How to Improve Employee Communication + 3 Companies to Learn From

Establishing trust and transparency in the workplace is the first step toward reducing employee disengagement. The next step is improving employee communication.

Why is employee communication important? 

These days, employee engagement, productivity and satisfaction aren't as strongly linked to the number of hours spent in the office; rather – to how well people can communicate and problem-solve with others. Moreover, studies show that 80% of those who have received meaningful feedback at work in the past week are fully engaged.

The conclusion is clear – you need to focus on fostering meaningful, effective communication in the workplace. That includes recognition for work, setting clear expectations and building relationships.

Let’s discuss some strategies to help you succeed in your employee communication efforts. Stick around to see how other companies implement successful employee communication strategies (and reap the benefits that follow).

How to improve employee communication

Establish clear communication channels

The traditional communication method (i.e., speech) is no longer the primary form of communication for many companies, particularly remote teams. Instead, real-time chat tools are taking over.

Popular employee communication tools you could use are Microsoft Teams or Slack. Connect them to Peoplelogic to enrich regular conversations with direct reports and provide actionable feedback. This kind of communication technology makes it easier to resolve issues quickly, especially in a dispersed team.

Remember that two-way communication is vital. Ensure that employees feel comfortable reaching out to each other and their managers.

Regularly ask for and provide feedback

Set up an automated system for giving and collecting employee feedback. We've identified that one of the top mistakes managers make in performance reviews is limiting their appraisals to an annual frequency. Employees are 3.6 times more motivated to produce outstanding work when they receive daily (as opposed to annual) feedback.

If you're looking for a way to make feedback a regular part of your routine, Peoplelogic is for you. Our workforce analytics and performance management software facilitates constant improvement in the workplace communication strategy with an automated feedback loop.

Here's what you can expect from Peoplelogic:

• Anonymous feedback exchanges for open and honest communication on sensitive matters
• Public praise for reinforcing good practices and rewarding excellence
• Timely feedback made easier with a simple structure
• Improved engagement levels by moving feedback exchanges into Slack and giving praise without leaving the workflow
• Leaderboards of the top praise givers and receivers to inspire healthy competition and involvement
• Organized feedback in one place, where you can easily access it for reference
• Best practice tips for keeping employee communication as healthy as possible

Clearly communicate job expectations and goals

Focusing on effective internal communications has one core goal: improving relationships.. The rest follows – trust, interest in company affairs, accountability, confidence in expressing opinions, and overall growth. Not to mention, a common goal brings teams together and helps them operate more effectively.

In terms of employee communication goals, you could aim to increase awareness about your corporate objectives and mission to turn your workers into brand ambassadors. Right now, only 20% of U.S. employees feel connected to their company culture.

If you ignite a passion for your vision, employees will likely spread that fire to others, improving your brand perception and customer relationships. Connected employees are also almost 70% less prone to burnout and 55% less likely to quit.

We suggest conducting regular surveys to gauge how effective employee communication, engagement and sentiment are.

Ask questions about:

• How informed do your employees feel?
• Do they know their responsibilities?
• How consistent, regular and efficient are conversations?
• Do employees feel listened to?
• What is the level of trust toward leaders and coworkers?

A good plan should cover the timing, style, content and talking channels. Remember to keep your objectives SMART.

Source: Indeed

Provide communication skills training

Invest in making your managers coaches who create an environment where employees can thrive. Gallup offers their Boss to Coach course, but there are plenty of other options (both online and face-to-face) for polishing those soft skills.

You can also invest in improving the communication skills of team members. Here are some ideas where you can look for those:

• Pluralsight Skills, Coursera, Udemy or other online upskilling and reskilling platforms
• University of Cambridge online Compelling Communication Skills course
• Harvard University communication skills courses
• LinkedIn Learning courses

Peer learning is also valuable. Understand who within your team can benefit from each other’s influence. We've made it easier for you with ONA graphs. These illustrations show you who your internal influencers are and where information flows. Such data can be helpful in identifying communication patterns and silos and, over time, help you build and maintain a more connected and aligned workforce.

