Better workplace communication starts with removing barriers

Better small-business communication starts with removing barriers

Adding a communication tool can leave a small business with the same problem: employees still struggle to decide what needs their attention. When a small team handles many responsibilities, another system adds another place to check. Start by asking what prevents employees from finding information, receiving a message, understanding it, or answering honestly. Software earns its place when a specific capability removes one of those obstacles.

Leaving those obstacles in place can be costly. The Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), referencing “The Poor Cost of Communications,” reports that “a survey of 400 companies with 100,000 employees each cited an average loss per company of $62.4 million per year because of inadequate communication to and between employees.” Those figures concern very large employers. For a smaller business, unclear instructions and changing priorities can disrupt work already stretched across a limited staff.

Employee engagement, how involved and committed people feel at work, gives managers another reason to improve communication. Gallup, which has a commercial interest in employee-engagement services, found in a poll that 70% of U.S. employees were not engaged at work. Disengagement can contribute to apathy, low productivity, and a negative workplace. Aon Hewitt, whose human-resources business also has a commercial interest in engagement, reported an association between a 1% increase in employee engagement and 0.6% growth in sales.

That association gives engagement commercial importance, but it cannot turn a communication-software purchase into a sales forecast. Start with the immediate improvement a change should produce: fewer misunderstandings and rumors, less wasted time, stronger teamwork, or employees feeling better about the organization. Each aim calls for a closer look. Managers need to understand where communication breaks down before choosing a response.

Make information and shared work easier to access

The first breakdown can happen before anyone reads a message: employees must find the information and tools they need. An employee intranet (a private internal website), social intranet (which adds employee discussions), project-management workspace, instant messaging service, private chat rooms, email, and video channel can all help. Yet a separate system for each function gives people more places to navigate. Assess the capabilities the team needs, then look for a consolidated system that makes them easier to reach.

Consolidation should preserve the ways people need to communicate. Written messages, video, conversations, and shared documents serve different purposes, even when employees access them through fewer systems. So choose where those tools live before choosing the format for a particular message. A simpler setup should make the right tool easier to find while allowing different kinds of communication.

Email remains one of those tools because employees use it to communicate with colleagues and people outside the business. A cloud-based email client, accessed over the internet, lets employees retrieve messages from the device available to them. Check its cloud backup arrangements and how it updates security protections. Device access, message preservation, and security maintenance each need attention when selecting the service.

Once employees can reach their messages, a shared workspace helps them act together. Instant messaging and video conferencing support discussion, while real-time file sharing and joint editing let colleagues exchange documents and work on them together. These capabilities help teams carry out projects and solve problems. Working through those tasks also gives colleagues opportunities to build trust and relationships that shape workplace culture.

Participation becomes easier when the workspace works across a desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone. Through its app, nearby employees and distant colleagues can join the same discussions and contribute to shared documents. This can widen a small business’s hiring options beyond people who live locally. But employees working elsewhere need access to the same work through the devices they have.

Shared access still needs clear priorities when a small team’s responsibilities change. Workflow software, which organizes how work moves through tasks, and task-management software can record project plans, required tasks, completion timing, status updates, and team file sharing. When demands shift, those plans need to show what changed and what comes next. A visible sequence helps reduce confusion and interruptions to productive work.

Use delivery formats employees respond to

With access in place, the next question is whether employees encounter important messages. Let their use of existing communications guide delivery choices. If internal data shows the strongest interaction with written messages sent through email, use that format where appropriate; if video messages delivered through email draw more interaction, consider that option. The choice should follow how employees use the available channels.

Interaction offers useful evidence about delivery, but it has limits. A response can show that a message’s format attracted attention without establishing whether the employee understood or agreed with its contents. Use interaction data to help messages reach people, then check comprehension separately. Otherwise, a visible response can become a misleading measure of communication success.

For major announcements, ask employees how they prefer to receive significant company news. A survey may point to an in-person meeting or a live-streamed meeting, giving managers a basis for choosing between them. Following that preference can save time by making the initial announcement easier for employees to attend to. Needs can change, though. Try different communication practices and use interaction data and employee feedback to adjust the choice.

