Benefits Of Open Communication In A Company

Teamwork and all internal factors of your business largely rely on open communication. The idea of open communication relies on creating an environment where you do not put limitations on the type of topics that staff and employees may discuss, given that these subjects are related to business purposes. It is a topic that has received increased discussion in the modern day, as companies are trying to improve employee engagement and productivity internally.

We will look closely at how to encourage open communication among employees in your business. We will also take a closer look at the benefits when you create an effective communication strategy in the workplace. This will help you better understand why you should use open communication for a more productive environment.

Different Types Of Workplace Communication

The first factor we need to consider here is the different types of communication that occur in the workplace. Verbal communication is the default that most people think about, but there are other types of communication you must also keep in mind.

Nonverbal communication comes in the form of body language and related elements. For example, body language can be used to express a particular emotion while speaking verbally with someone.

Visual communication is also something that you have to keep in mind. This can include factors like posters that hang on the walls, which provide educational elements or other details for employees.

Written communication is another form that includes emails, letters, official documents, and more.

Each type of communication plays a role in ensuring team members can collaborate. Proper collaboration between your team members and staff can significantly enhance the productivity that you observe in your business.

What Is Open Communication In A Company?

There are several communication problems that companies often face among employees. These communication issues can sometimes reflect onto customers, which can further cause problems for the business and even have a disruptive effect on its reputation.

Open communication is a strategy that allows employees to express their opinions and feelings regarding corporate discussions. It is a strategy that can help solve many problems that often occur due to closed communication in the workplace.

Different types of open communication strategies can be used in the workplace. Each strategy has pros and cons, but overall, they help to ensure employees feel more comfortable expressing specific feelings that they have or providing feedback when they are not satisfied with a change implemented in the workplace.

When it comes to implementing open communication, it generally focuses on ensuring employees understand how to communicate with each other. This can help to prevent barriers that sometimes occur when there is insufficient communication among the individuals who make up teams and departments within a business.

Why Is Open Communication Important

When you want to know if it is a good idea to implement open communication in your company, then it is essential to look at the potential benefits. Allowing your employees openly communicating can harbor better teamwork and help with sales. In this section, we will take a closer look at the benefits of open communication.

When you assess the benefits of open communication, then it becomes easier to determine if this is a good idea for your business. The benefits can also help you better understand what you should expect when you allow employees to communicate openly.

Better Engagement Among Employees

One of the significant benefits of open communication in the workplace is that it encourages better employee engagement. This is an area where many companies have trouble. A low employee engagement rate can cause problems with internal productivity in the workplace. Your business greatly relies on productivity among employees – but if communication is inefficient, employees cannot sufficiently collaborate.

Engagement is involved in several elements within the business. For example, when your company needs to work on a project for a client, multiple departments often need to work together to ensure the project is a success and meets the customers’ expectations. When employees are not properly engaged with each other, the project’s outcome may not be in line with what the client expects from the company.

Here are some reasons why open communication in the workplace is good for employee engagement:

• Employees’ talents and skills can be effectively recognized when they freely speak out about what they can offer the company.
• Relationships between management and employees also improve significantly.
• The environment in the workplace becomes more enjoyable for the employee.
• Management can understand how employees feel, recognize their needs, and understand realistic goals that should be set.

Through enhanced engagement, you also can recognize talents that you would not have noted before. This can help you set up strategies like gamification by utilizing the newly discovered skills amongst the employees.

Helps With Conflict Resolution

Research shows that around 85% of employees experience conflict in the workplace at some point. Almost 30% of employees report that they frequently experience conflict. This conflict can be with other employees or even management. When no transparent communication system is implemented in the business, it is harder to deal with conflict – and you may also find that conflict arises more frequently.

There are many reasons why conflict happens in the workplace. Often, it occurs when the employees are not allowed to express their opinions and feelings. This makes it hard for management to thoroughly understand the employee’s needs and how they feel about their position in the workplace. In turn, the employee may feel frustrated, increasing the risk of conflict.

When you decide to implement open communication in the workplace, it can significantly reduce these conflicts and issues among employees. Employees feel more confident in sharing their opinions on matters, which helps to prevent frustration or an unhappy employee from causing chaos in the workplace.

