How to Solve Communication Problems at the Office

Good communication is a crucial element for any organization that needs to stay competitive in the market. Engaged employees add value and are more productive. However, the current digital workplace makes it challenging to attract every employee’s attention for effective communication. This makes poor communication a common challenge among businesses and an issue that should be prioritized.

Communicating effectively within your business is a source of transparency and positive company culture. Therefore, organizations should ensure that their workforce is always in the loop with the latest news, events, and organizational changes while enabling them to collaborate and share feedback.

Common Causes of Workplace Communication Problems

Without a doubt, companies without proper communication strategies will struggle to thrive and achieve their business objectives. Employment engagement, staff retention, productivity, and customer satisfaction also become a challenge. That said, common causes of communication problems include;

• Excessive or limited internal communication platforms for staff
• Misinterpretation and miscommunication between departments and employees
• Information overload, such as excessive Skype, email, and Slack notifications
• Inconsistent communication
• Low employee morale
• The negative culture within the company
• Cultural differences within employees
• Departmental conflicts
• Lack of a straightforward communication strategy
• Poor leadership and management style

How to Fix Communication Problems

While the causes mentioned above might appear simple, they have serious consequences to an organization. Below are some ways to improve workplace communication.

1. Adopt a Social Intranet

The inception of remote work and flexible working hours in the current digital workspace has increased effective communication in an organization. With workplaces becoming unique, it is crucial for business leaders and managers to implement software that makes it easy for all employees to communicate.

For this, adopting a social communication platform, such as an intranet, is an excellent solution to internal communications challenges. Unfortunately, some organizations create multiple channels for employee collaboration, which create confusion amongst employees. The workforce becomes confused on the best platform to use, leaving some platforms ignored.

Unlike multiple channels, intranets provide a single, unified communication channel for both in-house and remote employees. This helps reduce the overload of messages sent through multiple channels, including email, Slack, or WhatsApp. Intranet also has measuring tools that make it easy to identify employees engaged with specific channels and content.

Intranet connects multiple employees from different locations and time zones by offering a centralized platform that employees can access company news, memos, events, processes, and other details. This enables managers to send messages that reach the entire workforce effectively and remains stored for future reference.

That aside, organization managers can segment users on the platform according to their needs and characteristics. This makes it easy for the messages to reach the right people, eliminating the common issue of sending out irrelevant information to all departments. Users can also diversify the methods of sharing content. For instance, you can use engaging methods, such as blogs, podcasts, infographics, PowerPoint, images, and videos.

For high accessibility, consider using mobile intranets. They are effective as employees, and other members can access them from several devices, such as smartphones, desktops, laptops, and tablets. Intranets are specifically beneficial to remote employees, as it enables them to access information equally as office-based colleagues.

2. Regularly Evaluate Communications

Most organizations rely on annual reviews to evaluate employee engagement. However, this is a weak strategy, and you can’t determine if the communication is effectively engaging to your employees. Besides, the current generation thrives on feedback and recognition. Therefore, to engage your workforce, continuously create engaging communication and innovate.

Unfortunately, most communication professionals find it challenging to evaluate internal communications. This could be due to restricted quantitative and qualitative indicators, which prompts them to avoid the evaluation process. However, to enhance productivity and stay competitive in the market, you should measure your employee engagement levels.

Ways of Communicating

Fortunately, you can leverage various ways to evaluate communication effectiveness. Among them include;

• Intranet analytics – the information extracted from intranet platforms, such as engagement rates, number of online users, locations, and more
• Face to face and group discussions – helps understand employee satisfaction, personal lives, and wellbeing better.
• Email statistics – monitor your click and open rates.
• Pulse surveys – monitor employee Net Promoter Score and other parameters regularly.
• Audits – internal and external audits provide an opportunity for a third-party agency to assess your communications.
• Exit interviews – insights from employees leaving your business
• Polls and questionnaires – helps identify content and communication methods that your staff find to be engaging.

The options available in your organization will determine which evaluation method is effective. For instance, if you haven’t adopted an intranet, you can opt for traditional methods, such as one-on-one interviews and direct feedback from employees. Results drawn from the process provide a guide on how to improve communication in your company.

For instance, if most of your employees are engaged with video communication, you can set a monthly target of creating two videos touching on company news monthly. Similarly, if you find out that employees are overwhelmed with emails, you can consider monthly newsletters instead of sending multiple email messages weekly.

3. Listen

Recognizing that communication is a two-way street is important. Listening to your staff members is essential for effective communication and understanding. Employers and employees who don’t listen will most likely miss important information. Unfortunately, 4 out of 10 employees get disengaged because organization managers don’t listen and give them feedback.

Surprisingly, almost half of total employees rarely speak their minds while at work. Therefore, it is important that you develop and foster a good two-way relationship with your employees. Just to mention, only 12% of employees quitting their jobs do it for high salaries while 75% leave because of poor relationships with their managers.

Therefore, besides being an active listener, ensure that you create a safe space for employee communication, which makes them comfortable in voicing their ideas, opinions, asking questions, and criticism.

4. Keep Communication Simple

You should also consider how your employees receive and perceive information. Providing clear information ensures that the listener or reader easily digests the details. In most cases, you can’t be sure if everyone receiving your message understands uniformly. Therefore, ensure that the message is simple and use the right tone for effectiveness.

Organizations’ senior management style and content of the information often determine the tone of the communication. However, consider how easily the message can be misinterpreted. For instance, you could simply send out an email informing employees of the change in working hours. Therefore, while the tone should be formal, some employees may perceive it as harsh, making them rebellious towards the change.

Similarly, note that adapting to new processes is challenging for most employees. For instance, you may introduce a new process on an intranet that employees looking to apply for sick leave should follow. However, while some will stick to it, others might be confused and continue using the old processes. Regardless, keep your messages simple and easy to read.

Bottom Line

Organizations currently not only thrive on good products and profits. The brand reputation and organizational culture are also important. A good relationship with customers and stakeholders is an integral part of company culture, and effective communication is a crucial determinant. Therefore, establish baseline communication standards and adjust communication platforms continuously to suit company and employee needs. Also, work to eliminate various communication challenges, such as poor communication skills, language barriers, and common misunderstandings.

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