97% of employees believe that effective communication skills affects task efficacy. In-depth research has been conducted into the benefits and problems, preferences and consequences of effective communication in the workplace. You can read the full report at Pumble.com here.
In summary, when talking about good communication skills, most employees and employers want the same thing:
- information
- feedback
- collaboration
Those organisations that minimise silo working and use collaborative communication instead are:
- 3.5 x more likely to outperform those organisations that don’t employ effective business communication
- Experience a 4.5 x increase in employee retention
- Improve productivity by 25%
- Facilitate more trusting relationships at work.
A study by Google looking at the factors that create high performing teams found the number one factor was psychological safety. Psychological safety is brought about by using two key effective communication skills:
- ‘equality in conversation turn taking’ giving everybody an equal chance to speak up
- ‘Ostentatious listening’ others being fully present and using skills such as paraphrasing, summarising and asking for clarification to demonstrate listening overtly.
It seems knowledge that your ideas and opinions are valued, that mistakes are learning opportunities, and colleagues will listen even if they disagree, builds strong collaborative bonds between colleagues, resulting in better productivity.
On the other hand, miscommunication can cost medium sized organisations over $62 million a year and a staggering $37 billion worldwide. This financial loss comes as a result of:
- Missed deadlines
- Failure to complete projects
- Lost sales
- Staff turnover
- Low morale resulting in poor productivity and missed performance goals
With a few tweaks we can improve the way we communicate in the workplace we can avoid the losses and capitalise on the gains. If you would like more information or training in effective communication skills, call us on 1300 850 959
