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Leaders understand that one of the best signs of a successful organization is a highly engaged workforce. When employees are motivated by their work, they perform better than their less-committed counterparts and naturally boost the organization&#;s bottom line.
Yet what&#;s often overlooked is a critical element to employee engagement &#; &#;two-way communication&#; in the workplace. Two-way might seem inherent in any definition of communication, but what often happens at work actually isn&#;t true communication. Rather, it is one-way information delivered by leaders to employees, with limited interaction between the two.
Mastering two-way dialogue helps leaders build a stronger culture, one in which leaders and employees feel a greater sense of trust in each other, have more candid conversations, ask better questions and interact in more substantive ways.
What is two-way communication?
Two-way communication is an exchange of information between two parties during which the speaker and receiver both feel they have an opportunity to share information and provide feedback.
To be most effective, it&#;s helpful to think about two-way communication as an engaging dialogue, never just a leader monologue. To achieve this kind of communication, leaders need to set the right tone and atmosphere to enable the conversation. One of the best ways is for leaders to make the following activities part of their regular routine:
- Showing humanity as a leader, which means being more human as you lead, understanding that nothing really important gets done without genuine relationships, buy-in, trust and support from your full team. When you show humanity with employees, you&#;re naturally more open to their perspectives, needs and point of view.
- Planning the most important communications to be meaningful, interesting and purposeful, increasing the chances of achieving the desired outcome.
- Focusing on the audience and where they are coming from, not just on what the leader thinks and wants to get across. This lets leaders be in the best position to hear and understand what&#;s being shared.
- Allowing sufficient time for a back-and-forth discussion; listening as much as or sometimes more than the leader speaks. Listening for what&#;s being said, and as importantly, what&#;s not being said.
- Regularly checking for understanding to confirm a shared meaning with the employee audience.
- Being open to feedback and posing questions that facilitate this kind of substantive interaction; feedback is also used to frame future communication.
Why is two-way communication important?
The importance of building opportunities for solid two-way communication really can&#;t be overestimated. When two-way communication is well planned and executed, the countless benefits to organizations include:
- Heightened levels of job satisfaction by offering an outlet for employee concerns, ideas and opinions
- Increased productivity because ambiguity about roles/responsibilities/actions is reduced
- Enhanced collaboration across the organization, which can lead to more creativity and innovation
- Improved trust between leadership and employees, which builds internal brand loyalty and offers opportunities for continued growth
Effective Two-Way Communication Is Like a Game of Tennis
Tennis provides a great analogy on the importance of two-way communication. My Dad and I played a lot of tennis growing up. In my teens, my dad even turned his passion into a business, starting a boutique tennis store called, &#;The Wimbledon Shoppe&#; in the suburb of Milwaukee where I grew up.
My dad was a standout tennis player in high school, and that was his wish for me, which was more of a pipe dream. While I had a killer two-handed backhand, I couldn&#;t serve worth a darn. And of course, you can&#;t win if you can&#;t serve well.
Regardless, there was real beauty in tennis when my dad and I got into the proper groove. The best volleys in tennis are when both players fall into a sweet rhythm of serving and returning with focus, precision and skill. That&#;s how it can feel when leaders and employees truly apply two-way communication.
How to Use Two-Way Communication in the Workplace
Leaders who understand the importance of effective two-way communication &#; and how you can&#;t lead without communicating well &#; engage employees with various communication channels that help them connect the dots between individual efforts and organizational goals. The variety of channels is especially important because not all employees like to receive information in the same way. Some may prefer to share ideas through emails or on social platforms; others may want a call or in-person meeting. Offering multiple opportunities to engage helps to address the varied interests and needs.
Obviously, leaders can&#;t be everywhere all the time and spend all of their days in individual meetings. Yet that shouldn&#;t be the excuse for pushing out only one-way messages. There&#;s certainly a time and place when an or presentation from a leader is the right way to begin the communication. The important point, though, is that should never be the only communication vehicle. Just as important as the leadership message itself are the systems put in place to gather employee input. By establishing channels to encourage and funnel feedback from employees to leaders, leaders can create a critical structure to support employee engagement.
In our work with leaders from a variety of organizations, The Grossman Group has distilled our best guidance for supporting two-way communication to four critical tips, including:
1. Understand your audience and what&#;s important to them
To truly move employees to action, leaders need to know what they care about and get into their mindset. That can start with some basic questions, such as:
- What concerns or issues do my employees have that are important to understand as I present this information?
