How Effective Communication Boosts Employee Engagement

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Wondering how top-notch communication can transform your workplace? We've got you covered with practical strategies and insights on fostering a vibrant, engaged team through effective communication. 

"Communication works for those who work at it." - John Powell

Leaders across are realizing how the use of an employee communications platform impacts employee engagement. Effective comms are indeed the backbone of thriving organizations and there’s much research that chimes in with this. According to research, companies with effective internal communication practices tend to have more engaged employees. Better still, they are 50% more likely to have lower employee turnover.  

Wait… Are you wondering what exactly is the link between communication and employee engagement? 🤔

In this blog, we’ll break down different ways in which effective communication impacts employee engagement. As a bonus, we’ll also provide actionable strategies you can follow to boost your workplace engagement using communication. But before that, let’s quickly run over what comprises effective workplace communication. 

What is effective workplace communication?

Effective communication is the process of exchanging information, ideas, thoughts, and feelings in a way that is clear, concise, and understood by all parties involved.  In short, the kind of comms you or anyone else would prefer to get work done. So, any employee communication in your workplace will be effective when it is: 

  • Clear: Easily understandable, without jargon in a language the employees speak - basically everything except the boring corporate lingo overflowing with terms that require a dictionary.
  • Two-way: Supports back and forth to clarify and share feedback as and when needed. After all, you need doubts cleared!
  • Empathetic: Talks to the employees' needs or concerns.  In short - relevant to what you need to talk about - not like discussing ROI with a restaurant waiter or company wide-meetings that could have been emails!
  • Inclusive: Uses the language, choice of words and approaches that make employees feel comfortable, respected, and welcomed. For example: Is in a language one understands.
  • Balances synchronous and asynchronous approaches: Isn’t too frequent to cause disturbances nor too spaced out to leave information gaps - We mean everything but the endless notifications you can’t wait to put on DND.
  • Secure: Doesn't cause risk of data security breaches. After all, who wants trouble.

And how exactly does effective communication influence employee engagement?

With effective communication, you foster trust and transparency 

Clear communication helps you set the right expectations and enhance engagement among your workforce. Think about it - unless your employees understand their roles and responsibilities and what exactly you expect of them, how can they align with your company’s objectives? Without it, their efforts may be going in the wrong direction. You can feel dissatisfied, and they may feel disoriented - nobody is happy!

So, to ensure transparency, regularly communicate about your company’s direction, successes, and challenges. Make it a habit to share both the positive and negative news as this will help increase trust. Alongside, ensure your employees are in the loop when you make decisions. Explain the rationale behind any biggish decisions, and also encourage open feedback to make employees feel heard. If you do this, your people will trust you more and be more engaged. 

Research does confirm that over 80% of workers want a better understanding of how decisions are made!

To put this into practice, you can schedule regular town halls either in person or virtually and also send out relevant updates on your employee comms channels. Make sure everyone can access these easily. 

Make employees feel valued by effectively communicating with them

If you build a positive, open communication culture, your employees will feel heard and valued. Think about it, if you regularly solicit employee input, act on their suggestions, and appreciate when they do good work, won’t you naturally encourage engagement and innovation? It will also improve problem-solving, enhance employee job satisfaction, and increase their commitment to the workplace.

Here’s research that proves our point: According to The Achievers Workforce Institute's 2023 report on Employee Engagement and Retention, 79% of respondents would prefer a job where they feel appreciated, supported, and valued over a job that pays 30% more but lacks these sentiments. Now you see how this is tied to engagement!

To nurture this, encourage regular employee feedback. Make it easy for people to share their thoughts—for example, through polls or surveys. However, even if you don’t agree with what they suggest, don’t make them feel uncomfortable.. Instead, make sure they feel heard and open to sharing in the future. Simultaneously, recognize your people for their excellent efforts both on a personal level and publicly in front of peers. This will surely motivate them to perform their best. 

Effective communication improves morale and well-being

Effective communication is also closely linked to employee well-being. If you communicate compassionately, you can reduce your employees’ stress, promote work-life balance, improve mental health, and foster a supportive work environment. 

Sounds like Captain Obvious, but actually isn’t! Research suggests that during the health crisis, nearly 40% of employees felt their organizations didn't show concern for their well-being. This neglect is what significantly dampened their morale and resulted in decreased engagement and productivity. This could have quickly been addressed with the right, empathetic communication!

Now, we sincerely hope no pandemic happens anytime soon. And you don’t need to wait for a pandemic to implement this - Just communicate to promote well-being and safety initiatives and provide resources for support. Conduct regular wellness check-ins, provide transparent health and safety updates, extend counseling support, and distribute accessible mental health resources. This will ensure employees feel cared for and understood, and their engagement levels naturally rise. 

Ensure a conflict-free environment

If your workplace environment doesn’t enable your workers to communicate clearly and openly with one another or their superiors, take our word - misunderstandings will be a by-product. For instance, sending instructions or feedback as one-liner emails to frontline workers can end up getting misinterpreted or not read timely. This may hamper work, cause frustration, and strain work relationships. All of this can lead to unresolved conflicts and an environment of discontentment, obstructing engagement and productivity. 

Make sure you create a different reality by creating a culture of open dialogue and facilitating two-way communication. If you have a dispersed or remote team, you can implement the right comms tools to enable this two-way exchange. Look for something inclusive and mobile-friendly so that everyone can access it on the go.

These facts might lead you to think how do you practically implement all of these communication-driven approaches? This may seem daunting, especially if you have an out-and-about frontline workforce or a dispersed workforce. 

Remember: Modern technology simplifies leveraging communication to enhance engagement

The answer lies in introducing the right culture and processes to streamline communication in your organization. Implementing a modern employee communications app can make your internal comms approach super efficient and accessible while also overcoming any hesitations about security concerns.

Use Speakap to sprinkle sparkle into your internal comms

The best organizations heavily rely on Speakap's employee communication platform to enable transparency and real-time collaboration. It presents a great way to break down silos and foster a solid sense of community. You can use it to implement regular check-ins, collaborate across locations, and facilitate smooth dialogue both synchronously and asynchronously. The best part - it’s mobile-friendly with built-in translation features to overcome language barriers. Together, the package ensures your comms are accessible to everyone, including frontline workers on the go who may need language support. 

Next step? Dive into our customer stories to see how leading organizations are using Speakap to boost engagement levels (and how you can too!)