Effective communication in the workplace can increase productivity and retention. Clear expectations and rewards help employees take ownership and reduce negative attitudes. Managers can model clear communication and workshops can inspire new methods of behavior.
A communication climate is the invisible concept of how communications are conducted within a work environment. Organizational communication can definitely affect employee productivity and retention. The communication environment in any workplace can be mostly effective or it can be mostly ineffective. The success of a communicative climate can be evaluated in various ways.
One question to ask when assessing how effective workplace communication is: Do employees have a clear understanding of what is expected of them? Supervisors and managers can verify this effectiveness during employee performance reviews. Job performance can be affected by inadequate understanding of expected details. When managers restate expectations for the position when providing performance reviews, they can help reinforce clear workplace communication.
An open and clear communication climate tends to increase productivity. When employees not only know exactly what is expected of them, but understand that they have a responsibility to meet those needs, the result is likely to be improved job performance. If good job performance is then favorably rewarded, such as through feedback, raises, rewards or promotions during scheduled reviews, employees are more likely to continue to improve their productive behaviors.
Communicating to workers through a system of expectations and rewards helps them “own” the responsibility to take the lead in their work and work behaviors. Taking responsibility and expecting to take the initiative can also help reduce negative attitudes. Negative attitudes such as defensiveness can weaken the communication climate. For example, an employee who is unclear about any part of their job expectations may respond that they weren’t told and that’s why the necessary work wasn’t done. His attitude can also influence co-workers, which will likely only create more negativity in the workplace.
The best communication fosters clarity. A company’s values and expectations can be communicated in many ways that work to strengthen communication. Managers can build a better communication climate by monitoring it and modeling clear communications in conversations, meetings and memos. The idea of a win-win situation between employers and employees forms the solid basis for an effective communication climate.
Workplace communication workshops and seminars can help foster clearer and more effective communications in a company. Guest speakers on the topic of workplace communication climate can help inspire employees, including managers, to adopt new, more communicative methods of behavior in the workplace. By bringing the topic of communication climate to a particular workplace, the organization is also clearly communicating that the concept is something the company values and expects.
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