Why do effective employee comms matter? Well, employees lose more than a full month of work time each year because of communication issues. That’s $1.2 trillion lost annually, or more than $12,500 per worker, due to poor communication. Is that a bigger waste of their time or your money?
It should come as no surprise then, that half of C-level leaders find themselves having to get more involved in projects than they planned because of communication challenges.
Compared to the average worker noted above, senior employees lose 63 days per year because of bad communication. It costs companies $54,860 per year for every senior employee who earns over $200,000.
So what can you do about it? Check out these tips to improve employee comms within your organization.
Keys to effective employee comms
Clarity
Even if someone has been in an industry for a long time, that doesn’t mean they know every abbreviation or piece of jargon. Some companies have their own, too.
Then, of course, people get tired. It’s easy to forget things.
The clearer you are with your employee comms, the more people will understand what you’re saying and what you need from them. Just because something makes sense to you, that doesn’t mean it makes sense to other people. It’s always better to check.
Honesty
If you dislike something someone has done, telling them that you like it is going to lead to more stress for everyone in the long run. It could also harm the finished product.
The more you’re honest about if something works — or if it doesn’t — the stronger your relationships with employees and colleagues will be.
However, it’s important to deliver this information constructively. Sometimes, people think that being honest also means being blunt, but it doesn’t. You can be mindful and honest at the same time — it’s about delivery.
If you’re not sure, you need to give employees training on how to communicate with each other. And there’s no shame in taking part in that training yourself, too. You might be surprised how much you can learn to improve your employee comms.
Training
The way we’re taught to communicate in school doesn’t always set us up for the real world. The internet most definitely doesn’t, either.
On top of that, every business has a different culture, which means new hires need to learn a different way to communicate with their colleagues.
So, it’s important to educate your employees on how you want them to talk to each other.
You could do this training in a variety of ways, such as an e-learning module, an in-person workshop, a book, a podcast, etc.
There are lots of different ways, and if you really want to go the extra mile, you could offer multiple ways for employees to learn.
That way, you’ll reach more people with your employee comms and give team members a deeper understanding of your company culture.
Lead by example
Part of training your employees is practicing what you preach. If you want a culture of Radical Candor, you need to lead by example.
Too often, leaders say that they want to use a communication method such as Radical Candor.
But as soon as you criticize senior leadership’s way of doing something, they can’t take the feedback. Like the rules don’t apply to them, only the lower level workers.
The employee who gets their ideas/criticism rejected (to put it mildly) then feels uncomfortable and becomes hesitant to voice their opinion. So then they speak up less, take fewer risks, and disengage because they feel undervalued.
On top of that, there’s the ripple effect: colleagues who saw what happened may worry about experiencing the same negative reaction, so may choose to stay quiet instead of sharing their honest feedback about leadership.
Either the rules apply to everyone, or no one, and your employee comms should reflect that.
Hierarchy
Sometimes it’s better to keep information on a need-to-know basis. You don’t want employees to worry about their jobs because the share price got shaky due to something outside of your control.
Plus, if they’re worried about their job, they may be more likely to disengage.
Instead, focus your employee comms on telling them about what directly impacts them and what they can control.
Technology
However you choose to tell employees about your latest news, technology makes it easier than ever. From push notifications to company-wide apps (like Workrowd) to intranets and beyond, there’s a way to talk to your employees that works for your business, and the subject matter.
Each has their own pros and cons, too, for example:
| Intranet or company app | Email or message |
| ✅ Can pin information to the home screen so employees can’t miss it | ✅ Easy to personalize and send only to relevant employees |
| ✅ Makes it easy to revisit the info any time they want to get more details | ✅ Lots of formatting options to make it visually appealing |
| ❌ Easy to miss if they don’t use the app | ❌ Can easily get deleted before being seen |
| ❌ May not have formatting or targeting flexibility | ❌ Have to send reminder emails to keep it top of mind |
Then there are employee groups…
Employee groups
Your employee groups can be effective ways to pass employee comms on via your group leaders. They can distill the message to explain it in a way that makes sense to their community, so then they understand how the latest news applies to them.
Your groups can also be useful as event organizers, for instance if you want to host a workshop on better communication. As well as explaining how it directly impacts that particular group, they can organize a training that makes it more specific, and therefore appropriate, for them.
Surveys
Employee comms is a two-way street, which means if you’re not asking employees what they think — and acting on their feedback — they’ll feel like they’re being spoken at, not listened to.
Sending employee surveys helps you understand whether your initiatives and practices actually work.
Sometimes they do, and that’s great, but often there are things you can do to improve.
Asking employees for their opinions makes them feel heard, which is good for morale. This is particularly important during times of transition and change.
Sometimes employees know they can’t do anything, but enabling them to be heard makes them feel less helpless, and more like a valued member of the team. So then they’re less likely to leave.
Need help sending your employee surveys? Let Workrowd do the lifting. Using Workrowd, you can automate both your surveys and the data analysis so you just get the final results. Giving you more time to act on your findings.
Conclusion
The key to employee comms is to be open and honest without scaremongering. You don’t want to worry employees unnecessarily, but you also don’t want to pretend everything’s fine if it isn’t.
If you lay the foundations for effective communication early, when difficult times do arise, your leaders know how to share the news and your employees know how to take it. There’s no need for sugarcoating or panic, because everyone can communicate like adults.
It’s about treating everyone within your organization with maturity and empathy, whether talking about work, everyday life, or a new movie. That’s where employee groups come in.
Small moments of connection make employees feel like they belong at your organization, so then they’re more likely to want to stay and keep all their knowledge and experience within your business. Meaning you get all the benefits that come from that.
Want to get more value from your employee groups and surveys? Find out how Workrowd can help. Book your free demo today.