- What do employees currently know or don&#;t know that will be critical to getting them engaged?
- What barriers exist that may prevent employees from supporting this topic &#; and is there anything I can share about how the leadership team is addressing those barriers to support them?
- What exactly do I as a leader want my employees to know, feel and do about the information I&#;m about to share? Knowing the answer to this question helps shape the message far more effectively.
The top priority for building engagement is to give employees the information they need to succeed in their jobs, and ensure they know where to find additional resources. The type of organization, job and level of employee will dictate the most effective channel you use to meet their needs.
As you think about elevating engagement, always ask yourself: &#;What is the most important thing these employees want to know, the best way to encourage real two-way communication and dialogue, and how would they be most comfortable sharing input?&#;
2. Choose or create the best channels
Once you consider the audience and work environment, look at the best ways to engage employees to share their ideas and insights. You may use existing channels or create new ones. Keep in mind feedback channels can be informal &#; such as leaders &#;managing by walking around&#; or supervisors asking for input. Alternatively, they can be more formal mechanisms that invite ideas and questions via print or technology. When determining which channels work best, keep in mind employees&#; time commitment, availability and access to technology. Be sure they can use feedback tools both during and after work hours.
3. Gather and encourage feedback
Once you are ready to implement and promote feedback channels throughout the organization, recognize that what you do with employee input speaks volumes to employees. When leaders respond quickly to ideas and questions, employees get the message their input is valued and they become more committed and engaged. To ensure feedback gets the respect it deserves, assign someone to respond personally and promptly to all employee concerns and ideas. Many organizations also use employee ambassador or communication liaison programs to ensure that employee feedback is being regularly solicited and that the insights are being shared with the leaders empowered to respond and devise solutions.
4. Act on feedback
Highly engaged employees are enthused about their organization and believe they can positively influence its success. That means leaders cannot make the mistake of simply collecting feedback and never doing anything about it. Acting on employee feedback when you can and highlighting the impact employees make is a strong engagement builder. Be sure that all employees know how their colleagues&#; suggestions or ideas are being implemented. Regularly sharing results and requesting additional feedback creates predictable, consistent two-way communication that encourages employees to take ownership and helps reinforce that their ideas are valued by the organization.
How to Encourage Two-Way Communication in the Workplace
As was touched on briefly earlier, showing humanity as a leader is one of the key ways to enable two-way communication. The famous quote from President Theodore Roosevelt sums it up: &#;No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.&#;
In our work with leaders, we&#;ve identified 4 steps to help demonstrate how much you care through two-way communication:
- Step 1: Be visible and communicate frequently. Personal touchpoints are important to show people you understand their need to stay connected and informed, and that you truly value their input. Depending on the size of your team, you can engage with team members regularly either through a daily huddle, regular team meeting, one-on-one meeting, Town Hall meeting or team conversations.
- Step 2: Check on how team members are doing personally. Whenever you can, talk with individual employees about what&#;s happening in their daily lives outside of work, including personal interests, family news or how they are managing challenges inside the organization. By doing so, you&#;ll help team members feel valued and encouraged to engage in two-way communication.
- Step 3. Demonstrate you care by listening with empathy. Leaders can reflect back on what they hear and show sensitivity to employee needs, offering help or guidance whenever possible.
- Step 4. Show appreciation for your team and celebrate the successes. When you say thank you for great work and share specific feedback on what went right, this can boost an employee&#;s feeling of belonging, value and build a greater sense of purpose to the work.
Two-Way Communication Examples
There are a number of ways to engage in two-way communication with employees beyond one-on-one dialogue. Some effective methods we deploy in our work include:
- Example 1: Ask Me Anything. To encourage candid dialogue within a large global organization, some leaders opt to include &#;Ask Me Anything&#; sessions at the conclusion of a Town Hall meeting. Employees can pose unscripted questions to the leader, sometimes even anonymously to encourage tough questions. The leader then shares feedback directly with the team in an authentic way. In doing so, leaders demonstrate that they truly care about creating two-way communication and addressing the top things on employees&#; minds.
- Example 2: 10-Minute Opening Day Huddle. Leaders on a factory floor make a point to meet with the team each morning on the floor before the shift begins. During this meeting, leaders can share critical information about the priorities for the day but also invite questions or concerns. Having this kind of short meeting sets the tone for ongoing communication and can save a lot of time and back-and-forth throughout the day.
