What is organizational communication? It’s a term that can elicit different definitions for different people.
For simplicity’s sake, here is how I define organizational communication:
Organizational communication is the way in which members of an organization interact with each other and the people they serve.
Types of organizational communication can include superior to subordinate, co-worker to co-worker, and frontline to customer/client/guest, to name a few. These interactions can happen face-to-face, over the phone, or electronically.
Ultimately, and most importantly, the result of these interactions is how valued a person feels during and after the interaction.
When a person interacts with someone from your organization, an emotion is generated, an impression is formed, and an experience is had. It is this experience people will carry with them and color their perceptions of the organization, as well as the stories they tell others about the organization. Ultimately, when looking at the fundamentals of communication within an organization, the more highly developed a person’s interpersonal communication skills, the better the communication.
The better you communicate, the better experiences your organization is able to provide. At the same time, you need a strategic understanding of how to best utilize these practices. History provides ample examples of good communication intentions gone awry, so having a firm grip on what works and what doesn’t is essential.
Why is Organizational Communication Important?
Organizational communication is important because it significantly impacts three very important areas of an organization:
- Employee engagement
- Customer satisfaction
- Public perceptions
All three areas are critical to organizational success. Disengaged employees are an organizational burden, dissatisfied customers an organization’s downfall, and poor public perception is the final nail in the coffin. If you overlook the importance of organizational communication, you’re really overlooking your organization’s ability to succeed.
Let’s dig deeper into these three areas and explore how communication has a significant impact, and how to best bring the sense of being valued to each.
Employee Engagement
Simply defined, employee engagement is how willingly and enthusiastically an organization’s employees focus exclusively on the task at hand. Going beyond devotion and dedication, which can be tied to obligation, engagement is directly tied to how valued your employees feel.
The surest way to help employees feel valued is to explore how you communicate with them. What are the words you use, your tone of your voice, and the timing of your email replies? Do you take the context into consideration and, perhaps most importantly, are you able to empathize with them as you communicate?
By exercising communication practices that help employees feel valued, you’re able to get more out of each employee, lessen the likelihood of turnover, and positively drive your organization’s bottom line.
Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is how satisfied a person is with an organization, be it their service, their product, and/or their interactions with the organization.
As we all know, customer satisfaction is critical to organizational survival and success. You can have the greatest product or service out there, but if a customer feels they are not valued by your organization, the chances they’ll turn away from increase dramatically. Once again, it comes right back to how well your organization communicates. That will determine their sense of value.
Customers are satisfied when they feel they are listened to, empathized with, and that their experience matters. Customers are satisfied when their organizational interactions leave them feeling valued, which as research has demonstrated, can override any poor customer service or product experiences they have.
Service and product mistakes will inevitably happen, but how your organization deals with the mistake will ultimately determine customer satisfaction.
Organizational Perception
Even though there are countless organizations you’ve never done business with, chances are you still have an opinion about them, for better or worse. What’s so fascinating about how we develop these perceptions is it’s NOT based on any direct experience. It’s often based on the stories we’ve heard, the articles we’ve read, the advertisements we’ve seen, or the social media sites we’ve visited.
Note how these are all forms of second-hand information, yet they are equally as powerful as direct experiences.
Outside of advertising and the news, all this second-hand information is based on the direct experiences of those passing this information on. There are ghastly numbers out there saying how far more likely it is for folks to share negative experiences they have with an organization compared to positive ones.
So, it goes without saying that if your organization’s communication is creating poor direct experiences, those direct experiences will negatively impact how your organization is perceived by potential customers, clients, guests, or employees. This, in turn, certainly impacts your organization’s ability to grow and thrive.
Once again, more proof that you need to improve organizational communication to create that feeling of “being valued”. So how do you do it?
How to Improve Organizational Communication
At the end of the day, we create value in the exchanges between people. Simple yet powerful adjustments to current organizational communication practices can make a huge difference.
One of the most effective ways to improve organizational communication is to be certain that all employees, from the executive team down, have properly developed interpersonal communication skills.
The first step is to have everyone do a simple personal communication assessment to determine where each person’s communication strengths, challenges, and potential blind spots may be. Some folks may be great listeners but have trouble find expressing themselves in a direct manner. Other folks may be great at developing a strong rapport with people but have a hard time responding to emails in a timely manner. No matter the relative strengths and challenges, an assessment allows each person to know where their personal starting point towards improvement is, as it will not be the same for everyone.
Get Started
Once each person knows where to start, you can begin developing communication skills. It is essential that people don’t overwhelm themselves with change. Pick one or two skills to work on, and then select 3 specific times each day to practice these skills.
Know that it takes time and that mistakes will be made. For example, you cannot expect to suddenly become an effective listener overnight. It requires thoughtful attention to how you listen and how other people respond to these attempts.
As with any behavior change, there may be some discomfort. Embrace this discomfort, transform it, and savor the reward. In due time and with consistent practice, these skills will take root, develop, and grow so you create even more value.