Can You Hear Me Now? Effective Communication is Crucial to Employee Success

Operational communications is a feedback loop that must exist for employees to succeed. In a period of low unemployment where high turnover can be disastrous, something must be put into place to ensure employees get the effective feedback they need when they need it most.

We've written about the damage done when someone fails to meet expectations. A key reason this happens is when supervisors hold their direct reports accountable for failing to meet expectations that were never expressed. It's a recipe for disappointment on both sides.

As a project manager, one of the most crucial aspects of my job is communication. Not only do I need to effectively convey information to project stakeholders, I also need to receive effective communication from them. How can the project be brought to a successful conclusion if the stakeholders' expectations are not adequately conveyed and heard? Anything less is trying to hit random targets in the dark.

What does effective communications have to do with low unemployment?

The employment rate follows ebbs and flows of economic and even international influences. At the time of this writing, unemployment is in record low territory and businesses in the United States are scrambling to find qualified candidates.

Workers are the sellers today and it's definitely a seller's market.

The most valuable asset a business has are its employees. It's not just a matter of keeping warm bodies on the production line. Holding a strategic edge over the competition requires acquiring and keeping top talent. Retention cannot occur without every internal process refined and perfected for maximum employee engagement. Establishing and fostering an effective and efficient communication loop within your team is the key.

Marriage counselors often talk about the importance of communication within healthy relationships. All couples experience challenges whether it be money issues, medical crises, or even infidelity. With a proper dose of mature and healthy communication, however, storms can be weathered.

The value of communication in a relationship is common wisdom. It needs to be common wisdom in the workplace as well.

To be effective, communication between teams and leadership needs to be focused on the topic that matters and conveyed with an efficient density. Rambling emails and long messaging threads are rarely useful and often take the team off track.

Communication encompasses more than chat channels, email threads and Monday morning stand-ups. It takes a successful performance fuel formula of purpose, clarity and feedback with the technical tools that seamlessly tie it all together. It is the feedback mechanism that enables clarity and purpose to yield their biggest benefit. When employees experience this integrated formula in an easy-to-use system, engagement and performance climb.

So does talent retention.

When employees are engaged, they not only outperform their peers, they become motivated and inspired contributors to the company mission instead of jumping to the next opportunity with the competition.

With today's tight job market, lowering turnover through effective communication may be the most important area of concern for business leaders today.

To learn more about the Performance Fuel solution to the problem of employee disengagement and high turnover, contact eRep today.