Enhanced Productivity

Productivity is one of the most critical elements that your business relies on – and it starts with the employees who work for you. The term generally refers to employees effectively completing all the tasks expected of them without rushing things off and getting them done on time.

Since business success largely depends on productivity, you must ensure you do everything possible to promote it. Open communication ensures the team bonds better and works with each other more effectively. This results in better communication among team members and can help to ensure every employee provides honest feedback during the planning phase of a project. Communicating openly also encourages employees to share their views and ideas, which can help boost productivity or make a product in a reduced amount of time.

When productivity improves, it enhances customer service. It reduces the stress placed upon each employee, especially when they are not entirely sure what is expected of them due to ineffective communication.

Employees Have Better Direction

Another significant benefit of allowing employees to communicate openly is that it provides better direction for your staff members.

Many employees perform poorly when they do not get directions and instructions from management. When you need your team to work on a new project, make sure you provide them with detailed information about what you expect from them. Set up a session for idea sharing, as this ensures employees communicate openly.

Once the planning phase is done, the next step is to ensure you assign tasks among the team members. Be detailed when you assign these tasks, as this will ensure no employee feels lost while the project is being worked on. The more detailed the assignment, the better direction the employee has to work from. This drives productivity and ensures the employee can meet deadlines and the goals that you expect from them.

Helps With Motivation

Motivation is an essential driver behind productivity among employees. This is why you should also consider how open communication can assist in boosting the motivation of your employees. There are numerous benefits of having highly motivated employees.

Motivation can promote workplace creativity and make employees feel more satisfied with their work.

Open communication involves providing both negative and positive feedback to your employees. The negative feedback helps them understand what skills or areas they need to work on. When coupled with positive feedback, you can have happy employees looking forward to correcting mistakes and continuing to deliver their best performance in the workplace.

Boosts Satisfaction Among Employees

Many employees are unsatisfied with their position or the business they work for. Employees who are unsatisfied with their work are likely to slack off, miss deadlines, and show poor productivity. This is yet another area where a culture of open communication comes into play.

You can improve the workplace by allowing employees to be open about their feelings, opinions, and ideas. You can have regular meetings to understand how employees feel about the office, other staff members, the existing cultural differences, and matters like what is expected of them. This information then presents an opportunity to make workplace adjustments that would boost employee satisfaction.

Helps With The Company’s Public Impression

Something that has a significant impact on a company’s overall performance is its general impression and reputation. One mistake can ruin a business’s reputation, and it can take years to rebuild. This is why it is vital to ensure your employees provide excellent customer service – as it dramatically enhances the overall impression that the public has of your business.

Open communication becomes helpful in this particular area too. Employees will offer mutual respect to customers and have the opportunity to be more transparent with the people they need to work with to generate sales.

When employees use these communication styles when they speak to customers, it can also harbor stronger relationships. A salesperson with solid relationships with clients can bring in more sales and even utilize the power that word-of-mouth marketing offers.

Builds Stronger Teams

When you have multiple individuals who work on the same project, you need them to work well together. From the ability to share ideas to avoiding conflict when team members are in a disagreement, you have to consider problems that could occur during a project.

Open communication is a highly effective strategy to promote stronger relationships among your team members. Everyone is asked to express their feelings, share ideas, and work on projects together. While you may run into a few challenges, you will reap the benefits of open communication within your teams over time.

Encourage open communication during team building events too. This way, any conflict that may arise can be dealt with during these events and not present as an issue later on when you depend on your employee’s teamwork to succeed with the projects your business takes on.

For example, one employee may consider sales gamification an excellent addition to your business, but others do not see it from the same perspective. At this point, the employee can provide more details about why they think it would be a good idea – and a fair discussion can be held to get an unbiased look at whether or not the strategy should be implemented.

Spinify can Help

When implementing open communication, it is essential to ensure you understand fully how it will work in your company. While allowing employees to communicate openly, you still need to enforce guidelines and rules to prevent issues from arising due to open communication. Book a demo today to see how Spinify’s gamification solution can drastically improve communication in your company culture.