workplace culture by centralizing communication, setting up teams, and recognizing accomplishments.

All of your employees will be able to access the information they require easily, define what matters, and complete their tasks swiftly by collecting in one location.

To create a successful organizational communication system, Creative Social Intranet offers the following:

• Important announcements and developments in the news
• Employee feedback surveys 3. Monitoring activities for what’s happening in the office
• An interactive staff directory to discover more about them
• Talking with staff members to collaborate and complete the work
• Teams and Tasks to Know Who Is Working On What
• The library is where you can share and work together on crucial documents.

2. Platforms for managing tasks and projects

The use of project and task management tools like SmartTask and Asana can help employees communicate effectively while managing projects. They offer a variety of internal communication features including group chatting, video conferencing, VoIP numbers, task commenting, and much more. The ability to track your work better and boost your productivity is also enhanced by having all your work-related communication in one place.

3. Messaging Apps for employee engagement

With workplace messaging apps like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Yammer, etc., your organization can communicate faster and more efficiently. You can share files, update a group of people at once, create chat threads, archive messages, and so on. They are great for both formal and informal communication, especially when working in a remote team.

4. Apps for video conferencing

Unlike emails, instant messages, or phone calls, video conferencing platforms like Google Meet, Zoom, etc., enable communication that includes verbal and nonverbal cues, similar to an in-person conversation. With video conferencing, you can stay in touch with team members that are located across the country and/or world, or who work from home.

5. Platforms for sharing and collaborating on documents

Your team can connect in real time and be more productive by using document collaboration solutions like Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides. These technologies let you distribute crucial files and provide team members immediate access to edit and update them.

Gmail, Calendar, and Chat are additional tools available through Google Workspace for scheduling and corporate communication. You can therefore utilize these Google tools for project management as well.

6. Emails

Despite the fact that we are in 2022, email remains an effective method for business communication. Most firms worldwide use email to communicate with their employees on a daily basis. Emails keep employees updated on everything from the latest organizational developments to company updates. But when it comes to internal communication, emails can be difficult to keep track of, and you might miss important details.

7. Social networks

Everyone uses social media, whether for personal or professional reasons. Social networks can be utilized for both internal and external communication due to their accessibility and wealth of communication-oriented features.

Other social media platforms exist besides SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Numerous companies are researching specialized social networks or developing their own social ecosystems.

Ideas for boosting employee communication

You can take the following things to boost employee communication at work:

• Establish clear goals and communicate them.

Having a clear goal in mind and setting expectations will allow your team to function more efficiently. Make sure to clearly communicate the objectives and timeline, so that each team member is aware of what’s expected of them and when it needs to be completed. Aligning everyone towards the same goal ensures progress can be tracked, motivating employees and keeping them engaged with their work.

For instance, if you are working on a marketing project, inform your team how many campaigns they need to design, what kinds of creative materials are necessary, what topics they should address in each campaign, and when they should be launched.

• Get to know your employees

Ask questions of your employees, show empathy when they ask for help, and learn about them. Understand each team member’s personality so that you can help them reach their full potential by tailoring your communication tactics. Taking feedback from each employee and conducting surveys every few months will give you the best insight into their wants.

• Implement a bottom-up communication strategy.

Bottom-up communication in business involves integrating the ideas, goals, and perspectives of all its employees. This seed model encourages small notions to grow into comprehensive initiatives, which subsequently become realized. Every individual plays an integral role in the ultimate purpose of the organization, by converging towards a broad direction that encompasses its entirety. Through this process, businesses are better able to determine which objectives are fundamental for achieving success.

• Use of multiple communication channels

In order to effectively communicate with your employees, you need to use the right channels for the right situations. For example, brainstorming, planning, and training should be conducted in person or via video conference with adequate documentation. Group messages or emails can be used to convey urgent information. Video meetings can be used to discuss sensitive information you do not wish to in writing. Instant messages can be used to communicate daily task updates.

• Sync audio, video, and mobile

In the morning, no one wants to find their calendar filled with back-to-back events. Getting on too many video calls can also be tiring, so it’s not a good idea to conduct video meetings for everything. As a result, you will give your employees space and save a lot of time if you distribute your communication based on the requirements into messages, voice calls, and video meetings.

Conclusion

You have all you need to create an effective and effective employee communication system. It will take some trial and error for you to figure out what works best for your organization and the gaps in communication. The first thing you should do is explore all communication options, from employee success platforms to project management tools, see what best matches your needs, and try it out!