Effective Employee Communication: The Key to Employee Retention

Hiring the right talent is a tough task. But retaining them is a whole new challenge. Disengagement is one of the first signs that an employee is on the point of leaving their job.  

Those days are Gone when the employers held all the cards. Employees are no longer obligated to work for companies that do not benefit them. As a result, understanding staff retention is the key factor to retain top performers on board. 

What is Employee Retention? 

Employee turnover, or the loss of organizational talent over time, is a major problem for most businesses. In 2019, more than 42 million Americans willingly left their jobs. By 2023, more than one-third of employees will have willingly left their jobs if current trends continue. 

In simple terms, employee retention is the effort to keep hold of its most prized asset - the employees! Furthermore, a low or high employee retention rate directly impacts a company's overall profitability. 

Employment Retention Strategies 

If you have the best qualities within your workforce, it makes financial sense to maintain high levels of employee engagement, company loyalty, and job satisfaction through retention strategies.  

Here are effective approach tactics to employee retention that make your employees stay: 

• Foster an open organizational structure through effective internal communications 

• Ensure they feel their contributions action real change by management 
• Create internal job opportunities and career growth 
• Recognize that interpersonal dynamics within the staff are key to effective individual and team performance, as well as work satisfaction. 

Communication and motivation are two important aspects that help assure employees and encourage them to work in a friendly and caring environment. Improving leadership, confidence and trust, creating new doors for learning opportunities, and assisting in the development of managerial skills are all critical. These can be achieved by internal communication, conducting seminars and workshops offering opportunities to the employee to interact with various industry veterans and improve their skill set.    

What Is Employee Communication? 

Employee communication refers to the exchange of ideas between employees and the organization's management. Effective employee communication is critical to an organization's success. It can be in the form of written communication (e.g. emails, memos, text messages), verbal communication (e.g. meetings, conversations, voicemails), and even non-verbal communication, such as body language and facial expressions.  

Effective workplace communication leads to higher work productivity and helps the organization gain insights. 

Using social media, you may instantly share information with your employees. There is one thing you should keep in mind now. There can't be any hard and fast communication guidelines. For example, in one organization, there are times when a communication process is effective. 

However, in another organization, the same communication process may not be as effective. What you need to do is figure out which style of communication works best for your company. 

Different modes of employee communication 

• Traditional processes 

The traditional communication technique emphasizes a top-down approach. The policies and procedures are created by the management. 

Employees are informed about the policies that have been developed. Keep in mind that the old procedure is based on one-way communication. One-way communication is ineffective in achieving desired outcomes. 

For efficient communication, we must reduce communication barriers. One-way communication is more of a stumbling block. 

It restricts freedom of expression. In such an environment, employees are hesitant to express their opinions. As a result, the organization's growth is limited. 

• Social media and Mobile phones 

What you must remember is that your employee is carrying a crucial communication tool. Smartphones are undeniably one of the most powerful communication tools. 

The best thing is that using a cell phone allows you to communicate with people who work remotely. Another effective communication tool is social media. You can use these platforms from any location. As a result, staff are kept up to date on what is going on in the company. 

• Email 

When we consider the global trend, email is a viable form of communication. Email is a great way to stay up to date on what's going on in an organization. The advantage of email is that it allows you to contact your workforce immediately. 

Additionally, you can contact each and every employee via email. The only downside of email is that it is difficult to determine the message's tone, and communication can rapidly break down. 

What are the Advantages of Effective Employee Communications? 

There are plenty of advantages to internal communications. A strong internal communications strategy will help an organization to: 

• Connect Employees - Multicultural workplaces have become the norm, and also younger employees have joined the workforce. We see more multi-generational workplaces. Building relationships and a similar goal among all of the diverse groups in an organization helps improve work culture and employee relations. 

• Motivate employees - In a LinkedIn survey, it is revealed that having a sense of purpose is an important factor in whether or not employees are happy in their jobs: 74% of participants said they wanted to believe that what they do at work matters. Use internal communications to highlight achievements or to be clear about specific tasks or projects they're working on and how they fit into the wider corporate goals to offer employees that sought-after sense of purpose and make them feel valued. 

