Effective Employee Communications

I always believe that keeping employee communications a priority helps keep organisation improve in its performances – an engaged workforce would mean more success.

Proper communications do help in eliminating misunderstanding and assumptions, and also help to encourage a healthy and peaceful work environment. An age-old aphorism goes - “It’s not what you say, but how you say it.” It’s a profound learning process that we must pick up along the way. Efficient communication with the team and all will make work done effective and professional.

Here you go:

Setting the right tone

We tend to encounter employees who try to test boundaries, and see where is good for them to test your limits. However, be sure to display confidence and keep the tone right. Seriousness is key and important for employees especially when you meet the uninterested ones. They must understand and keep in mind the message sends across. If information sent across are seemed to be unimportant, employees will reciprocate the same.

Use simple terms and words & articulate well

We want everyone to be on the same page and yet not everyone is able to understand the same if you use bombastic words to communicate. Keep messages simple for everyone to understand. You do want to keep explaining yourself on any pointers and everyone forgets what was communicated before that.

Listen to your employees

Communications are never meant to be one-way. Always encourage your employees to speak or open during group discussions so that they can be guided properly. You never know, we may have other employees who are also having the same questions in their head, and assume their ways of answers.

Use multiple forms of communication channels

Everyone gets message across in different means. You’ve employees who are good listeners, others who are needs assistance in visual communications while more who digested messages slightly slowly as they need to go through your messages repeatedly. Whenever possible, distribute your messages in all different channels such as e-emails, posters, face-to-face, presentation slides etc.

Plan the communications – Feedback & Q&A

I’m sure no one stands in front of their employees stuttering, and cannot explain any pointers during the session. Plan it out and ensure that the messages are brought across coherently. You might want to have a check-box to ensure that you do not miss out any information. It is also good to have some answers prepared for Q&A session.

Encourage feedback during communications. It gives you the chance to know that your message has been brought across and also to measure the effectiveness of communication.

Keeping Today’s Employees Engaged at Work

Given the ever-changing employment landscape and the demands from employees to enjoy work-life balance. Employees want to feel connected to work, yet want to have their personal time and space away from work as well. How can you strike a good balance between both? There is no one best way but good to work out something that works best for the company culture and environment.

Value the Opinions and Feedback

It is natural that employees want their voices heard by the management or the bosses. Some opinions or ideas given may be a little overboard or unrealistic in the present moment but never shove off any employee’s feedback right away. Always give them the perception that you will consider it, but never expect the turnaround of the opinions or ideas to be taken in immediately or even execute them!

Option to Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA)

FWA is one of the ways to allow employees to feel that they have the autonomy to decide and plan their schedule well. This can help them in fulfilling their personal commitments, for example, bringing kids to school early in the morning, and cutting through or if possible, avoid the traffic jams to get to work. They will be glad to commit the hours required but at a different time from others than to rush their mornings away. Other ways are also to offer options to work from home, hot-desking.

Don’t create tension unknowingly

Allow employees to be themselves at work and encouraged them to behave like their usual self. Some employers or bosses have a certain level of expectations that employees must behave in a certain manner which makes them feel uneasy at work. However, do you know that giving employees autonomy will make them feel that you trust them in their work? They will eventually portray a positive attitude towards work and will be more than willing to put it that extra effort unknowingly. Never limit your employees’ capabilities and creativities at work!

Don’t Create Fear in Failure

This is the key thing that people back-off after they faced with setbacks, people fear failure. It would be nice and consoling if employees are given an environment to learn and make mistakes. But of course, mistakes should be moderate. Employees can make mistakes and must quickly manage it together and not leave it hanging. Sense of fear will decrease as employees are given ownership, power to make decisions. Always remember that any mistakes made should not be accompanied with harsh criticism or demerits, everyone is learning on the go!

How to Give Feedback to your Management?

There will come a day where feedback needs to be translated back to the higher management to maintain the quality of work done in the office. A place where it is feedback-friendly allows for transparency among everyone, and happier working relations to thrive throughout the company.