Prepare messages employees can understand and use

After choosing how a message will reach employees, prepare it so they can act on it. Communication skills learned in college or executive seminars can fade after graduation or the return to everyday work, the “real world.” Clear writing and speaking take continued practice. A platform delivers the message; the person preparing it must make the meaning clear.

Clear language starts with words the audience can readily follow, even when employees know the subject. Jargon can get in the way despite that familiarity, so business-school teaching that encourages students to avoid it offers a useful precedent. The U.S. government’s plain-language website, identified as gov, has a related purpose: to make it “easier for the public to read, understand, and use government communications.” Apply that principle to everyday instructions as well as formal announcements.

For important announcements, clear wording needs a plan behind it. Significant company news or a change to employee benefits deserves the preparation used for an external announcement. A communication-plan template helps the writer work through what employees need to know before deciding how to present it. Include the pertinent details in an order employees can follow, whether the delivery is written or spoken.

Before delivery, ask a trusted reviewer to check that the plan has become a clear, complete message. Authors already know their subject, so they can easily leave essential information unstated. A reviewer can spot those gaps and flag confusing wording. Build that review into the process alongside content preparation and the choice of delivery format.

When wording alone leaves an instruction or result difficult to grasp, add a visual explanation. A picture, chart, graph, video, infographic, or other visual example can show what employees need to do or what the organization hopes to achieve. Choose the form for what it explains. It should make the required action or desired result easier to recognize.

Give employees suitable conditions for honest feedback

Clear questions lay the groundwork for feedback, but employees also need conditions in which they can answer honestly. Some hold back during direct questioning because they are concerned about losing anonymity. Others need time to think. So even an understandable question may yield little useful information.

A limited response needs to be read in light of those conditions. When a manager asks a question in person, the employee’s identity is apparent and the manager is present while they form an answer. Silence or a weak reply may reflect discomfort with that situation rather than an absence of views or needs. Consider how the request affects what employees feel able to say.

Where identification is the concern, an employee-feedback app can offer anonymous survey responses. It may also permit identified replies, allowing managers to choose conditions suited to the information requested and employees’ concerns. Keep that choice separate from the time allowed for answering. Anonymity protects identity, while a response window gives employees room to consider the question.

For employees who need that room, an app can let them reply on their own schedule. This is asynchronous feedback: the request and response happen at different times, so both people do not have to participate at once. Time to reflect can help an employee form an answer that would be difficult during a direct exchange. When the business needs both, the tool should address timing and identification.

Once those conditions are chosen, the survey process should be straightforward. An employee-feedback app can help a manager create a survey, distribute it to the people whose input is needed, and collect their replies. Requests can go to a small group or a large team, depending on the subject. Matching participation to the question avoids making every information request a whole-staff conversation.

Collection speed is a separate choice from the time employees receive to respond. Real-time collection makes replies available as they arrive, so managers can see incoming feedback while employees retain control over when they answer. It can work alongside asynchronous participation. Preserve that distinction when setting expectations, so an immediate view of responses does not become a demand for immediate replies.

Beyond surveys and information requests, the same app may support scheduling employee events. That capability organizes an occasion for staff to participate, while survey functions give them a way to express their views. A combined tool can be useful when the business needs both and employees can use it easily. Evaluate each function against the job it must perform before adding it to the team’s tools.

The feedback employees provide then needs management attention. Managers can use it to understand how people feel about the company and what they need to feel welcome and fulfilled at work. Although parts of workplace culture develop informally, an inclusive, collaborative, happy, and productive environment takes deliberate effort. Employees’ answers give managers information to consider when deciding what to change.

Key highlights

• Simplify access to shared work: Business owners and IT managers need to identify where employees struggle to find information, then consolidate tools around those needs. Prioritize shared documents, visible task priorities, and access across the devices employees use.
• Match delivery to employee preferences: Managers can use interaction data and employee surveys to choose formats for routine messages and major announcements. Check understanding separately, because attention alone does not establish comprehension.
• Prepare important messages carefully: Managers responsible for company announcements need to use plain language, include essential details, and ask a trusted reviewer to check for gaps. Add visuals when they make an instruction or desired result easier to understand.
• Design feedback for honest responses: Managers collecting employee input need to address privacy and response time separately. Offer anonymous responses where appropriate, allow time for reflection, and use the findings to inform workplace changes.