• A better understanding of the workforce - Two-way communications – such as allowing comments on newsletter articles, sending out regular surveys, and inviting feedback on organizational changes – will enable organizations to better understand their employees, which leads to middle managers who understand what their employees are thinking, and thus to better-informed decision-making. 

Tips To Improve Workplace Communication 

According to Quora, you must find measures to boost staff communication. The fact is that high-performing firms prioritize communication with their workforce. However, there are particular communication parameters that you cannot ignore under any circumstances. 

• Practice Engaging Body Language 

Remember that when asserting oneself to others, words aren't the only aspect to consider; delivery is also important. Employees' perceptions of your message can be influenced by nonverbal clues such as tone, attitude, gestures, eye contact, and facial expressions. 

Crossing your arms, taking a wide posture, or thrusting your chin out all suggest anger and should be avoided. Instead, as a display of respect and understanding, subtly emulate their posture and motions. 

• Know Your Employees 

You must understand the psyche of your employees. At first glance, this may appear to be a difficult task. It is not, however, an impossible task. As an employer, you should conduct several surveys on a regular basis. Through the surveys, you will be able to better understand what is going on in the minds of your employees. 

• Offer Weekly Brainstorm Sessions 

Invite all members of your department's staff to meetings where they can express their views in a productive setting. Divide this up by department if you have a large organization to save time and space. 

Plan to host an open forum once a month or once a quarter so that everyone gets an opportunity to speak up when their finest ideas strike and maintain it free of rules. 

• Multi-channel approach for communications 

Email, intranet, enterprise social networks, video, and offline channels like notice boards and "town meetings" are all used in a good plan to connect with employees. Organizations may reach more employees by varying the delivery channels, including remote workers and front-line staff who do not have a fixed workstation. Consider selecting people in various roles and situations across the organization – remote worker, front-line worker, manager, Generation Z, a new recruit, long-term employee – and soliciting feedback on how they consume corporate communications. 

• Send Out Reminders and Newsletters 

A follow-up note delivered to each participant reinforces the key themes of an important debate, giving them an overview to peruse anytime they need it. Because some employees process information more visually than others, this guarantees that both forms of comprehension are considered. If you're concerned about efficiency, keep your writing brief and easy to read. 

When used effectively and positively, communication may become an essential component of a company's long-term success. Maintain open lines of communication; the extra effort will pay off when your best staff are invested in the company's success. 

KPIs to judge effective employee communication 

It's important to remember that you can't judge something you can't measure. You must monitor the effectiveness of your organization's communication method. After you've tracked the efficacy, you'll be able to assess the process's success. 

We'll look at some basic KPIs that can be used to assess internal communication. Every company delivers information to its workers. The concern is whether the employees are actually interpreting the data. You can use a tracking platform to keep track of the engagement. As a result, identifying the flaws in your communication system will be much easier. 

Most HR managers now calculate the number of Intranet logins or email opens to determine engagement. However, this merely provides a glimmer of the bigger picture. 

Which is the best Employee Communication tool for Companies? 

• Slack 

Slack is the first word that comes to mind when we talk about the best communication tool provider. Maintaining excellent communication with a distant employee is the actual problem. This is where Slack comes in handy. The employees' Slack status can be synced with their Google calendar. As a result, others become aware of an employee's availability. 

Employees can easily join Zoom with a single click, thanks to this tool. 

• Yammer 

Another application that is gaining popularity is Yammer, which is useful for internal communication. 

Yammer is a cloud-based social networking service. It allows employees to work together across divisions and encourages good employee communication. Yammer allows employees to join both public and private groups. 

• Takeaway 

Team members may become confused about their specific goals and the company's overall goals if there isn't appropriate communication. Poor productivity, missed deadlines, diminished employee engagement, lost earnings, and high staff turnover rates are all consequences of ill-defined goals and milestones. 

Any business that implements a strong internal communications plan will experience an increase in profitability and employee retention. The benefits of effective workplace communication may be game-changing, with increased productivity, happier employees, and open, honest dialogues that boost overall productivity and employee engagement.