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In the workplace, communicating effectively with employees can help them improve their job performance. Whether you need employees to complete tasks on time or ensure that they’re meeting their client’s needs, letting them know what you expect and working with them to reach their job goals is the reason why some managers are more successful than others.

Meet with Your Staff

Meet with the members of your staff on a quarterly or monthly basis to discuss recent projects they’ve worked on. Review goals they may have made last quarter to see if they’ve met them. Set new goals for productivity and determine the best ways for the employee to meet their goals. You can create individual goal sheets or ask staff members to create a list of accomplishments and work-related goals. If employees are having difficulty meeting these goals, re-evaluating these goals or adjusting them may be necessary. Common reasons why employees fall behind on work related goals include:

* Inadequate training

* Lack of time

* Self-confidence issues

By talking to employees and addressing issues that are standing in their way, you can increase their performance level by providing additional training, freeing up their schedule, and boosting their self-confidence by acknowledging recent accomplishments. In addition to helping staff members create and complete goals, you should give advice and counsel to those who want to earn promotions or take on additional responsibilities.

Review the Tasks of Each Staff Member

Reviewing the number of tasks each member of your staff has to complete during the day can give you a good view of what to expect from them. If you want to increase staff performance, limiting the number of daily tasks, finding ways to make the office more efficient or hiring additional employees may help. Communicating your concern and asking for employee input is a good way to involve everyone in the process. Only when employees take ownership of their jobs will they want to improve their job performance and help others at the same time. Show that you are doing everything you can to ensure each staff member is successful during the workday.

Recognize the Achievements of Staff Members

Showing recognition by including staff members names in the company newsletter, hosting an employee party or sending a note of congratulations are all ways that you can communicate your appreciation and share in your employee’s success. While you shouldn’t overindulge your staff, it’s important to make sure they feel appreciated. Many companies host an annual party or picnic where employees can bring their families. These are fun events that celebrate each person’s contributions to the company.

Consider Your Role as Manager

Are you unrealistic in your expectations of your staff? Do you offer support when needed? Do people enjoy working with you? If you’re unsure about the answers to these questions, you should examine how you manage others and how you communicate your expectations. If you need to make improvements, consider taking a management course or meet with other managers to discuss their management styles.

Communication is a vital skill needed by every employee in your organization. Employees need to communicate effectively in several different ways in order to perform their jobs well. Be it giving presentations or other manner of offering ideas, having excellent communication skills is the key to success. If you are the individual in charge of your company’s employee training, using live and in-person communication training can provide a big boost to your employee’s communication skills.

An in-person

sales training can make a big impact on increasing your employee’s workplace communication skills. Gathering all employees together provides a convivial atmosphere that is conducive to a profitable learning experience for them. Being able to observe a nationally recognized trainer is a lesson in communication itself, one that will not be lost on your workers.

Trainers can use the in-person format of a training session to your employee’s learning advantage. The speaker can provide ample verbal and visual examples of the skills to be learned, and can have the class participants try out new skills in small groups, which can speed the learning curve immensely. Because all three methods of delivery–auditory, visual and kinesthetic–can be easily used when the trainer is in the room with the learners, all of your workers with their varying learning styles will be accommodated effectively.

Another method of presenting training is through the use of the Internet. Webinars, or live training seminars that are presented online, offer a convenient and cost-effective alternative to an in-person communications training session.

Webinars can be presented to groups of workers by using a projector with your computer, so that all can watch the training. Many webinars also provide a telephone number that you can call, and if a speaker phone is engaged, then groups of learners can listen in and benefit. Even though the speaker is not in the room with you, it provides an interactive aspect that is very helpful to learning.

Convenience is another attractive feature of the webinar format for communications training for employees. If your employees have Internet access at work, they can participate in a webinar from their own computers.

Some webinars are live, but many also come in a prerecorded format. This means that workers can watch and learn anytime that it fits into their work schedule. It also enables them to replay the presentation, for review and retention purposes.

