Communication means business.

Communication is more than the “feel good” part of an organization.

Great internal communication helps employees connect the dots between what they do and what they achieve in the overarching business strategy.

When it’s good – it informs.

When it’s great –  it engages employees, and moves them to action!

Done right, communication propels people and organizations to extraordinary results.

A colleague of mine recently shared amazing data relative to communication, trust and employee engagement. It is shocking how much money, time and energy is lost with poor or ineffective communication.

This data should give a heightened sense of awareness and appreciation for business leaders who are trying to do more with less, save money, become more efficient, attract and retain a quality workforce…not to mention attract loyal customers, clients and higher levels of profitability.

The Bottom Line: Communication plays a critical role in employee engagement.

Effective employee communication distinguishes great companies, propels outstanding leaders and generates excitement among employees. Research confirms it drives bottom-line results.

Good communication positively impacts financial performance. Companies with highly effective communication practices realize 47% higher return on equity over five years (2004-2009) compared to those with less effective communication according to a Communication ROI Study conducted by Towers Watson.

It helps to avoid the cost of misunderstanding!

An estimated $37 billion is lost annually in United Kingdom and United States enterprises due to employee misunderstanding. This disconnect, on average, costs a 100,000-employee company $62.4 million each year per an IDC Research Survey of over 400 American and British Corporations.

Studies confirm that even smaller companies suffer significantly from misaligned communication, as much as $500,000 per year loss for a company of one hundred employees. This according to SIS International, Research for Siemens, “Communications Pain Study: Uncovering the hidden cost of communications barriers and latency,” (2009).

“Employee misunderstanding” refers to actions or errors of omission by employees who misunderstood, misinterpreted or were misinformed about company policies, business processes, job function or a combination of the three.

“Getting to the next level of organizational success is dependent upon the quality of the organizational culture which is dependent upon the quality of the relationships which is dependent upon the quality of the conversationseverything happens through conversations!” Judith Glaser, Author of Conversational Intelligence.

Now more than ever, organizational leaders must communicate effectively to build trust, loyalty and engagement in their workforce and in their customer base. Below are 5 Conversational Essentials that enable quality conversations to take place…Use them often!

  1. Prime for Trust
  2. Ask Questions for Which You Have No Answers
  3. Double-Click – Open up the opportunity for more information to be shared.
  4. Sustain Conversational Agility (during difficult conversations) by Reframing, Refocusing and Redirecting
  5. Listen to Connect

Please message me for more detail on the Conversational Essentials or more data and statistics on how communication impacts engagement and bottom line results.