How to Increase Employee Communication

Managers need to lead by example to increase employee communication.

If you are tasked with finding ways to increase employee communication, you likely know that your odds of success are higher if management leads by example, creating a culture that fosters and rewards openness. In an ideal world, upper management possesses the personalities and comprehension to create that culture. In reality, you might need to implement some concrete measures to facilitate the process.

Instructions

1. 

   Start at the top on down by training management in communications basics.

   Train upper management in interpersonal communication techniques and strategies. Make it clear this is not about changing personalities or trying to remake a staid chief financial officer into a "touchy-feely" humanist. This training should review basic interpersonal communication concepts, such as eye contact and body language, and creating an awareness of how body language can contradict words or intent. By understanding how to exude confidence, management in turn engenders confidence from employees.

2. Assess your current employee communications tools. If they are largely informative, keep one, such as a company bulletin board or internal newsletter, and discard the others. Communications is two-way, not one-way; if you want to increase employee communications, you need interactive strategies that engage employees, not simply methods of conveying information.

3. 

   Use research to measure employees' attitudes and opinions.

   Conduct focus groups to gauge employees' opinions and thoughts. This is not meant to get opinions on what they think of their bosses; use the focus groups to find out how aligned employees are with the company's mission, what they know and think about products or services you sell, and so on. Do they know who the company's primary competitors are? Do they know the mission statement? Your employees should be company ambassadors -- and are whether management realizes it or not -- so you had better find out what they know and how accurate it is.

4. 

   Use social media constructively to both demonstrate and encourage two-way communication.

   Incorporate social media and technology into your employee communications strategy. Your employees are using social media in some manner, so "take the veil" off its use by embracing it formally. You can use video sharing services for training, as well as posting videos of the department softball game; use a digital camera as a training tool; or post relevant updates on weekends, such as the CEO's wife giving birth. All of these encourage feedback and a sense of openness.

5. 

   Use employee-led groups to manage tasks and create solutions.

   Assign employee-led teams made up of both management and lower-level employees to solve specific. This approach both encourages and promotes communication, as well as helps managers get to know employees -- not just personally, but their professional goals, their strengths that can benefit the company and their problem-solving skills. For example, you can create a working group whose sole purpose is to develop ideas for slow-paying accounts, one for helping individual departments set and track budgets, and one that chooses charitable causes each year.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not be afraid to discard ideas that do not work for whatever reason. Think of different strategies most suited to your company culture.

• "Communication by mandate" will not accomplish true two-way communication. Openness has to be fostered, not dictated.

References

• Health, Fitness and Business Success Factors for Everyone: Improving Employee Communications
• Changing Minds: Employee Communication: 5 Tips to Engage Employees, Marcia Xenitelis, 2002-2011