- Example 3: Host a &#;Virtual Coffee&#;. Much has been said about the value of &#;management by walking around,&#; which essentially has leaders making a point to circulate the company&#;s offices and check in on people to get a pulse of the mood and offer employees an opportunity to share concerns or perspectives. While remote work has made this practice more challenging, the concept is still sound. Leaders who make time to have genuine two-way conversations with employees can be much more effective in establishing trust and a sense of teamwork. In organizations where many employees remain remote, regularly hosting &#;virtual coffees&#; or check-ins can achieve a similar result, enabling smaller groups of employees to have an open-ended conversation with a leader.
- Example 4. Focus groups. From our experience, leaders don&#;t encourage focus groups as regularly as they should. They can be an excellent tool for gathering real-time feedback on how employees are doing, what main questions are bubbling up and which supports might be needed to overcome any obstacles. When leaders take part in these conversations, they can learn invaluable details on how the team might shift gears to achieve any number of organizational goals.
- Example 5: Lunch and listen. Whenever time permits, leaders should take the time to gather with teams without a specific agenda. During a site visit, tagging on a lunch or dinner casual meeting allows the leader to show the team their personal side. When these meetings are held, leaders should talk less and listen more, showing genuine interest in the team and a desire to promote two-way communication.
- Example 6: Surveys with a Purpose. When organizations conduct employee surveys for feedback on what&#;s going well and what needs improvement, it&#;s especially effective when leaders communicate the findings. By simply sharing the results and then inviting the team to help craft solutions, leaders have an opportunity to regularly demonstrate that they care. This is a perfect way to make the feedback part of a two-way communication loop, all designed to make things better for people and the organization.
The Bottom Line on Two-Way Communication
In workplaces today, where the pace of change is fast and ever-present, it&#;s tempting for leaders to dismiss the importance of two-way communication. Send out an and you can check the box that you&#;ve communicated. But little gets accomplished in business without two-way communication, in which both leaders and employees take the time for a candid exchange, to truly listen to &#; and learn from &#; each other. That&#;s the way leaders can move from average to truly great.
What one step can you take to further encourage two-way communication, increase employee feedback and reap the benefits of doing so?
&#;David Grossman
Armed with these 15 practical tips, you&#;ll be able to encourage two-way communication &#; download the tip sheet today!
Two-way communication is crucial for building trust among employees, aligning company goals, and sustaining productivity. But how can companies successfully incorporate this type of communication in a remote world? We get to the bottom of this.
Your business runs on communication, that much is certain. Messages are shared between staff, employers, clients, and dozens of stakeholders around the clock. But communication doesn&#;t always equal dialogue.
In fact, much of corporate communication consists of one-way messages, designed to impart information. In the meantime, many companies overlook the importance of two-way communication in the workplace. We&#;ll explore why this can be detrimental to your business, and how to improve two-way communication while maximizing its benefits.
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What is Two-Way Communication?
Two-way communication is the process of sharing information back and forth between two parties. In other words, it&#;s a conversation where both the sender and receiver invite and offer feedback. And most importantly, two-way communication is never a monologue.
To maximize the benefits of two-way communication in the workplace, dialogue should be continuous. In other words, the flow of information between the sender and the receiver should be consistent. Effective internal communications tools, methods, and channels are vital in facilitating this process.
ContactMonkey&#;s interactive employee engagement software helps to facilitate dialogue in the workplace. It differs from other workplace digital communications tools because it doesn&#;t simply send out information. It encourages conversations through employee pulse surveys, anonymous comments, a range of interactive elements.
Types of Two-Way Communication
Two-way communication doesn&#;t always mean instantaneous face-to-face (or these days, screen-to-screen) conversations. It also doesn&#;t exclusively involve dialogue between managers and subordinates.The latest innovative internal communications tools let you transform traditional communication channels into two-way messaging tools.
Here are just some of the ways that two-way communications can manifest in the workplace:
- Horizontal two-way communication: communication between employees of the same rank is known as horizontal two-way communication.
- Vertical two-way communication: this type of two-way communication takes place between a superior and their employees.
- Asynchronous two-way communication: dialogue isn&#;t all about face-to-face conversation. Including a question or survey in your asynchronous communications is a great way to initiate dialogue.
- Instantaneous two-way communication: this can include things like texting staff VIA employee SMS internal communications. If you choose to go this route, select a high-performance employee text messaging system and make sure to follow SMS content best practices.
Check out our blog on the importance of internal communication and learn how to get team buy-in for effective digital employee communication tools.
