communication skills
Effective communication is key to ensuring the success of your business. However, statistics show that 60% of organizations lack a long-term strategy for their internal communication process, while 74% of employees feel that they aren’t up-to-date with the latest news in the company they work at. These aren’t great facts, but statistics are there for a reason, and they show that business owners must take action and improve their communication processes.

Prioritizing this aspect is crucial because it impacts many areas of your venture, including employee turnover, customer satisfaction, and retention. Plus, productivity improves by 20 to 25% in companies where employees feel connected, and there’s only one surefire way to achieve that. Yes, you’ve guessed it – communication is the secret. Put simply, communication in business is how managers and employees interact with each other to ensure business goals are achieved. The primary purpose is to eliminate silos, reduce errors, boost organizational practices, and keep employees informed.

Effective business communication is powerful

There are endless reasons why mastering communication skills is crucial for hitting the next milestone in your business. Let’s take a look at some of them.

It boosts employee engagement

Here’s an interesting (but probably not surprising) fact: leadership communication is at the core of employee engagement. Good communication helps businesses move forward, allowing team members to feel seen and heard, which is crucial for creating an engaged workforce. Moreover, it boosts employees’ sense of belonging, making them feel like their work is appreciated and valued. Effective communication means creating a space where employees can freely share ideas and give feedback, knowing they’ll always be listened to. Without a doubt, the goal of any company is to have an engaged team where people feel empowered and enthusiastic about their work – and that can only be achieved by promoting collaboration through communication.

Enhances employee productivity

4 in 5 workers believe effective communication is crucial to their job performance. The average employee spends 2 hours and a half to look for the information they need for their work-related tasks. This means wasting a week searching for something that should be easily accessible! On the other hand, if employees are given the right information at the right time, they will be much more productive, as they will do their work instead of running searches for hours.

Improves customer retention

Improving communication in your business will lead to better customer satisfaction and retention. Suppose there is poor communication in your company; employees who have to deal with customers will lack the information they need, likely leading to a negative customer experience.

Creates a better company culture

A proper communication strategy will result in a better company culture, a healthy work atmosphere, and employees being fulfilled and motivated. On the flip side of the coin, neglecting this aspect can result in a workplace culture with low engagement levels, high turnover rates and an overall negative customer experience.

Leveraging tech to improve communication in your business

In the digital transformation era, businesses must embrace new technologies to enhance their organizational efforts. 50% of the global workforce consists of millennials, which is estimated to increase by 25% in two years. It’s well known that Gen Z employees are mobile-oriented and tech-savvy, so to increase engagement, you should adjust your communication efforts based on that. Traditional methods like sending emails have become outdated and are no longer enough to catch your team members’ attention. Instead, you should use communication platforms to improve employee communication and ensure your team members can access crucial information anywhere and anytime. Such platforms are designed to offer employees a personalized and engaging experience, allowing them to interact in a fun way. Moreover, it ensures they won’t miss out on any crucial news related to the organization.

Digital solutions enable businesses to considerably improve their communication processes by eliminating information silos and improving brand awareness and employee engagement. For instance, with digital signage, you can create a corporate TV channel and display appealing content that quickly grabs your employees’ attention. By leveraging this tool, you can seamlessly reach many people at once, ensuring they will consume your content automatically when walking along the halls of your organization. However, this solution is suitable only if employees work at the office. Other innovative communication tools are available for remote employees, allowing you to manage your workforce easily and ensure the tasks are done effectively. Many great apps can be used for different purposes; for instance, Zoom is one of the best platforms for running meetings, while Slack is a great tool acting as a virtual headquarters for communication.

Other effective ways to improve communication in your company

Besides using the right tech tools, there are other things you can do to boost communication in your business:

  • Build trust with your team. Trust directly impacts employees’ sense of belonging at a company, so focusing on this aspect is one of the best ways to improve communication. There’s a lot to say regarding how to increase trust, but we’ll limit ourselves to two essential things: showing interest in your team members and empathizing with their challenges. If you do so, they will likely communicate issues openly, knowing that you will be there to help them find a solution. 
  • Give constructive feedback. No employee likes to get aggressive feedback from a manager, and this can negatively impact communication. Hence, it’s imperative to choose your words carefully when providing feedback. Make sure to discuss the behavior without criticizing a person’s character directly. Also, you should allow the employee to share their thoughts after sharing the feedback. 
  • Keep workflows transparent. If your employees are working on an important project, it’s vital to ensure they know all the crucial details, such as the project’s deadline and the tasks they are responsible for. You can use a tool like Google Sheets to organize a workflow walkthrough and avoid miscommunication.

The bottom line

Communication is at the foundation of your business, so it’s crucial to focus on it and ensure your messages are delivered effectively, and everyone on your team is on the same page.