Enhancing Employee Communication: Importance of Active Listening

Create an Open Environment

Creating an open and supportive environment for employees to express their opinions is essential for fostering a culture of inclusivity and collaboration. To achieve this, it's important to establish clear channels of communication and encourage open dialogue. Embolden employees to share their thoughts, ideas, and concerns without fear of judgment or retribution. 

Actively listen to their perspectives, validate their contributions, and consider implementing feedback mechanisms like suggestion boxes or regular feedback sessions. This open environment communicates with your employees that your organization is a safe place for sharing.

Practice Active Listening

When employees express their thoughts, concerns, or ideas, it is important to actively listen without distractions and give them your undivided attention - a task that's become more and more challenging in today's world. When an employee sits across from your desk, you're likely to receive chat messages, emails, phone calls, text messages, social media notifications, door knocks, and other interruptions.

Focused attention requires eliminating distractions and putting aside any preconceived notions or biases to genuinely focus on what they’re trying to share. Maintain eye contact, nod, and ask questions to show that you’re engaged, and refrain from interrupting or rushing to respond.

In addition to giving full attention, strive to understand. Seek clarification when needed, and ask open-ended questions to delve deeper into their thoughts and feelings. By practicing active listening and understanding employee perspectives, you create an environment where employees feel heard, respected, and valued, leading to increased trust, collaboration, and overall employee satisfaction.

Value Diverse Perspectives

You can also show that you're listening by actively seeking out diverse perspectives within your organization. You can do this by ensuring your leaders have been trained on unconscious bias, by posting your open positions on platforms that target diverse populations, by intentionally selecting candidates that bring new backgrounds to the table, and by forming diverse teams or task forces to work on specific projects or initiatives. 

You can also promote open and inclusive communication channels - like brainstorming sessions, focus groups, or innovation workshops - that encourage employees to share their diverse perspectives. During these exercises, actively listen and provide a platform for employees to express their ideas without fear of judgment or exclusion.

Seek and Respond to Feedback

It’s also helpful to regularly seek employee feedback and then take meaningful action on that feedback. The most common way to do this is through regular surveys, which are anonymous, accessible, and easy to tabulate. Other options include regular one-on-one meetings, team meetings, and physical or electronic suggestion boxes.

One of the most common mistakes employers make in this area is failing to follow through - or following through and failing to communicate the action they’ve taken with their teams. Once you’ve received feedback, it’s imperative that you investigate and, if warranted, take action. 

Communicate with employees about the actions taken as a result of their feedback, demonstrating that their input is valued and taken seriously. As a best practice, share quarterly the kind of feedback that has been received through established feedback mechanisms, the steps that have been taken in response, and the results.

Empower Employees

Finally, you can help foster employee engagement by giving your employees power over their work and their workplace. One way to empower your employees is by involving them in decision-making processes and giving them a sense of ownership and autonomy over their work. 

Encourage employees to share their ideas, suggestions, and solutions for improving the work environment or processes. Actively listen to their input, value their perspectives, and provide opportunities for them to take the lead on projects or initiatives that align with their strengths and interests.

Key Takeaways:

• Create an open and supportive environment for employees to express their opinions.
• Practice active listening by giving full attention and understanding employee perspectives.
• Value and seek out diverse perspectives to drive innovation.
• Regularly seek feedback and act upon it to improve the work environment.
• Empower employees and take action on their input to foster engagement.

Exact Payroll understands the importance of effective communication in the workplace. Contact us today to learn more about our comprehensive payroll solutions that can streamline your processes, giving you more time to focus on listening to your employees and fostering a positive work environment.