All manner of communications skills can be taught live and in person. Giving effective presentations or helping your employees overcome anxiety when speaking in public can happen with this type of training. Communications training is key to employee success, and live and in-person trainings can give them the skills they need.

How often do we see job postings that require for the candidate to have “good communication skills” The frequency of seeing these appear should give you a hint to the importance of communication skills at the work place. But few of us really question ourselves as to what this exactly means.

The whole point of communication is interaction, and this becomes all the more important at the work place. No one person can handle all jobs at the office. Communication between worker and worker and department and department is what ensures the smooth operation of the company. Even if you had you own company you would still need to use good communication skills to get the best out of your employees. If you work freelance, communication with clients becomes imperative. These are a few examples of communication at the work place:

1. Inter-office Communication: communication doesn’t just mean speaking to one another. At offices, we often receive circulars and leaflets of announcements. These help the top brass handle their company better. For such communication, the person writing the circular needs to phrase it in such a manner as to be totally descriptive of what the circular needs to accomplish, so this calls for good communication skills at the managing level. However, the people receiving the circulars need to understand the message well to be able to follow instructions perfectly. If you were the boss at a company you would want effective communication to get the best out of the workers. If you were an employee you would want to tune your communication skills to be able to follow instructions precisely.

2. Non Professional Communication at the work place: Although many companies prefer to discourage interpersonal relations between the employees, it is only human to form friendships at the workplace. Communication plays a key role here as well. If you are good at your job, but nobody likes you at the workplace, it can get in the way of your success. Nobody likes working with unfriendly people. Many misunderstandings can come out of bad communication. Some companies go so far as to organize field trips and picnics for their employees, to encourage good communication between them.

3. Inter Company Communications: Every company needs to work along with, or for another company. That’s what business is about. Corporate heads of companies often have get-together and meetings to put forth plans and developments. Such meetings are the highest level of communication at the workplace, and these meetings are generally at the CEO levels. A good communication between companies ensures a healthy growth of all concerned.

It is pretty obvious that communication at the work place is one of the key elements that can ensure success at a personal as well as a company level.

Communication is a two-way process. Communication is successful only when the receiver understands the message intended by the sender.

Effective workplace communication is very essential for smooth and efficient functioning of an organization. The manager should have proper communication with his subordinates, else it will lead to absenteeism amongst workers, lower productivity, development of grapevine networks in an organization. There should be two-way communication in an organization. Manager should have personal contact with his subordinates. He should clearly communicate goals and policies of the organization to his subordinates and should get feedback on these goals and policies.

Feedback plays a very important role in the communication process. It enables us to evaluate the effectiveness of our message. Giving the subordinates chance to provide feedback is important for maintaining a open communication climate. The manager must create an environment that encourages feedback. For example: after communicating a job assignment, he should ask “Do all of you understand?”, “Is that clear?”, “Do you have any doubts?”, etc. This will ensure that whether his message is understood or not.

Both upward and downward communications are important. Upward communication will keep manager informed about employees job satisfaction, employees feelings for their peers and about organization in general. Downward communication is important so that manager can give job instructions, explain the roles and policies and explain the issues which need immediate attention. Similarly we have horizontal communication in an organization which is also very important. It is essential that people working at same level should have effective communication amongst them so that there is co-ordination between them. Communication at workplace should be clear, concise and specific. There should be effective use of body language at workplace. Body language reflects the position of a person in the organization. A manager should make effective use of his body language while communicating with his subordinates.

Communication at workplace is mainly of two types – Verbal (Meetings, Speech, One to One feedbacks etc), Non Verbal (Written, printed, emails etc).

Email is the primary way businesses communicate, as well as how people interact with friends. But there are important differences between the style and content of these types of emails. The following are some tips to help you communicate appropriately on business email.

Be careful what you say in emails. Remember that this is still professional communication. Re-read your emails before you send them to ensure you have been professional.

