What your employees really mean by ‘poor communication’
Most organisations run annual or semi-annual employee engagement surveys, testing on key elements of the employee experience. There are typically questions that ask about ‘communication’ within an organisation.
The problem with these questions is that they usually ask a person to rate communication, but rarely provide opportunity to explain why they gave that rating. Then, when the results come back saying employees think communication is poor, leaders panic and usually decide more communication is how you solve it!
Volume of communication is rarely an issue unless it’s too much communication! In our experience working on employee engagement programs and surveys over many years, we’ve uncovered what employees really mean when they say organisational communication is poor. Here’s some of our top findings.
“I don’t know what’s going on in my team.”
This is typical when leaders either don’t put the time into regular communication with their team, if they’re struggling with communicating with remote or dispersed teams, or they play their cards close to their chests and aren’t open and transparent.
How you can fix it: Ask for feedback from your team! Make sure you’ve got regularly scheduled opportunities for two-way communication, and that you’re reaching out to the entire team.
“I don’t know what other teams are working on.”
This is very common in workplaces where silos operate unchecked. It’s far too easy for leaders to simply focus on their own patch and forget that team members need to see how their work connects with others, and that they’re interested in what else is going on. Seeing other teams in the organisation producing cool things or working on interesting projects can help build a sense of ‘one team’.
How you can fix it: Take note of what’s been said in leadership team meetings by other leaders, and share it back with your team. Reach out to other leaders and find out what they’re working on, or invite them to come and speak to your team.
“I don’t know what the organisation’s strategy is and what it means to our team.”
This is a sign that, at an organisational level, change management and communication simply failed. Maybe you relied on a cascade approach (see our article about how to get around the broken cascade here), or maybe you only communicated to a few rather than the man, or maybe it wasn’t made relevant to your team when it was communicated. Whatever the case, without a line of sight between a person’s work and the organisational strategy, it’s hard to see a sense of purpose and engagement suffers.
How you can fix it: Set aside time with your team to work through the strategy and how it relates to your team. Check in regularly and demonstrate how your milestones as a team ladder up to achieving your organisation’s broader goals
“My leader doesn’t communicate in a way that meets my needs.”
This happens when leaders don’t ask for feedback, and communicate in a way that suits their own needs, not the diverse needs of their team. Maybe leaders communicate too much or not enough, maybe they only communicate through text or email, maybe it’s too much one-way communication and not enough genuine conversation.
In addition, the visual learners, auditory learners, introverts and extroverts, strategic thinkers and detail thinkers all have different ways of communicating. Our job as communicators is to communicate in a way that meets those needs. (See our article on communicating for different types of thinkers and learners.)
How you can fix it: Firstly, ask for feedback from your team! Make sure you’re offering a variety of different communication channels and that you’re meeting the preferred communication styles of your team.
“My leader only tells – they never ask.”
This is usually the symptom of someone very new to the concept of leadership, or someone with a dictatorial style of leadership. And all that leads to is poor engagement, which leads to high turnover and reduced productivity.
How you fix it: Provide opportunities for two-way conversation, and make sure your communication channels aren’t solely reliant on email or text. Team meetings and 1:1s should absolutely be in the mix, and team members should feel safe to ask questions.
“I hear about what’s happening from other teams or outside sources before I hear it from my leader.”
It’s never a good look when a team member hears something important about their role or their team from a source other than their leader. It looks like the leader was hiding something from them, or that they’re not connected enough to be in the know.
Similarly, hearing about broader organisational change, activity or milestones from someone other than your leader can also make it seem like your leader doesn’t care, or that they want to maintain a siloed culture.
How you can fix it: Always be ahead of the game. Get connected with the people who make decisions that influence your team. Commit to being the person who shares the news first and quickly - even if you don’t have all the answers yet.
Need help to get your internal comms back on track? Let’s chat!
