Communication Is Key: Five Tips For Quiet Workplaces

The positive impact of effective workplace communication

Human resources (HR) professionals and researchers contend that workplace leaders and people managers must effectively communicate with their in-person, hybrid, and remote employees to increase productivity, retention rates, and overall well-being.

Communication methods include in-person conversations, emails, chat messages, video conferences, phone calls, or any other method of communication.

However, quiet quitting, a classification of a worker that only produces work at the bare minimum effort, is not going anywhere. In fact, a 2022 Gallup poll found that 50% of workers are quietly quitting. If half the workforce is not engaged at work, the assumption is that productivity and retention levels are low as well. To engage with employees, leaders and people managers must use effective communication.

“Good Communication is key for leaders to have engaged employees," said Thrive HR Consulting co-founder Rey Ramirez on how to decrease quiet quitting at work.

Research supports Ramirez’s outlook on effective communication at the workplace:

“Any organizational decision, whether strategic or operational, cannot be made without communication of the necessary information,” according to a 2022 study that focuses on the relationship between effective workplace communication and productivity.

“Communication is the mainstream and a critical factor in organizational success.”

And Ramirez points out that “Communicating job expectations and helping employees with their careers lead to good relationships, which then leads to retention of talent.”

How People Managers Can Effectively Communicate

Research suggests that employees’ tendency for quiet quitting may be reduced if people managers communicate with their workers on how to produce the necessary quality of work for their organization to succeed. For example, a 2020 study in the International Journal of Business Communication found that “a reduction in helping others led to diminished work engagement rather than the reverse, indicating that doing good leads to feeling good.”

People managers must do the following to effectively communicate with their employees, according to Ramirez and researchers:

1. Use clear and concise language to convey a message.

“In order for a response and result to be achieved once communication is undertaken, the information transmitted between managers and employees must be clearly understood.”

“...[W]eak communication processes have been blamed for a number of productivity and employee performance shortcomings and failures.”

2. Choose the right telecommunication method to communicate, i.e., email, text, phone, etc.

“Channels of communication create an environment where misunderstandings can be mitigated and errors timeously corrected.”

Establishing the effective communication method to convey a message “must be clearly defined, particularly where job descriptions, task performance, and other operational activities are concerned.”

3. Provide the message in a timely manner – avoid delays.

Timely effective communication will “help organizations make the most of every opportunity through informed decision-making.”

4. Ensure your message is understood, and if not, clarify the message.

Using the “Convergence model” of effective communication ensures that a message is not lost in translation. “In the convergence model, the sender repeats the message to the receiver, and the receiver responds appropriately to the sender.”

5. Respect boundaries by appropriately connecting with employees, such as conducting after-hours and/or weekends conversations.

The 2020 journal study found that the workplace’s use of technology between managers and employees should be determined by the employees because it “enhances effectiveness at work by, for example, facilitating coordination of work with colleagues over a geographical distance while helping employees maintain their nonwork time. Thus, to benefit from the advantages of communication technology use in the context of workplace flexibility, it is important that employees have control over their communication practices.”

Gallop noted that managers must first be engaged at work in order to reduce quiet quitting.

“[T]he best requirement and habit to develop for successful managers is having one meaningful conversation per week with each team member -- 15-30 minutes,” according to Gallup.

And managers need to hold their workers accountable for “individual performance, team collaboration, and customer value -- and employees must see how their work contributes to the organization's larger purpose.”

Building Relationships with Employees

Staying productive throughout the day at work will lead to successful outcomes and deters employees from quiet quitting. One way people managers may encourage consistent productivity from their workers is to make sure they feel at ease with effectively communicating with their leaders.

“Employees who feel comfortable [communicating] with their supervisors and managers are more likely to understand what's expected of them and remain productive throughout the day,” according to a career guide authored by Indeed’s editorial team.

Avoiding miscommunication with employees is also important for ensuring successful outcomes. Miscommunication may cause delays in finishing a project or may cost the business money too. “A survey conducted by Expert Market found that 28% of employees listed poor communication as the reason why they weren’t able to finish projects on time,” according to Coursera.

“Miscommunication costs businesses with at least 100 employees approximately $450,000, or more a year on average.”

Essentially, people managers must absorb the messages that employees are delivering to them to avoid any miscommunication and to keep employees from quiet quitting.

“Leaders must be great at active listening and pay attention to what their employees are saying,” said Ramirez on why effective communication at work is important. “They must understand their employees’ needs and support them.”

For more information on this topic, contact Thrive HR at (408) 799-1425  or www.thrivehrconsulting.com