5 Ways to Standardise your Workplace Communication
2022 statistics show that 86% of employees and executives cite that a lack of effective collaboration and communication is the main reason behind failures in the workplace. In a country that has 11 official languages, with a 12th on the way, communication is something South Africa can claim as one of the things that make it unique. However, the country’s quirky and diverse language identities are all combined with behaviour and personality types in the workplace which can contribute to confusion and miscommunication. Luckily, there is a simple solution to this. Streamlining the way that your team communicates can increase your team’s productivity by as much as 25%.
How to Standardise Your Team's Workplace Communication:
1. Know your team
The concept of adapt or die, sink or swim, or make or break may sound dramatic, but there’s a reason everyone knows it. It’s a phrase that sits in the minds of many business owners who are responsible for keeping their company moving towards success. A crucial factor in achieving this is understanding the people that you have placed trust in to help you do this.
It’s not just about trying to prevent personality clashes anymore. With technology changing as quickly as it does, companies need to recognise generational challenges. Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X employees have been shown to prefer different types of communication. Finding commonalities between these groups isn’t easy, but doable by keeping up to date with your team’s preferences for workplace communication platforms.
2. Speak the same language (Figuratively speaking)
The ‘language’ that an employer or employee uses in the workplace will undoubtedly be different from what they use at home. It is something that develops naturally but can be refined through purposeful steps that a team leader must initiate.
Maintaining control of this language is as simple as adding in clear definitions to the developing culture of a team. This will create a set of what can be called business policies. Although this sounds rather abstract, there are very tangible ways to implement these changes.
3. Try the Jeremy van der Heiden method
J. van der Heiden is the Director of Public relations at HAYSTACKID and an occasional writer for Forbes magazine. He suggests that no strategy will succeed if a business fails to unify its people, process, and technology.
Ensuring that there is a connection between the training, monitoring, and corporate culture of communication is crucial. Making your people aware of the email and conference-call etiquette related to information sharing needs to be a business-wide initiative. Finally, making these rules your own is the only way that they will work.
4. Don't forget about your clients
When we say that the standardising of your workplace communication culture needs to be business-wide, we mean it. Interactions between employees are only one part of controlling communication chaos. The other is the interactions that your employees have with your clients.
5. Buy-In Is just as important as the implementation
Getting everyone on board with your standardisation implementation plan is arguably the most difficult part of the process. The best way to achieve this buy-in is to get feedback from your team. Communicate and take their suggestions into consideration. Ultimately you and your executives have the final say but being aware of what works for your team makes success that much more attainable.
Doing this will make the entire thing less tiresome, and tedious, and result in a transformation that will improve the way that you do business.
Conclusion
Misunderstandings caused by poor workplace communication in your personal life can appear catastrophic at the time but are usually fixable with a good bottle of wine or a sincere apology. If something is incorrectly communicated in the workplace, however, it can cost your company billions of rands.
A skill as basic as communication is essential to the foundation of the day-to-day operations of a business and fortunately, it is something that can be easily improved by implementing a few simple measures. Edge Training offers various accredited learnerships and short courses that can assist you in capitalising on your team’s talents. We cover workplace communication in our Business Administration services NQF Level 2, Business Administration services NQF Level 3 and Project Management NQF Level 4 learnerships.