Relationships, whether personal or professional, cannot flourish without open communication. Likewise, small and large businesses require effective communication to rise above their rivals and competitors and mastering this technique can make your workplace operations run smoother and faster.
The state of an organisation’s internal communication reveals a lot about the organisation itself. Lack of communication causes chaos and frustration and breeds feelings of distrust among employees. Over time, consistently poor communication leads to increased employee turnover, absenteeism, and reduced levels of customer satisfaction.
You’ve probably heard of the recent buzzwords that describe some of these – quiet quitting and quiet firing. Both terms are typically used to describe dysfunctional behavior arising from a failure of communication within an organizational context. “Quiet quitting” refers to doing what the job requires, no more and no less. On the other hand, when leaders penalise or ignore employees in hopes they’ll leave of their own accord, this is called “quiet firing.”
Bottom Line: The company doesn’t grow, development is hindered, and revenue is lost.
Thankfully, improving communication doesn’t require a large investment of time or money. In this article I will highlight eight creative ideas for improving communication in the workplace and enhancing employee engagement.
Schedule One-On-One Meetings With Employees
Schedule weekly or monthly individual meetings with employees to discuss and ask questions. These recurrent catching-up sessions make conversations flow more naturally and allow various topics to be discussed.
These meetings also ensure that you know about your employee’s level of satisfaction and address any concerns before facing potential communication breakdowns in the future.
Use Intranet Software
Intranet software provides a powerful internal communications platform featuring easy-to-use collaboration tools. It is a leading creative solution for improving workplace communication and streamlining business processes.
Intranet software allows employees to collaborate and brainstorm ideas without feeling pressurised or judged. As a result, the popularity of this strategy to enhance employee participation in the workplace is growing massively, and the outcome has been nothing but positive.
Create Interactive Emails
Another creative strategy to improve internal workplace communication is sending interactive emails. And it’s gradually becoming popular, with good reason!
Interactive emails allow employees to click, reply, and comment on various interesting email features. Such interactive email communications include company newsletters with pulse surveys, smart links, and comment boxes. They make it easier to develop dialogue, which is why they effectively communicate with employees.
Moreover, leaders can use interactive emails to confirm whether employees have received important information, such as IT security alerts, etc.
Keep Things Light With GIFs
Everyone loves sending GIFs on social media and in text messages. That’s because GIFs help arouse perfect emotions and create humor when words fail. Similarly, placing selective GIFs in workplace emails is an innovative technique to improve employee communication.
Adding animated GIFs to internal communication showcases a lighthearted tone, adds a level of comedic relief, and helps draw attention to a specific part or message in an email.
Develop Your Own Internal Language
Another fun tip to enhance workplace communication is to develop an internal language. For instance, you can create acronyms or nicknames to describe the company’s culture, people, or principles.
For instance, a rather famous one is LBDN (Look Busy Do Nothing). Other fun ones include BOSS (Barking Orders So Snidely), JEEP (Expect Every Problem), and WORK (Whiny, Overwhelming Recreation-Killer)
Such quirks not only make working fun and keep things interesting, but they subtly promote and ease communication at all levels within the workplace.
Rearrange The Seating Structure
Cramped cubicles make employees feel isolated and make work seem mundane. Dodge the characteristic cubicle or partition setup in the workplace to encourage effective communication.
Rearrange and open up the setting to encourage healthy discussions and collaboration, ultimately making work more enjoyable.
Encourage Meetings Outside the Office
Spending hours on end within an office setting eventually takes a toll on everyone’s physical and mental health. To rejuvenate their energy and motivation, encourage a variety of scenery and suggest that your teamwork from home or a local recreational center once a week/month.
Remember: Being away from the office doesn’t imply wasting valuable time. You can set up your workplace anywhere, anytime, with the right tools and communication strategy.
Always Share Information Promptly
And last but not least, strong and trusted communication means sharing important news on time. Whether good or bad, convey the information to your employees honestly and as soon as possible.
Also, who should deliver the news is a decision you need to make on a managerial level. Always have an action plan ready and be prepared for all sorts of reactions and comments.
Remember that transparency is the key to establishing long-lasting and effective communication in these situations.
Conclusion
To creatively improve communication within the workplace, it is important to keep employees engaged, and be as honest and open as possible.
The right mindset and tools can help you implement creative and innovative techniques to enhance and maintain effective workplace communication; hopefully, our list has provided some inspiration!