Whether the actual feedback is kind or not, the situation calls for a sensitive and tactful approach since it can involve a lot of external workplace politics. From employee-to-boss, what are some of the challenges to avoid stepping on another toes? It can damage relationships, ruin chances of promotions, and even make the workplace toxic – however, here are some advice on giving constructive feedback to the boss/manager:

TAKE TIME TO WRITE IT DOWN

Never go head in without a plan or structure to guide what exactly is being discussed – especially when concerning upper management. Start by jotting down the prominent issues and the consequences of any actions that need to be commented on, and work out a comfortable discussion pace from that point. The main goal of giving the boss/manager feedback is because their actions can have a drastic effect on the company, so they will be looking for concrete evidence that supports the feedback.

Allow them to suggest improvements before insisting on ones that are previously decided on by the employees. There is a reason why they retain their positions in the company, so this discussion requires strategic give and take for it to be constructive all around.

ASK QUESTIONS INSTEAD OF SEEKING ANSWERS

Sometimes, to lead the boss/manager into giving the correct answers or coming to the ideal conclusion, just plan a set of appropriate questions ahead. It may seem like a long and complicated way of proving your point, but it is significantly better to give the boss the reins to hold when it comes to big decisions.

If there is a concern with some areas at work, highlight it out with some questions instead of bluntly flagging it out. The latter will seem like a personal attack, while the first may reveal to the boss/manager some areas of concern that were previously hidden.

ALWAYS BE SPECIFIC AND PROFESSIONAL

After all, it is the boss/manager that the feedback is given to, and their positions in the company give them a sense of authority that can seem intimidating. Aim to be as specific as possible, without delaying the topic or beating around the bush when getting to the point. If the feedback can be succinctly delivered in 2 minutes, it will have more impact than a 20 minute conversation.

This will also allow the boss/manager space to be more receptive to the feedback, instead of feeling pressured to entertain or act on the comments. They might also have their own bosses to report to, so at times like this, do them a favour and cut them a break.

How should you handle non-performing employees?

I am sure in every company, there will be a non-performing employee you would have to handle. You will need to difficult employee to perform, although he might not be giving his best. You constantly encourage him, but it falls on deaf ears. You could also be having an employee who seems lethargic about what he does – maybe in terms of punctuality, and attitude problems.

What do you do?

Do you let him be, and let him affect the entire company’s productivity? Should you pull the trigger and tell him that he is dismissed, and if so – how do you do this fairly?

The following pointers are the guides for any employer who is currently handling a difficult employee.

Understand the employee, and why is he not performing

It is fundamentally important to listen, and understand why is the employee not performing. This is not only just from the employee himself, but from others. One might feel frustrated about why is this employee not performing or constantly coming to work late, but fail to understand about why this is exactly so. All the other mistakes that the non-performing employee does, all just act as a confirmation basis to you.

The golden rule is that the less someone is performing, the more attention you should give.

Do not misrepresent the information here as gossiping about his poor performance to other colleagues, or to someone he is reporting to. In this point of time, it is also crucial to manage your own expectations. Imagine having the conversation with the under performing employee with the mentality that he will never get better.

Give action orientated Feedback

You have no right to complain about your employees, if you do not share with that about what is wrong with them in the first place. Managers should give action orientated feedback on how to correct the problems or performance issues that employees face.

One of the most vital sign of Feedback is to be consistent with what you feel is wrong. For instance, missing a deadline by a day is the equivalent of missing a deadline by a week. Do not just reprimand those who missed the deadline by a week, but also those who are a day late. Be consistent, and stop confusing your employees.

It is also important to let your employees understand what the consequences are if their performing is not improving. Let them understand the negative consequences that will happen, as a motivation to encourage them to change what they are doing.

While in the process of encouraging the change, provide constant feedback to the employee as well.

Provide documentation

Fundamentally, you should document the work process. Ensure your managers know when he can fire this non-performing employee.  You would not want a situation whereby the managers have different practices – which would only lead to degrade the existing employees working for you. The Human Resource (HR) could also be the one conducting briefing regularly and should be readily available for the managers. Generally, most companies practice the verbal warning, written warning followed by the final warning.

The process of handling non-performing employees should be documented to serve as prove should any unjust claims of unfair dismissal should happen. Take pointers of why this employee is difficult, as well as the action plan that has been communicated to the employee.