Practicing effective communication is key to creating a healthy work environment. As a business owner or leader, there are easy steps to implement within your office to improve workplace communication for the team. Read this list of helpful ways to improve workplace communication compiled by the professionals at HR Anew.
Learn Your Team’s Communication Styles
We all prefer to communicate in different ways. Some team members may love to have conversations over the phone, whereas others may like to share over email. It is helpful to understand the communication preferences of each team member early in their role. As a manager, you can either ask them directly or note which communication style your employee seems to respond to the fastest.
Be Clear in Employee’s Roles and Objectives
If you are not clear about your expectations for each employee in their role, then your team is destined to fail. Whether the team is working on a large project or accomplishing daily tasks to keep the organization running, everyone needs a clear understanding of the goals and performance outcomes. Before engaging in a project or assigning a team member to a new role, meet with them to thoroughly communicate your expectations, answer their questions, and solve their concerns.
Accept Mentoring
Embracing mentoring opportunities applies to both managers and employees to achieve optimal success. We must be willing to receive constructive mentoring as managers and leaders. Doing so creates the opportunity to know what the team member is concerned about, be an early knower to resolve the potential for misunderstandings, or course-correct if the team member is off track. Ask for insights proactively from your colleagues and team members regularly. Also, encourage team members to do the same with their colleagues and clients. Remember, the insights shared and gained need to stay positive and constructive to be effective.
Set Up Consistent Individual Meetings
One way to promote better communication within the workplace is to facilitate it often. We recommend scheduling one-on-one meetings with each of your employees regularly. These meetings can be an excellent opportunity to open the lines of communication and hear what is on your employees’ minds. Try to keep these one-on-one meetings casual and fun. If in-person, you can take your employees out for a coffee or walk around the building while you discuss what is on their minds. If remote, you can send your employee a gift card for coffee and encourage them to attend this meeting in an environment outside of their home office.
Did you know that HR Anew has been helping employers with solutions for more than twenty-three years to improve workplace communications? We are here to help.
HR Anew is Here to Help
HR Anew helps teams be engaged, productive, performers, and fulfilled, which results in organizations growing and scaling. Connect with us when you want innovative ideas and solutions to address the topics above. Or if you are going to optimize recruiting and hiring, orientation and onboarding, productivity, employee relations, communication and collaboration, workplace education, and training for employees and management to include diversity, equity, and inclusion. To help you enhance and strengthen the workplace by leveraging our team of Recruiting, HR, EEO, and Training experts and specialists as well as our resources, schedule a meeting with us: https://hranew.com/contact/.