Workplace communication: 5 Common errors and how to avoid them

Communication at the workplace is the only medium to get things done. It is the aspect of the organisational culture that ensures that everybody plays his or her part to attain objectives and targets.

It is actually management’s tool for steering affairs and ensuring harmony, co-ordination and implementation of activities.

It is noted that effective communication oils and smoothens the departmental efforts of staff to keep them productive. This makes room for a better informed staff who knows what to do at any point in time. Without this, staff will be less likely to be happy. They are misinformed and therefore fail to meet deadlines. This becomes costly to the business as contracts and expected financial gains are lost in the end, leading to high employee turnover and windups. 

It is important to note that if a single mode of communicating is used for different categories of staff, then problems are bound to arise. This will mean that despite the need to communicate intentions across, situations and participants are not factored in here in the equation. 

Suffice to say that the same method and channel that works within the organisation may not work for the clientele and partners. But this is overlooked every now and then at the workplace. 

Vividly, a workplace communication error that comes up commonly is the issue of no feedbacks or replies on time. This has the tendency to distort, cause misinterpretation and truncate business contacts, leading to many losses than expected. 

Management, without prejudice, can find antidotes to the everyday errors that thwart effective workplace communication. Practically, the remedies include an audit of the communication channels – both written and verbal platforms – with the aim of identifying the mistakes that commonly occur and hamper quick flow of information and interaction either within or outside the organisation.

Common errors 

For management to succeed at this, the following advice should be taken in good faith.

Poor body language

A large amount of communication is non-verbal. Current studies show that about 94 per cent of messages are expressed in gestures, postures, body or facial expressions and in voice or tone. Tentatively, most workplace communications do not pay attention to these non-verbal inflections, as such post send wrong and misleading statements to the receiving audiences and workmates.

Remedy: Management and workmates ought to focus on making eye contacts and using proper voice or tone to send information across. This is intended to avoid the improper non-verbal attributes that mislead and results in negative responses.

Not checking for typos

It is common to make mistakes while writing. The grammar, spelling or even the tone of the message may not sound professional and hence, not meet standards.  Key words may be left out and sometimes wrongly spelt too.

Remedy: It is incumbent for staff to go over whatever is written in memos and in other letters for errors. Such should adequately be corrected before being sent out to the appropriate addresses. The use of the dictionary, spell-checks on the computer and colleagues helping to proofread can all come in handy to eliminate errors.

Inadequate preparation

It becomes evident when reports, emails, presentations and memos are just rushed through without adequate recourse to content and mode of transmission. This puts off audience and frustrates them in the process. An ill-prepared communication in whatever form damages rapport and sends wrong signals about personality.

Remedy: Enough time has to be set aside to properly plan towards sending information. A critical outlook on how the audience could be convinced and appealed to must be ironed out before any information is sent out there. 

The bottom line is being credible in the eyes of your recipient. Nothing more, nothing less. So there is the need to figure out how you will present your information and in what form or format.

Not being considerate

In communication at the workplace, a lot more staff tend to forget about the privacy, rights and needs of others. This creates tensions, resentments and no feedbacks from audience and or respondents.

Remedy: It is always better that staff considers others in their communication. Getting to know the audience well enough before information is sent, helps a lot in avoiding opposition from intended respondents.

Not checking emotions

The probability to react angrily to emails and memos and in conversations at the workplace is so high than expected. This does not mean response or feedbacks should be reactive. By not being focused, such emotional upsets rather damage reputations and signal lack of self-control. They indicate immaturity and has rippling negative effects on both work output and overall company targets.

Remedy: It is better for individual staff to know themselves and work towards their emotional intelligence. Calmness and a lot of thinking through would be needed in response to all cases rather than reacting when infuriated in any way.

Conclusion

In communicating both within and outside of the workplace, management and as well staff, must be mindful of errors that come up unawares. Noting down the remedies when the errors occur will go a long way to prevent their recurrence.