Jostle Blog: Explore Employee Success Insights & Ideas

The ultimate guide to employee communication (2022)

Written by Shyamal Parikh | Oct 3, 2022 11:35:38 PM

In the workplace, effective communication is crucial for achieving all business goals, as it allows coworkers to better collaborate and work in harmony with one another. 

Effective communication is the top expectation of employees. But, surprisingly, only 32% of employees rate their company’s communication as excellent.  

So what exactly is employee communication, what are common communication challenges, what are the benefits of effective employee communication, and what methods should you adopt for better employee communication? 

We’ll answer all of that and everything related to employee communication for you in this guide. Let's dive in!

 

Table of Contents


What is employee communication?

Common communication challenges

Modes of communication

Benefits of effective employee communication

Common employee communication channels

Tips to improve employee communication

Final words


What is employee communication?

Employee communication is the sharing of ideas, feelings, and information between employees and employers. It’s the ‘glue’ that holds an organization and its people together.

An effective communication system helps with better collaboration, engagement, and productivity, which ultimately strengthens the core of an organization. But, when not done correctly, it can have a negative impact on the employees and the organization.


Common communication challenges

Let's have a look at some of the common communication challenges faced by an organization:

Poor leadership

Leadership, where managers are unable to communicate properly, answer queries, clarify objectives or put their points clearly, leads to employees that are confused and frustrated. 

Cultural difference:

Modern workplaces are often more diverse than ever, especially for businesses with international clients or employees. Devising the right solutions and a collaborative environment for bringing together individuals from diverse backgrounds is crucial for successful cohesion and teamwork.

Limited feedback:

When communication proceeds in only one direction, discourse quickly becomes ineffective. Lack of proper feedback creates a communication gap that can hurt your employee’s performance as well as your company’s goals and objectives.

Poor written communication:

Organizations relay messages using a variety of communication methods and mediums, including written communication such as newsletters, emails, corporate software, and more. Make sure your copy/document is well-written and accessible to the right people.

Barriers to non-verbal communication:

Pages normally relate to topics that persist over time. That’s problematic when you want to share time-sensitive information, such as an event or poll.

When you add an event or poll, you need to re-promote that page, and you likely need to place them at the top of that page. When the event or poll is over, you likely want to keep the event or poll results for their historical value--but you no longer want them at the top of the page. If doing that poll or event is a monthly occurrence, this quickly becomes a mess. From both a page administration and user experience perspective, this is challenging.

Irrelevant information:

While transparency works well for most organizations, sharing irrelevant information with employees doesn’t work well. Keep in mind the necessity of relevancy and confidentiality in the workplace. Make closed/public discussions accordingly rather than just dumping a bunch of irrelevant data on everyone.

Using the right communication tools:

In-person communication is more effective than phone or email communication, depending on the message. Understanding when to use the various tools for communication is critical to the success of a company's overall communication.


Modes of communication

There are several modes of communicating at work. The most common forms of transmitting and receiving information in the workplace include:

  • Verbal interaction 
  • Nonverbal cues
  • Visuals 
  • Written communication

A new form of communication being appreciated and widely used today is asynchronous communication. This type of communication is best for teams working in different time zones or remotely.


Benefits of effective employee communication

Transparency, listening, conciseness, positivity, making employees feel included, and cohesiveness are some of the pillars of effective communication. Putting these values into practice in real-life workplace scenarios can have numerous benefits. Some of the major benefits of effective employee communication include: 

1. Boosts employee engagement

The effectiveness of employee communication directly impacts employee engagement. When employees obtain the information they need to execute their tasks efficiently while also having the option to provide feedback, they feel more connected, both to the firm and one another, heard, and productive, which leads to them becoming more involved in their daily responsibilities.

2. Enhances employee experience

Employee's who work for a company that encourages open communication in the workplace are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs. A transparent and trustworthy environment promotes employee satisfaction by fostering a pleasant work environment that is pleasurable to work in and keeps people engaged in their roles.

3. Keeps everyone working in sync

If communication between employees and management does not flow smoothly, it can lead to misunderstandings, bottlenecks, and other problems. Whereas, clear employee communication helps to prevent problems and handle them swiftly when they do arise. This contributes to the maintenance of a harmonious workplace and keeps everyone in sync.

4. Bring different teams together

Each department in an organization has a distinct purpose and function. They are all reliant on one another for success, both individually and collectively, making it important to communicate with one another for collaboration and support. If any single department is cut off from communication, the entire organization can suffer. Whereas, it can benefit the organization when all departments are in tune with one another and working together. 

5. Encourages innovation

Workplaces that enable employees to express their opinions and ideas tend to inspire more innovation than those that do not. Employees who feel empowered to speak up and think differently typically provide valuable ideas and tactics that benefit both the employees and the firm as a whole.


