How to communicate better at work

Remote working brings many positives for workers across the world. They no longer have to waste hours every day (and thousands of dollars) to commute to and from the office. However, it is not a panacea.

Not only can it be hard to have a proper work-life balance and create boundaries between work and personal lives, but many employees are struggling to communicate effectively while remote working. 

Rather than being able to go over to colleagues’ desks to discuss challenges, they are having to rely on communication platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack. This can de-personalize the working experience and make it challenging for employees to build up connections with their team members.

Relying on instant messenger or emails can also lead to miscommunication at work. Research of 1,000 workers by TollFree Forwarding found that 56% had sent a message to the wrong person at work – 34% had done this via email, and 22% via instant messages.

Men were more careless than women – 70% vs 49% had sent a message to the wrong person.

A third of men had shared confidential information, while more than a quarter had accidentally sent insulting comments to a colleague – compared to only 15% of women.

One in ten had also sent sexual content to a colleague it was not intended for. 63% said they would expect to be dismissed for doing this at work.

Worryingly, this miscommunication is not only annoying and embarrassing for employees, but it can be very costly for businesses.

A recent study from the Independent Directors Council found that companies with over 100,000 employees were losing an average of $62 million per year due to miscommunications.

Improving workplace communication

Given that remote working is showing no signs of going anywhere – it is time that employers rethink workplace communication.

The first thing for workers to do is stop and think before they send an email. Make sure you are sending the information to the right person, and that you aren’t accidentally CC’ing people who shouldn’t be party to that information.

Slack and Microsoft Teams encourage instant replies, but, in reality, sometimes it is better to take a few minutes, check who is in the group chat, before replying.

TollFree Forwarding also suggests that managers could consider holding regular short meetings, rather than messaging or emailing a lot.

Stephen Hart from Card Switcher discussed the daily stand up meeting: “It’s a short daily meeting where participants answer three simple questions: What did you do yesterday? What will you do today? What impediments or problems do you have?

“The communication and productivity benefits are immense. If someone is planning work that will disrupt someone else’s, you learn about it at the start of the day and can mold your day around it.

“Another huge benefit is that it highlights problems, issues, and impediments so someone can address them before they start causing problems.”

Are you willing to switch up your workplace communication?