Hold team meetings regularly

It’s worth addressing certain issues (i.e., more targeted or sensitive matters) via face-to-face communication instead of digital channels. These meetings don't have to be long to be meaningful and productive. In fact, 15-30-minute conversations have a greater impact than hour-long meetings – if they happen regularly, that is.

With Peoplelogic, you can get the most out of your one-on-ones by using  our library of question templates, recording notes, and logging action items for any unresolved matters.

Promote collaboration

Harvard Business Review identifies silos, lack of collaborative vision from executives, and not wanting to give up control as the top reasons for failed collaboration.

As HBR's Jenny Fernandez and Luis Velasquez fittingly put it, "The higher you are in the organization, the more you’ll depend on others to execute your vision and goals." So, teaching your staff to work as a team and giving them a voice is crucial to wiser decision-making.

Here are some ideas for working on inter-departmental cooperation:

• Run a premortem – an exercise where the team imagines their project has failed and has to work backward to pinpoint the reasons
• Implement a peer-to-peer recognition system instead of focusing solely on downward feedback
• Embrace diversity and inclusion in hiring and decision-making – Forbes and other experts confirm that richer perspectives translate to more creative and effective problem-solving
• Encourage open communication and creative brainstorming sessions

Lead by example

As with all organizational aspects, leaders set the tone for others to follow in terms of communication style, frequency, level of openness etc. A manager focused on improving communication within the company should stick to the following best practices:

• Actively listen to others, no matter the position
• Be inquisitive and genuinely curious (without coming off as intrusive)
• Put effort into getting context for problems and disputes
• Act as a coach by motivating others to do their best without micromanaging
• Maintain an ongoing dialogue by providing timely comments
• Ensure all feedback is relevant to both the employee's contribution and the company's purpose (and always include precise examples)
• Guide business decisions according to your company values first, prioritizing them before budget

You can read more about what skills leaders should use to communicate effectively.

Track your progress

Peoplelogic can also help you record employee activity. The tool automatically collects data from various work applications and gives you a comprehensive view of group dynamics, team members' performance and the overall organization's success. In short, you get a holistic view of your company's health and the state of communication in the workplace with minimum input of time and effort.

Our machine learning and predictive analysis tools will help you predict potential roadblocks (and improvement opportunities) before they arise. Tracking engagement levels and other KPIs gives you a solid overview of what you need to focus on to craft an optimal employee communication strategy.

Effective employee communication: 3 companies to learn from

To finish off this section, we've included some real-life examples of companies with good employee communication to inspire you:

• Buffer: This social media company sets communication expectations, including the technologies they use and response times other employees can expect. Their transparency and communication policies have helped them become recognized as one of the best companies for remote workers.
• Netflix: The content streaming provider improved employee communication by having board members observe meetings and communicate with other executives via online memos. This successful communication strategy sped up their decision-making process.
• Amazon: Jeff Bezos introduced two simple rules for effective internal communication – the two-pizza rule and the six-page memo. The first limits the team size or meeting attendees to the number of people that can be fed by, you guessed it, two pizzas. The second is about using only narrative-based, six-page memos (no bullet points or slides) to encourage curiosity sparked by storytelling. This balance of efficiency and creativity helps to increase employee engagement and a feeling of autonomy while making teams more productive.

Conclusion

Effective communication refers to how much team members trust each other and how efficient the exchange of ideas is.

It's not strictly related to forcing your staff back into the office, but about fostering a culture of high employee morale in which everyone feels safe and encouraged to share their thoughts. The result is improved engagement, productivity, innovation, and problem-solving.

At PeopleLogic, we understand that your people are your most valuable asset. That's why we've developed a powerful AI-driven platform to help you optimize your people, process, and technology and unlock the full potential of your workforce.

Click here to sign up for a free demo where one of our experts will walk you through Peoplelogic.