Importance of effective communication in the workplace

Effective communication in the workplace helps an individual to increase growth, productivity, and long term sustainability of the organization. Communication plays a vital role in any organization. An employee who gives due importance towards learning this skill and investing time and effort is an asset for the organization. They help an organization to provide great customer experience which in turn increases the efficiency in their work.

In an article by SHRM, David Grossman reported that “In a survey of 400 companies with 100,000 employees each cited an average loss per company of $62.4 million per year because of ineffective communication”.

Cutlip and Center in 1952 in Effective Public Relations, first provided the list of 7 C’s of Communication. The 7 principles of communication help a person to communicate effectively in the workplace. They are:

1. Completeness: This principle highlights the importance of completing your sentences for effective communication. One must never leave a sentence incomplete as it may leave the listener wondering if there is more to be said. Thus, communicate and end sentences with all the necessary information and a call to action.

2. Coherent: When you communicate your message it should always be logical. The message should be well planned, connect all the valid points and should clearly illustrate the main theme of the topic.

3. Clear: Be clear in your message. It must reflect the objective of the message and avoid complex words or phrases. The reader should have clarity about your thought you are trying to convey.

4. Concise: Your message should be brief and to the point. Avoid using too many filler words in your sentences as it may lose the listener’s attention.

5. Concrete: The message should be concrete and must give a clear picture as to what the speaker wants to convey. Don’t get lost in the details. Try to keep it short and not vague. It is only when your message is supported by facts and figures the people will reliability in your message. You should always have a solid material backed by data.

6. Correctness: Stay away from incorrect data. Always provide data from reliable sources so that people can have trust in your message. Always be sure about the technical words being used in your data. Avoid typo mistakes as it may confuse the audience.

7. Courtesy: Always be polite, friendly, and positive in your communication. The audience should feel a connection while talking to you. Be honest with the audience. Ensure to have an empathetic approach while talking to the listener.

The importance of communication skills in the workplace

Gallup’s recent report on “State of the American Workforce” revealed,” Only 13 percent of the nearly 31 million employees surveyed said that their organization’s leaders practice and cultivate effective workplace communication”.

Below are the top 12 importance of effective communication in the workplace.

1. Decision Making: Effective workplace communication facilitates goal-oriented discussions. It creates an environment where the team can decide upon the business goals to be achieved. It helps to avoid any confusion as every person will get a chance to communicate their points. Thus, this will help the team to make better decisions for the organization leading to growth.

2. Team Building: Implementing effective strategies to strengthen the communication between team members help in building strong team relationships. This will also increase team morale by taking every member’s perspective in solving a problem. By working together as a team, will ensure collaboration and long term success for the organization. It will create a workplace environment where employees will enjoy their work and strive towards better performance.

3. Increase growth and productivity: Employees who invest in learning and implementing this skill in practice will stand out from their competition. They will have better chances of growth within the organization. They will strive to work at their fullest potential and thus increase their overall productivity. This will help them contribute to the growth of the business.

4. Improves business performance: When the employees realize the importance of communication skills, they work towards making it better. This will increase their efficiency and will improve business performance. According to the Towers Watson study, companies with high effectiveness in change management and communication are three and a half times more likely to significantly outperform their competitors that those that are not effective in these areas.

5. Improves leadership skills: Employees having good command over this skill have higher chances of becoming future leaders. By inculcating a command on your communication skills, one focuses on effectively communicating ideas. They have a clear direction to proceed and ensure to deliver high-quality results.

6. Enhances skillset: By communicating with the employees; supervisors and managers can understand the skills of that person. It will make the person confident about his work. Lack of communication can at times become an obstacle in the overall growth of the employee. Hence, identifying key skill sets of the employee is important for the overall success of the business.

7. Clarity in workflow: By sharing ideas provides purpose and helps in a clearer and more streamlined workflow. This in turn creates a positive impact on the work culture of the organization.

8. Improves customer satisfaction: Customer satisfaction depends greatly on good and clear communication. It is very important to understand customer requirements which can be done by communicating properly. An employee with great communication skills can even retain a customer with a very bad service experience. This comes by empathizing and assuring the customer to not repeat these mistakes.

9. Increases employee engagement: Effective communication is found to be a key aspect in increasing employee engagement. When the employee feels satisfied with the organization and the work, it works as an incentive to deliver their best. Employees are satisfied only when they understand that their work is being valued. This can only be done through proper communication from the management.

10. Innovation: Effective communication provides room for brainstorming ideas. When the employees can freely share their ideas without being judged or criticized is when they are more encouraged to be creative with the ideas. This will bring more creativity and innovation to the platter.

11. Trust and Reliability: Communicating effectively can instill a sense of trust and reliability among employees that they are being heard. This will promote a desire among employees to work towards a common goal of the organization.

12. Reduces Conflicts: While working in an organization, we meet people with different perspectives in life. They view problems differently. As a result, conflicts and clashes are bound to occur. But communicating about the issues faced by each other can help to mitigate the conflicts. Discuss and try to understand the viewpoints of each other to know what they are trying to say.

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I hope you found this article helpful and gained some insights into overcoming the barriers to effective communication. If you want to read more about workplace communication kindly click here.