Common employee communication channels

In today’s world, employee communication is no longer limited to phone calls and face-to-face meetings. There are many more ways to be able to communicate effectively within your workplace. Here are some of the most commonly used employee communication channels:

1. Employee success platforms

Employee success platforms like Jostle are a new yet effective and exciting way to bring the whole organization together in one place. It centralizes communication, organizes teams, acknowledges contributions, and enhances work culture. 

By bringing your entire organization together in one place, everyone can find what they need quickly, clarify what matters, and get their work done efficiently.

Here’s what Jostle offers to establish an effective workplace communication system -

  • News for important updates and announcements
  • Polls for taking employee feedback
  • Activity for keeping a tab of what’s going on in the workplace
  • Visual employee directory to learn more about them
  • Discussion with employees to collaborate and get the work done
  • Tasks and Teams to understand who is working on what
  • Library where you can store, share and collaborate on important files.
  • Events to plan and organize internal team events to improve team bonding and employee experience

2. Project and task management platforms

Project and task management tools like SmartTask and Asana are great tools for effective employee communication while managing projects. They offer various internal communication features such as group chatting, video conferencing, VoIP numbers, task commenting, and much more. Having all your projects, tasks, and work-related communication in one place also helps you track your work better and boosts your productivity.

3. Office communication tools

Workplace messaging apps like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Yammer, etc., allow a faster and more efficient way for your organization to communicate. They are great for both formal and informal communication, especially when working in a remote team. You can share files, update a group of people at once, create chat threads, archive messages for later or personal use, and more.

4. Video conferencing applications

Compared to emails, instant messages, or phone calls, video conferencing platforms like Google Meet, Zoom, etc., enable communication that includes verbal and nonverbal cues, much like an in-person conversation. Staying in touch with team members who are located in different parts of the country and/or world or who work from home is easy when using video conferencing. 

5. Document collaboration and sharing platforms

Using document collaboration tools such as Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc., your team can be more productive and can collaborate in real-time. With these tools, you can share important documents and enable real-time access, edits, and updates for team members.

Google Workspace also offers tools like Gmail, Calendar, and Chat for business communication and scheduling. That’s why you can use these Google tools for your project management too.

6. Emails

We are in 2022 and email is still an effective channel for business communication. Most firms throughout the world connect with their staff using emails daily. From updates to the most recent organizational advancements, employees are informed via emails. However, when dealing with internal communication, emails can be difficult to keep track of, and you might end up missing important details.

7. Social networks

Everyone is on social media, whether for fun or work. Because of their many communication-oriented features and accessibility, social networks can be used for both external and internal communication. 

SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook, and LinkedIn are not the only social networks available. Many organizations are exploring niche social networks or creating their social ecosystems.


Tips to improve employee communication

Here are a few things you can do to improve employee communication in your workplace:

1. Define goals and communicate clearly

Goal-oriented and precise communication should be your execution tool. Provide employees with clear expectations about what tasks must be completed within a certain timeframe and transparently communicate your expectations. By aligning employees around the same objective, they can easily see their progress, which keeps them motivated and engaged.

For example, if you are working on a marketing project, let your team know how many campaigns they need to plan, what creative assets will be required, what they should cover in each campaign, and when they are supposed to be launched.

2. Know your employees

To learn about your employees, ask questions, and show empathy when they ask for aid or face difficulties. Tailor your communication tactics to each team member's personality so that you can understand each other and help them reach their full potential. You can best interpret their wants by conducting surveys every few months and taking feedback from each employee.

3. Implement a bottom-up approach for communication

Bottom-up communication in business leverages all of its employees' perspectives on business and suggestions for the company. Often referred to as the seed model, bottom-up communication results in little ideas blossoming into elaborate, organic goals before being realized. People and their roles are essentially being merged into a larger focus that encompasses the entire company. A method such as this can assist an organization in selecting the most effective - and most targeted - goals for its efforts. 

4. Make use of multiple channels

When you want to communicate with the employees effectively, then it is essential to utilize the right channels for the right situation. For example, planning, brainstorming, and training should be done in-person or over video conference with proper documentation. Urgent information can go as a group message or email. Sensitive information you do not want in writing can again be discussed in a video meeting. Daily task updates can be in the form of instant messages.

5. Integrate mobile, video & audio

No one wants to wake up and find their calendar lined up with back-to-back meetings. Conducting video meetings for anything and everything is not a good idea as it takes up a lot of productive time from your employee’s day and getting on too many video calls can be tiring as well. Instead, you should distribute your communication based on the requirements into messages, voice calls, and video meetings. This way, you will give your employees space and save a lot of time.


Final words

That's it. You have all that you need to establish an effective and strong employee communication system in your organization.

Understanding the gaps and the right mode of communication will take some trial and error, but with some time you will be able to figure out what works best for your organization. 

So take your time. First explore all the communication modes from employee success platforms to project management tools, see what matches your requirements, and try it!