Make sure you know your company policy about email communication so you are not caught out with personal email. Some companies will ban social networking sites. Some prohibit personal email on company computers. If you know the policy, you won’t make mistakes.

Business communication is for recording, transferring or communicating information. It should not be overly emotional or full of non-factual information. It should be clear, concise and easy to understand

Business communication should also express thoughts in a careful way. Think before you write, and think again before you send.

If the email is particularly important, it may be beneficial to get someone else to read it before sending to a wider group. Often someone else will see flaws in your approach, and change the wording to be more objective.

Business email should also protect confidentiality of the business, so be aware of what you are sending externally.

Question whether you need an email at all. Would this be better done through a phone call or a meeting? If you think you are emotional about the issue, speaking about it can be better than writing so your thoughts are not captured in an email which may jeopardise your position later.
Always state facts objectively, as opposed to your feelings on the matter. You can express an opinion but back it up with facts and not emotion.

Don’t be abusive on email. Always use professional language.

There is a difference between knowing something and hearing about something. Be sure you get your facts right. Don’t gossip on work email.

Leave out irrelevant information from your communications. People are busy now so just state what is necessary.

Make sure email headers contain enough information so people know what they are about to read.

It is best to avoid humour and sarcasm in email as it doesn’t cross the medium well, especially if someone has a different sense of humour to you. Certain types of humour can also be considered harassment, so just avoid it in workplace communication. 

Defamation is when untrue information is communicated that could damage someone’s reputation. This can sometimes be mistakenly done on email.

Never email anything you don’t want that person to read – as chances are, they will end up seeing it even if they are not on the original mailing list.

Email lasts forever. Even if you think you have deleted it, it can be pulled from the backups.

Email is not always private. Assume it can be seen or accessed easily.

Be careful if you communicate with your lawyer by e?mail. In certain countries, doing so could result in the loss of the attorney-client privilege, since an e?mail can be read by someone other than the attorney or client more easily than other forms of communication.
Protect access to your computer and to your email accounts. Someone could send an email from your address that could jeopardise your position.

Be careful of clicking “reply to all”. Do all those people really need to see your comments. Only copy people in if they need to be part of the decision/ communication.

No copyrighted material should be transmitted unless you first obtain permission from the copyright owner. If you’re ever not sure if sending an e?mail attachment will violate copyright laws, ask your company’s law department.

When emailing a member of the opposite sex, keep all written business communication professional. Don’t flirt by email as this can easily be found out by others.

Whether we’re talking about sales conversations, meetings, e-mails or other written messages, presentations or reports, when it comes to communicating at work, keep it simple.

One of the most common complaints in today’s workplace is lack of communication. This problem arises in many ways: poor meeting skills resulting in frustration and annoyance; poor writing skills resulting in long, rambling e-mail messages and reports that waste the time of both writer and reader; sales pitches that fail because the salesperson doesn’t listen to what the client is saying; boring, unhelpful presentations that waste everyone’s time and convey little information.

But an underlying problem in all of these situations is that we tend to cloak all our messages in language that obscures our meaning. It might be technical jargon we use inappropriately for people who shouldn’t be expected to understand it, or it could be just longwinded, complicated explanations that are hard to follow. In either case, the result is that the message is lost.

So what’s the answer? Keep it simple! In the workplace, where communication is essential, you’ll never go wrong by tending towards simple explanations. In fact, the more complex the subject, the more important it is that you express your message in simple terms.

Have you ever bought something that used technology with which you were unfamiliar? Maybe it was a kitchen gadget, a complicated camera, a musical instrument or your first introduction to a new hobby. Think about the buying process you went through. Did the sales person take the trouble to explain things in simple language you could understand, or did he or she babble on in some unintelligible words and expressions that left you baffled and frustrated? Chances are that the approach the person took had an effect on whether or not you bought.

Think about the type of information you must convey to others at work in the course of your own job. Are you making your message clear and simple? Consider your jargon and the language you typically use, and see if you can come up with simpler ways of explaining things. Then make a practice of using them — your colleagues and clients will thank you!

