In this age of high competition, it has become more important than ever before to have good communication with your employees. There are several reasons why. When you communicate clearly with your employees, they become aware of what is to be done and why it is required. Once they understand the reasons behind a certain action, they will be able to take the right decisions even when you are away.
There are many other advantages of effective employee communications.
- There is an immediate impact on productivity when there is open and effective communication in a business.
- It becomes easier to handle teams that could have people from different cultures and different countries.
- Good communication helps managers connect better with employees of different age groups. Managers can relate better to younger workers and can understand them better.
- When you communicate openly, problems are detected earlier and are solved in time before failures occur.
10 Great Tips
- Sometimes, we forget that employees are not mind readers. Even the best-intentioned employees will only do what they think is the best for the company and its customers. Your job is to ensure that what the employee thinks is the best is really so.
- Clear job descriptions and management expectations help to remove doubts
- Goals must be SMART—specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely
- Do everything possible to get your team on the same page as you are.
- Setting performance expectations will be easier if you clarify the list below for your employees:
- What does a good job look like? Which results are satisfactory, and which are great?
- Why, what, and how to do the job
- How is an employee expected to behave when performing a task?
- How long should it take to complete the job?
- Which are the likely safety issues?
- How can the job be performed in an economical manner?
- Does any company or other rules or regulations affect how the job should be performed?
- Even when you are communicating extensively, make sure that the message reaching all employees is the message you are seeking to give. For example, you may do something to save money, while employees may take it to mean their jobs are not secure.
- Communication mismatch can occur for various reasons, including the following:
- Varying frames of reference
- Varying listening skills and distractions
- Personal variables, such as emotional state or prejudice
- You will need to obtain regular and extensive feedback to ensure that all your employees are getting your messages correctly. Failure to do so could lead to nasty surprises.
- Check back with your employees as to what they think you want them to do. This is called checking receipt of communication (ROC). You will be surprised at the variation you will sometimes hear even if you have just given out instructions. Use the opportunity to improve your messages so that ambiguity is eliminated.
- Spoken instructions are often interpreted differently because most employees will forget exactly what has been said and will work with the instructions as they remember them. For the really critical jobs, create a written instruction, which will ensure that even after several days, the employee can refer back to it, and this reduces the chances of making a mistake.
