There is a sense of cruel irony when discussing communication in the work setting. Post-pandemic, companies have invested in more technical tools like Zoom, Webex, Teams, and Slack to communicate more than ever before. Despite this, people are finding that communication in the workplace is still lacking. It might even be worse than it was before the pandemic!
This is not purely anecdotal, either. According to a recent survey compiled by Forbes, 49% of respondents noted poor communication impacted their productivity. Almost 50% of respondents reported that poor communication impacted job satisfaction, and 42% said it affected their stress levels.
Poor communication also affects the trust dynamic in the workplace. Per the article, poor communication is affecting trust for 45% of workers. A deeper dive into the data reveals the following:
"For over 40% of workers, poor communication reduces trust both in leadership and in their team. Remote workers were more affected, with 54% reporting poor communication impacts trust in leadership and 52% reporting it impacts trust in the team. For on-site workers, poor communication did not impact trust to the same extent, though it still had a big impact: 43% reported trust in [management was impacted and 38% said trust in their team was affected."
So in essence, almost half of the sampled population is losing trust in their management and their team, with only a 10% reduction from remote work to on-site workers. Return to office mandates claim to help company culture and communication. With around 40% of people on-site still reporting the impacts of poor communication, one has to wonder what the underlying problems really are.
This problem of poor communication is not unique to the post-pandemic era of work. Back as early as 2018, an article from the Harvard Business Review stated that team dynamics "directly affect a whopping 92% of what causes the most stress". Think about it. Team dynamics are who you interact with the most every day at work, plus the workflow, and the dynamics between yourself and management: it is no wonder team dynamics cause people stress!
So What's the point?
If the investment in more communication tools (and subsequent training for the tools) has not yielded the intended results of better communication, then the issue is not the lack of tools; the issue lies in your organization's culture.
In other words, the challenge of poor communication lies in the people who make up your organization. Therefore, the answer also lies within your people. Try working with your people on diagnosing the real root cause of poor communication in your organization before you spend more money and time implementing new communication tools or writing down a new standard operating procedure for how to communicate with each other properly.
Addressing poor communication effectively requires not just tools, but a genuine commitment to fostering a culture of openness, trust, and collaboration within your organization. Do the hard work - the adaptive work - and communication will drastically improve!
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