If you’d like to see the value of simple explanations of the complex, visit the children’s section of your local bookshop or library and look for books on outer space or other highly complex subjects. Interestingly, even though these books are written for children, their simple explanations will not insult your adult intelligence, and you may well find you’ve learned something new by reading them.

So remember, for the most effective workplace communication, keep it simple!

ROSWELL, GA, October 13, 2009 – Workplace Spanish(R), developer of America’s most widely-used job-specific Spanish learning programs, announced today the release of its new ‘Click It(TM) Mini-Program’ featuring clickable Spanish terms, expressions, and pronunciations, that enable health care workers to examine and communicate with Spanish-speaking patients about Swine Flu.

“We wanted to give health care providers an easy-to-use Spanish tool that would enable them to question, examine and discuss Swine and regular flu diagnoses without having to take classes or lengthy training sessions,” said Tom Sutula, President of Workplace Spanish. “The anxiety and concern about this disease is high. Not being able to examine and communicate with Hispanic patients raises their fears even higher and creates a climate of frustration for the health care provider.”

The mini-program is available by download from the company’s website at www.WorkplaceSpanish.com. It is delivered in the easy-to-use Click It(TM) format developed by Workplace Spanish that utilizes PDF files with embedded sound bites so users click on English terms to hear the Spanish and phonetic pronunciations spoken aloud. Users can either repeat the phrase or play it loud enough for a Spanish-speaker to hear. “MP3 files for iPod and music player are also available for download”, Sutula added.

The ‘Swine Flu Patient Examination’ mini-program is priced at only $5.00 per user and the MP3 audio files are $3.50 per user. Multi-user purchases can also be made from the company’s website and organizations of 100 or more users can obtain a site license to use the program on their internal network. Commenting on the reasonable price, Sutula said “we felt this was extremely useful material and did not want price to become a purchase obstacle.”

Detailed information and samples are available on the company’s website at www.WorkplaceSpanish.com/SwineFlu and www.WorkplaceSpanish.com/SwineFlu_sample.pdf

About Workplace Spanish, Inc.

Founded in 1998, Workplace Spanish® materials help people English and Spanish speakers communicate simply and effectively in various work situations. Designed for time-stressed professionals, managers and associates, the company’s materials are easy to use and non-academic. They do not teach grammar and no prior Spanish training is required to use them. Users learn Spanish pronunciation and how to say “bite-size” terms and expressions, in Spanish, that are relevant to their work environments and everyday conversation.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New Workplace Spanish® Learning Kit for Human Resource Professionals

Roswell, GA, September 15, 2009 – Workplace Spanish, Inc. has introduced its completely updated “Workplace Spanish® for Human Resources” program designed to help English speaking human resources staff, and general supervisors, communicate with Spanish speaking applicants and employees.

Available from the company’s website as a “learning kit, the package includes a 70 page manual, 2 audio CDs, and the company’s exclusive Click It® CD-ROM. It covers all the important conversational expressions as well as key job related topics including Interviewing Applicants, Checking References, Performance Expectations, Scheduling Employees, Pay and Benefit Information, and handling Accident & Emergencies.

Tom Sutula, President of Workplace Spanish, Inc. stated “Human Resources is the hub of most organizations beginning with job applicants walking through the door. Our easy to use learning tools enable English speakers to better communicate with Hispanic applicants and associates. This will result in better selection, evaluation and understanding which translates into smoother, more efficient operations.”

For more information please visit www.workplacespanish.com or e-mail info@workplacespanish.com.

About Workplace Spanish, Inc.

Founded in 1998, Workplace Spanish, Inc. develops job specific language materials for both English and Spanish speakers. Designed for time stressed adults in business, government, health care and education, the company’s materials are easy to use and non academic; they do not require prior language training. Workplace Spanish® programs have been used by 80,000 people and have been taught by more than 350 colleges and schools across the country. Workplace Spanish® learning kits are suitable for self-study or class training.

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