Tips to Improve Workplace Communication

Tips to Improve Workplace Communication

by Deanna Hartley

Job frustration and conflicts often arise due to ineffective communication or poor relationships in the workplace. But the advent of a new decade offers talent managers the opportunity to make a New Year's resolution to communicate more effectively with employees and improve workplace relationships - thereby creating a high-performing work environment.

"Poor workplace communication usually involves politics and backbiting and is built on the fundamental error that by making someone else look bad, you can make yourself look good," said Samuel Chapman, CEO of Empower Public Relations and author of The No-Gossip Zone: A No-Nonsense Guide to a Healthy, High-Performing Work Environment.

Many individuals who indulge in office gossip say it's a social lubricant and the fabric of some of their relationships with colleagues, Chapman explained. "Even though [gossipers] think they're being clever, it usually backfires [because] positioning someone negatively [makes them] look really bad," he said.

Ineffective communication and meaningless chatter may appear to be rather harmless on the surface, but they can have a tangible impact on a company's bottom line.

For instance, Equisys, a business communications company, conducted a study in 2002 that found that about 65 hours a year are wasted on gossip per employee. And that was long before IM chat made its way into regular office communications and text messaging usage took off.

Chapman said gossip is unprofitable behavior where everybody loses, and since some 60 percent of workers have cited gossip as their No. 1 pet peeve in the workplace, according to a 2007 Randstad USA study, it would be in a manager's best interest to take the necessary steps to eradicate it.

"If they can eliminate at no cost workers' largest complaint, the pathway to productivity seems clear," he said.

It's imperative for managers to take a proactive role to make their workplace a gossip-free zone and instead promote authentic communication in the workplace. A manager can start by tactfully stating what's on his or her mind to an employee's face instead of making negative comments behind the employee's back.

"Don't walk around with a bunch of things you're feeling about employees but not telling them," Chapman said. "The role of management is to be a model of good behavior, because managing people is like raising children - they do what you do; they don't do what you say, so managers have to be an example to all."

Another tool Chapman recommends for managers to improve workplace communication is to convert complaints into requests.

"Negative feedback is a gift, but [managers should] shun criticism," he said. "Criticism is: 'That work stinks,' [whereas] negative feedback is: 'That work has spelling errors,' or even better: 'Would you be sure to spell check your work before you give it to me?' [That way,] instead of just hearing an angry person, employees know what steps to take."

[About the Author: Deanna Hartley is an associate editor for Talent Management magazine.]