With the hybrid work model being popular right now, it’s not surprising that communication in the workplace is getting more complex than ever. Even though more than 80% of Americans think communication is essential for building trust at work, only 13% of the almost 31 million employees surveyed by Gallup said that their managers set up and keep up good communication at work.
So, How Do You Improve Communication at Work?
One thing you can do is work on getting better at talking to people at work. This will help you build trust with your coworkers, reduce inefficiencies at work, and move your career forward. Here are some easy ways to improve how you talk to people at work.
1. Ensure You Have a Good Process for Getting New Employees Started.
It can be scary to start a new job, primarily if you work from home. To get new employees up to speed, it’s more important than ever to have detailed training materials and documentation. The better communication is at work, the easier it is to get to important information immediately.
2. Make Sure Workflows Are Straightforward and Eliminate Any Obstacles.
Did you know that 57% of workers don’t get clear instructions on how to do their jobs? You can change this number by clarifying the steps needed to finish each task and project.
In the same way, you should have a set of steps for dealing with project bottlenecks and dependencies if they arise. Again, this will help me figure out what needs to be done and how to do it right. It will also make it easier for people to talk to each other at work.
3. Get Team Members to Trust Each Other
It takes time to build trust, but it’s worth it because communication at work improves. Trusting your coworkers strengthens your relationships with them, which helps you work together and do better as a team. First, try to find out what each other is interested in, what they like, and what they don’t like. Then, go out for coffee or talk to each other online and see where the conversation takes you.
4. Follow Up with Regular Visits and One-On-One Meetings.
Regular contact with your coworkers keeps the business running smoothly and makes it easier for people to talk to each other at work. Take the time to talk about projects, ask for coworkers’ feedback, and avoid getting sidetracked by small talk.
When you work from home, it’s essential to keep in touch with your coworkers and let them know what’s going on.
1:1 communication can provide a more comfortable environment for honest conversations. Of course, it’s essential to communicate well at work, but you should remember to be honest. If you are a manager who works from afar, here are some tips:
– Don’t cancel meetings all the time. This could bring down the morale of your team.
– Make sure that the software you use for online meetings and calls is up-to-date and reliable. In addition, you need to make sure that your sessions won’t be interrupted, whether you’re using video conferencing or a VoIP system.
– Come prepared and with a plan. Nothing takes up as much time as a 15 to 30-minute meeting with your team without a clear plan for what you want to do.
5. Listen and Pay Attention.
This is the most important thing you can do to communicate well at work.
When you listen, you do more than hear. 55% of communication is done through body language, while only 7% is done through words. Pay attention to the way someone’s face, voice, and body movements to figure out what kind of message is being sent. Improving your ability to understand verbal and nonverbal communication in the workplace will help you become a better communicator.
Being an active listener also means giving the person speaking your full attention. Ask questions, say what you think, and try to participate in any conversation at work.
6. Be Willing to Hear Both Good and Bad Feedback
Being open to good and bad feedback is one of the best things you can do at work.
Not all feedback is ignored, which is a good thing. Your experience will be better if you know what you do well and what you can do better. If you can, let your staff know they can give feedback without worrying about embarrassment. But they should be able to tell you what they think without fear.
You can ask for two different kinds of feedback:
– For qualitative feedback, ask your team what you and the organization can do to improve their experience. Again, these are people’s exact words, which can give you information.
– Quantitative feedback: collect metrics like the internal Net Promoter Score (NPS), which measures satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 10. These numbers can be used to look at how well the quarter went.
7. Have an Open-Door Policy
Having an open-door policy at work is vital to improve communication and build trust in the organization, but it can be challenging.
Your business will benefit if you encourage your employees to be honest with their managers, but some may be afraid to say what they think. Remind your employees that it’s okay to share their ideas and that doing so can help them understand how important it is to communicate well at work.
8. Events for The Team to Boost Morale
Give everyone the time they need to rest to keep your team from getting burned out. Host fun events and icebreakers that will help your team members relax and bring them closer together and give them good memories.
Shared experiences will help your team get to know each other better, which will help them talk to each other better at work.
9. Use Modern Tools to Talk to Everyone at Once
Your workplace probably has a lot of ways to talk to each other, like phones, texting apps, email, video conferencing tools, etc. With so many ways to get messages, it’s easy to lose track of them. So choose a communication tool that is easy to use and helps your workflow. But, again, there are many to choose from.
Even better, learn how to use employee monitoring tools for project management to help your team get projects from point A to point B more quickly. By doing this, working together can go much faster.
You should learn about application integration if you already use different tools and platforms. This can make your workflow and communication at work much better.
10. Learn More About Diversity, Fairness, And Including Everyone.
According to the Washington Post, Millennial and Gen Z workers now care more about DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) activities than older workers do and want proof that companies are making the workplace more welcoming.
Make sure you and your team get DEI training. This should lead to meaningful and open discussions that will make it easier for people to talk to each other at work and make it a more welcoming place overall.
11. Get Better at Making Phone Calls
Even if you don’t work in an inbound call center, it’s helpful to know how to talk on the phone. Keep in mind that only some companies have the most up-to-date tools for communication or working together. The phone is still used for many business deals and personal connections.
Phone conversations can be challenging because you can’t tell what the other person thinks or feels by looking at their face or body. Changing the way you talk can help you say what you mean better.
12. Write Better Emails
It would help if you improved how you talk to people at work and how you write emails.
Emails are still a big part of how people talk to each other at work. Because of this, it is essential to learn how to write well. Writing short, straightforward emails to your team helps them understand their tasks and projects better and saves them time and energy that they could use on other things.
Take time, use paragraphs, avoid the passive voice, and hit “send.” Make sure you finish tasks regularly and keep an eye on your and your team’s work. Also, you can always decide to wait to send the letter and finish it within a specific time. But it helps to know how to deal with emails well.
13. Get Used to Speaking in Public
Public speaking is one of the most important ways you need to be able to talk to people at work. If you can say what you want to communicate clearly and briefly in front of a group, it will be easy to get your ideas and conclusions across.
If you want to get better at communicating at work, one way to do it is to speak in public. Start by talking to the people you feel most comfortable with. This will help you gain confidence over time.
14. Know Each Other’s Good Points and Bad Points.
Everyone has strengths and places where they can get better. By knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses, you can better coordinate how you do your work and talk to each other at work. In addition, your team will learn to predict each other’s needs and not make assumptions, which will help them share information.
Work Communication Goes Both Ways.
Good communication at work takes time and takes the results of a team. Using these methods, you’ll learn more about what’s happening, what people think, and how they like to talk to each other. With this information and better written and spoken communication, you can keep your workplace running well and in sync.
