Poor communication is the leading factor behind most of the complaints made within an organization.
Communication is an expansive subject with several aspects to it. It is easy for a leader to get frustrated and baffled when he has been working hard to enhance communication at his organization and yet it is not working.
Proper communication helps employees to retain and engage their employees. This is more so in the case of millennial employees who want everything transparent and are looking to communicate with their employers. Therefore, engaging these young workers requires listening to them properly and communicating with them regarding the organizational culture, business goals and career paths.
What several leaders fail to recognize is that just as in everything else, quality matters more than quantity in communication as well. Simply increasing the frequency of communication will not help. You have to make sure that that communication is actually working. For instance, by making sure that the people feel they are being heard and that they are considered a valuable asset to the company. One important way to improve your communication is by connecting with your employees; build a bridge between them and yourself and use it for effective communication.
Connect
Gone are the days when you had to be always formal and strict at workplace. It has now become more acceptable to be yourself and doing that does not mean that your authority is being challenged. On the contrary, your team feels more connected to you. When you get rid of workplace formalities your employees are more relaxed about being authentic at work. Also, since millennials value transparency they are going to look up to you more if you are being authentic rather than fake. You will be able to retain them because they would appreciate your organizational culture that celebrates diversity, shares experiences and stories and values strengths. When people leave a company it is not normally because they have complaints against the organization but because they cannot get along with the people. This is why creating personal connections with your team is so important.
Coach
If millennials do not find any career opportunities at an organization they are more likely to leave it. It is not that some organizations do not have such opportunities at all. The real problem is that the leaders do not communicate these opportunities to their team. They are more concerned with bossing around than with coaching the employees’ talents, and to coach them the leader needs to be on a sound standing with them with respect to the communication between the two. When you have proper communication with them it becomes easier to understand what they hold important and how you can coach them better.
Use technology
The current modern age has given us so many options to communicate that it would be a shame wasting them. Use technology for your communication purposes and use it efficiently and appropriately. Select your tool according to the goal you want to achieve and the kind of employees you have. Some organizations have intranets for this purpose while others use closed social networks or email messaging. You probably make sure to have sound communication with your customers; give the same importance to your employees as well.
Give value
Being a leader you have to show value toward every person of the company irrespective of their position and age. A Deloitte study revealed that six out of ten millennials consider having a sense of purpose to be very important and the major reason they would work at an organization. Proper communication with your team and employees regarding the company’s objectives and standards helps to gain a sense of what it is they are working for and they struggle to achieve that when they realize that their efforts are actually making a difference to those goals. Millennials feel the need to stay engaged in the tasks they do in order to be able to work to the best of their efficiency. Your best bet is to keep them in the loop and do that regularly.
Address their concerns
Your team and employees may be facing certain problems at the workplace. Make yourself accessible to them so they discuss their issues with you. When they do so, address their concerns. Suggest options as to how they can solve the problem. If it requires some input on your part, evaluate how much you can cooperate without disrupting your routine or the organization. See to it that the workplace conditions are healthy and clean. Make sure that if anyone is being asked to overwork they are compensated for the extra efforts and sincerely thanked as well. Give proper and due benefits to your employees.
