5 Tips to Foster Effective Communication in the Workplace

Published July 29, 2024 in Loom

Jeong Lee

If you find coworkers don’t receive your messages as intended or that you’re not getting the information you need from others, you’re not alone. Thirty percent of employees reported increasing challenges when communicating with coworkers and clients, and 70% say they’ve wasted time trying to mend communication issues at work.

Even if your teams communicate well, setting policies and providing training to improve team-wide communication is worthwhile. Let’s take a look at real-life examples of great workplace communication, plus helpful skills and tools you can use to improve team alignment through clear communication.

What does effective communication in the workplace look like?

When strengthening your workplace communication skills, it helps to understand the basic principles:

Active listening: You actively listen by giving the speaker your full attention, making eye contact, not interrupting, and asking clarifying questions or summarizing what they’ve said to confirm you understand.
Clear and concise messages: When you share a message, use simple language and keep things straightforward. This includes clearly stating the purpose of your message and any key points.
Appropriate channels: Choosing the right communication channel, like email, Slack, or Zoom, is even more important when working remotely or in a hybrid environment, because it helps teams prioritize and share information.
Open dialogue: Your teammates should feel comfortable enough to share their thoughts, ideas, and concerns—even if they disagree with the majority or offer a new perspective.
Constructive feedback: Teams deserve to hear constructive feedback so they can pinpoint areas for growth. Feedback needs to be specific and actionable so employees can immediately take steps toward improvement.
Emotional intelligence: Communication requires awareness of your own emotions as well as the emotions of others so you can adjust your communication style as needed.

3 examples of effective communication in the workplace

Check out these three real-life examples of effective workplace communication.

1. Loom

Weekly standup meetings are a helpful way for teams to sync, but as you add more coworkers, keeping standups short becomes difficult. Loom’s design team brainstormed a creative solution and now shares weekly updates via video recordings.

Every Monday, designers record a quick Loom video that highlights what they’re working on that week. Loom’s former Senior Director of Brand Stewart Scott-Curran said the updates “spark cross-functional curiosity, lead to more frequent, collaborative communication, and create opportunities for the wider design team to work together.”

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2. Automattic

Automattic, creators of WordPress, structures its communication around the needs of its worldwide, remote workforce. This includes being intentional about offering social opportunities that strengthen bonds between coworkers:

Employee-driven activities: Anyone can propose an activity that coworkers—and sometimes family members—can attend, ranging from adult coloring time to a toddler-led show-and-tell series.
Distributed postcards: Worldwide coworkers send each other postcards from their local area along with a thoughtful note.
Fireside chats: Employees are invited to discuss topics ranging from company goals to brainstorming ideas to tackle current challenges. Automattic seeks to make these Zoom chats a safe space where any idea or concern is welcomed.

Fostering a welcoming environment across many areas of its employees’ lives enriches Automattic‘s internal social structure for stronger team connections and better communication.

3. NerdWallet

NerdWallet’s CEO and co-founder Tim Chen finds feedback essential and actively seeks ways to gather and take action on quantitative data. To do this, NerdWallet introduced NerdPS, an internal survey that asks employees how they feel about company leadership, the product, and their teams.

NerdPS has also helped Chen gather feedback on how well other leaders are doing as managers. The survey provides insightful data points, and Chen says these “ground my skip-level sessions in a more specific reality, rather than a looser ‘How is the team feeling?’ kind of discussion.”

What does poor workplace communication look like?

Miscommunication and certain interpersonal communication styles like these create a negative work environment:

Passive-aggressive communication: This is when someone indirectly expresses negative thoughts instead of openly presenting and addressing them. They may even leave a teammate out of important communications without explanation.
Intimidation tactics: Someone may try to intimidate others by speaking loudly or talking over them, dismissing or belittling their ideas, or using aggressive or negative body language.
Failure to take responsibility: When coworkers fail to accept responsibility or admit their mistakes, it damages team trust and collaboration.
Lack of clarity: Instructions or goals become unclear when teammates don’t provide details or don’t include specific, clarifying information.
One-way communication: Some workers may default to communicating “at” their teammates rather than fostering open dialogue and allowing others to ask questions or provide feedback.

