The Importance of Good Employee Communication For Boosting Engagement

With the workforce being vastly different than what it was a mere decade ago, employers have been trying to identify what exactly helps boost engagement among younger employees. The answer is fairly simple: all it takes is effective communication. Through this tool, one can ensure that employees feel a greater connection to their teams, managers, and organization, and this translates into higher levels of engagement and productivity. Managers and leaders can ensure higher engagement levels just by evaluating their communication styles, and focusing on a rewards and recognition system over a system that only values competition.

How Can You Improve the Way You Communicate With Employees?

“While crafting any communication with employees, you must keep in mind that everyone has their own motivations and engagement drivers,” recommends Domus Inc, a leading employee communications agency in Philadelphia.
These drivers can be categorized into these 7 categories:

• Reward: Many employees are driven by their rewards and need to know what they can gain from any exercise.
• Recognition: This has become an increasingly lauded form of driving engagement – recognizing an employee’s work results in positive motivation and better productivity.
• Opportunity: Showing employees what opportunities any work can lead to can help you make employees feel more engaged. 
• Process: Understanding the kind of autonomy an employee expects can help you communicate in a way that resonates with them.
• Product: Employees are also driven by the work they do and whether they have any creative license.
• Working environment: Employees also respond to the work environment created for them – this includes their office location, the way they are treated by others and the decor of the environment. 

How Can You Communicate in a Way that Resonates with the Person You’re Speaking to?

While the above points are general guidelines to keep in mind when creating communication, to truly ensure your words resonate with the people you are talking to, you must keep in mind the following:

• Audience: who are you speaking to?
• Timing: is this the right time or you to communicate the message?
• Message: identifying what you want to tell people and what you expect from them
• Clear: Speaking in a manner that makes your expectations clear
• Concise: Ensuring that the communication is crisp – trim the fat from the communication and you’ll be able to deliver your message in a better manner
• Language: You must use language that people can understand. Don’t rely on jargon or management phrases too much.
• Tone: Speak in a professional tone when speaking to employees.
• Channels: Use the correct means of communication that fits your needs, such as a talk in a private room, an email, or so on.
• Context: Explain what the bigger picture is so that employees can understand the importance of your communication.

Speaking to your employees in the right way can ensure higher levels of productivity, engagement, and even loyalty to the team or organization as a whole (these stats by Dynamic Signal suggest the same). This can help you ensure that you get the results you always need!
For more insights, consulting employee engagement strategists can help. So get in touch with one today!