One of the common challenges managers face is dealing with difficult workplace conversations.

Whether it involves addressing office politics, intervening in employee disputes, investigating reports of inappropriate office behavior, turning down requests, providing poor performance reviews or simply managing staff’s expectations – there’s no easy way to discuss difficult issues and resolve concerns.

Nevertheless, initiating these hard conversations is the first step to making employees feel heard, valued and supported.

Employees play a key role in driving the success of your organization. When they thrive, so does the overall business.

• But how can you support employees to help them excel in their roles and responsibilities?
• How can you ensure that they are constantly developing their skills along with the evolving business expectations and requirements of clients?

Active listening is an important aspect of effective communication in any organization.

It is more than just hearing what the other person is saying or listening for the sake of replying. In fact, active listening is what enables managers and HR professionals like you to:

• recognize other people’s ideas and insights
• show respect, and
• have meaningful conversations with employees.

By practicing active listening, you’re not only bridging the gap between you and your staff – you’re also ensuring that everyone is on the same page, working together to achieve the goals of the business.

Communication in the workplace is a must – in fact, a lack of it may be costing your business.

Workplace communication statistics by Pumble show that 86% of employees and executives believe that ineffective communication and collaboration lead to issues at work. On the other hand, those who have effective communication strategies in place report a 25% increase in productivity.

As business managers and HR professionals, we often hear that communication is key –we even hear it outside of the workplace. But let’s discuss the real impact of having effective employee communication strategies in place.

• How do effective communication channels benefit your business? 
• How can you adopt an employee communication strategy that will work for your employees and the business as a whole?

Let’s take a look.