To meet or not to meet? Atlassian found that 54% of employees leave meetings without clarity about the next steps. Learn how to reduce meetings and use async communication tools like Loom to improve clarity and productivity.

What causes workplace communication to break down?

We’ve all experienced poor workplace communication, but the causes may look different. Some common offenders include:

Ineffective channel selection: Choosing the wrong communication channel for urgent, complex, or sensitive messages can reduce clarity.
Poorly written communication: Typos, poorly structured messages, missing information and context, and even jargon can lead to mistakes and delays.
Language and location barriers: Cultural nuances and language differences can cause misunderstandings. These can especially affect deadlines, as some cultures prioritize punctuality while others are more relaxed. Time zone differences can also cause confusion about teammate schedules and deadlines.
Insufficient feedback: When teams don’t receive feedback, including context from nonverbal cues, they may not know if they’re heading in the right direction or meeting expectations. This can lead to future mistakes and inefficiencies as well as decreased motivation. Gallup found that meaningful feedback is four times more effective at improving employee engagement than working in the office.
Information overload: Too much information causes misunderstandings just like too little information. Teammates may struggle to prioritize different messages or could get distracted by constant Slack notifications.

Building collaboration skills, using tools, and streamlining information flow can help teams reduce communication breakdowns and improve their overall productivity.

5 ways to communicate more effectively in the workplace

Start building a company culture focused on good communication with these five tips:

1. Establish clear communication guidelines

Teams should create clear communication guidelines that:

Define expectations around communication frequency, response times, and even how often workers should check certain channels.
Select appropriate communication channels and recommend which ones should be used in certain situations.
Regularly train teams on how to engage in open communication, including active listening skills and how to handle different communication styles.
Outline opportunities for formal feedback, such as performance reviews, as well as what channels coworkers can use to share informal feedback.

You should also review and update your communication guidelines regularly. This should be a living document that grows with your team and its evolving needs.

2. Encourage open dialogue

Create a space where everyone feels like their feedback and ideas are welcome:

Create an environment where teammates are comfortable expressing ideas, concerns, and feedback without ridicule or fear.
Host regular meetings structured around employee questions and suggestions.
Implement an “open door” policy where employees can approach leadership to ask questions and learn.

Open dialogue will help you identify trends, whether good or bad, earlier rather than later. You can stay on the pulse of your team’s progress and make space for them to resolve any issues that arise.

3. Implement effective communication tools

Use the right tools, like remote work software designed for distributed teams, to streamline teamwork and problem-solving.

Create a central communication platform like ClickUp, Google Workspace, or Trello that integrates various information in one place.
Use instant messaging and screen recording apps like Slack and Loom to quickly communicate feedback, ask and address questions, and share updates.
Use project management software and online collaboration tools like Airtable or Asana to promote visibility into project statuses and progress.

Additionally, you should create how-to guides and best-practice documents for each communication tool and save them in a central team-knowledge hub. Using a tool like Loom to do this is helpful since it captures both your audio walkthrough and on-screen details.

4. Build team relationships

Avoid poor communication by strengthening team relationships:

Organize team-building exercises and informal social events where teams can bond.
Ensure each employee understands their individual role, expectations, and how they contribute to the team’s and company’s goals.
Encourage cross-functional collaboration and knowledge-sharing between different teams.

When your teams feel connected and safe, they will feel empowered to take on new challenges and opportunities, and drive business growth cohesively.

5. Foster a culture of feedback

Creating a feedback-friendly team culture increases the likelihood that coworkers will share innovative ideas, contribute diverse opinions, and help each other grow.

Create opportunities for anonymous, candid feedback without fear of retaliation.
Aim for the “magic” ratio of five positive interactions to every negative interaction.
Approach feedback with empathy, acknowledgment, and action to make team members feel heard and valued.
Connect feedback to specific goals and performance metrics to demonstrate its importance and encourage action.

These workplace communication strategies help you create an environment where open and meaningful communication is actively lived out every day.

3 workplace communication tools to clarify and share messages

These three unique employee communication tools help hybrid and remote teams foster open dialogue, collect candid feedback, and collaborate effectively.