Strategic HR Technology Investment: A Comprehensive Checklist for Global HR Teams
Effective communication is the key to establishing trustworthy and strong relations in a team. Though communicating seems easy and interesting, communicating effectively at work is a completely different aspect.
Lack of proper communication among employees can cause issues like employee disengagement and reduced employee morale. Communication at workplace plays an important role in coming up with innovative ideas, solving problems and understanding how other teams function.
In this article, you’ll learn a few tips to improve communication at your workplace.
As a manager, it is important to establish foundations before you encourage your employees to improve their communication. It is highly unlikely for new employees to come forward and communicate a problem with you. So, as a manager, try to make it easier for them by starting a conversation yourself and making them feel comfortable. Establish the foundation based on which your employees will feel free to come talk to you when necessary.
Encourage your employees to socially interact with others. You cannot assume that all the employees share the same objectives as you. Communicate why this is important to you and explain them how these changes will benefit them. Explaining the reason for this will get them to understand your perspective and co-operate.
One on one meetings allow you to have effective and frequent conversations between them so that the overall team productivity is improved. It is very common that managers have no idea about what their employees are actually working on and how they are doing at that. Having frequent one on one meetings with your employees helps you understand the workflow in your team better and helps you stay on the same page as your direct reports.
Most employees feel that they would perform better if their role was clarified to them. In most workplaces, managers do not focus on clarifying their role to their employees. Make sure that your team members understand their roles and realize their importance in the bigger picture.
Also read: Tips For Giving Effective Employee Feedback
Communication is not only getting your message out clearly, it also involves listening effectively. As a manager, this is one of the most crucial skills that you should master. It is important to listen to what the opposite person is trying to say so that you can be on the same page with them. Do not use your mobile or do any multitasking when listening to your team members. Genuinely listen to them and make them feel valued.
Only a few managers realize that feedback from their team is very valuable. If you want to improve communication at your workplace, ask for feedback from your team members frequently and act on it. Their feedback gives a different perspective to how you think you function. If your employees aren’t initially comfortable to give feedback to you, encourage them to give you anonymous feedback.
You can use employee feedback tools like Engagedly to encourage them to give you feedback.
If you really want to engage your employees and improve communication at your workplace, it is important that all employees understand about the workflow at the company no matter which department they belong to. Keep the workflows transparent and make employees feel valued. Organize a proper meeting with respective people from other teams and let the employees share information with each other. You can use tools like Engagedly to promote collaboration and avoid any possible miscommunications
Team building activities are one of the most effective ways to improve employee engagement as well as communication at workplace. These activities are not only a fun way to engage employees and boost teamwork but also helps them communicate better with each other and boost the overall productivity.
Also read: 4 Creative Team Building Activities
It is quite common to be carried away by your personal opinion about someone, but as a manager, you should give everyone the benefit of the doubt. If an employee is lacking in an area, instead of assuming that they are under-performers and can’t be helped, communicate with them and find out where exactly they are lacking and what help they expect from you.
Always be ready to offer constructive feedback to your team members. Never use an aggressive/ passive aggressive tone to give feedback about someone’s work. You can use employee feedback tools like Engagedly that give you an opportunity to categorize the feedback type that you are giving to the employees. They can also add their comments on the feedback here, which allows the employees to share their thoughts and contribute to a strong culture at the workplace.
Do you want to know how Engagedly can help you with improving improving communication at your workplace? Talk to our experts!