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Why is Two-Way Communication Important?
Two-way communication is important because it builds trust and helps improve the free flow of ideas in the workplace.
Consider the process of organizational innovation. Contrary to what many imagine, it&#;s not all about CEOs spawning brilliant ideas and passing them along to staff.
Instead, it&#;s about employees from all levels of the company sharing insights, getting feedback, and going back to the drawing board.
The same goes for problem-solving. If employees and managers don&#;t welcome creative criticism and new ideas, it becomes difficult to introduce new ways of thinking and doing. As such, companies end up using age-old solutions to tackle new problems, and finding themselves at a dead end.
When it comes to building trust, two-way communication helps employees feel comfortable sharing feedback with colleagues and leaders. As employees see that their input is welcomed and valued, they begin to open up more. In turn, more honest and authentic conversations begin to take place, which strengthens workplace relationships.
Benefits of Two-Way Communication
The main advantages of two-way communication is in building trust and enhancing communication systems by improving idea-sharing. But these assets lead to a range of indirect benefits as well. Here are just a few of the top ones to keep in mind:
- Greater mutual understanding: continuous two-way communication prevents misunderstandings and one-directional thinking.
- Improved team alignment and collaboration: when employees are used to back-and-forth communication it becomes harder to create siloes. Collaboration also becomes natural. Use internal collaboration software to make this happen.
- Increased employee engagement: when remote employees are consistently involved in cross-organizational dialogue, it prevents isolation and disconnection.
- Greater job satisfaction: two-way communication offers an outlet for employee concerns, ideas, opinions, leading to heightened employee satisfaction.
- Increased job productivity: consistent dialogue leads to less ambiguity about tasks, projects, and responsibilities. As a result, there are less obstacles to workflow.
- Improved trust between employees: two-way communication helps employees feel more comfortable, leads to honest and authentic feedback, and nurtures trust towards leaders.
Understand the link between workplace engagement and business success with our breakdown of the latest employee engagement statistics.
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How to Encourage Two-Way Communication in the Workplace
Recognizing the benefits of two-way communication is important. But you may still be wondering &#;How do I actually implement this type of communication in the workplace?&#;
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Don&#;t sweat it. Below, we cover some simple two-way communication best practices that you can easily incorporate into your internal messaging.
1. Picking the right communication channels
Two-way communication is only as effective as the channels and tools that you use to facilitate it. Take stock of your existing communication channels and identify the preferred methods of communication among employees.
Once you know what&#;s working, bolster your existing internal communication channels or implement new tools accordingly.
For instance, if employees are most vocal across Slack communities, start boosting two-way conversations through weekly surveys. If your newsletter garners a lot of engagement, use it to solicit more employee feedback, which can lead to new company newsletter ideas.
Pro tip: Use an interactive internal communications tool like ContactMonkey to improve two-way communication. ContactMonkey transforms static emails into dynamic conversations through comment boxes, videos, GIFs, and surveys in Outlook and Gmail.
Choosing which employee you communicate with is important for gathering the feedback you need. With ContactMonkey, you can create custom lists for different groups of employees with our List Management feature. ContactMonkey integrates with your Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) like Workday and ADP, as well as Azure Active Directory, so your created lists will be automatically updated as employees join and leave your company.
7 ways to get genuine employee feedback in surveys
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2. Creating a culture of employee feedback
To truly improve two-way communication, you&#;ll need to foster a culture of feedback in the workplace. After implementing the right feedback tools and channels, you should consistently gather employee input while encouraging upward feedback to managers.
Employee surveys and wellness check-ins should be conducted on a regular basis. In addition, leaders and managers should be encouraging feedback directly. This includes leaving time for Q&A during weekly stand ups and town halls.
Written leadership communications should also end with a question and offer more opportunities for feedback. For instance, you can add anonymous feedback boxes at the end of employee emails. This shows employees that their ideas and opinions are valued and encourages dialogue.
Use ContactMonkey&#;s pulse surveys to gather quick, continuous employee feedback. These types of employee surveys can be embedded directly into newsletters and their short, simple format encourages more participation.
3. Showing empathy and transparency
You wouldn&#;t want to open up to someone who you know to be judgmental and critical. Neither do your employees. That&#;s why showcasing empathy, authenticity, and transparency across your communications is a key way to encourage dialogue
So how do you visibly demonstrate these qualities? For starters, pull back on corporate jargon and using language that conveys coolness or indifference. Instead, use more plain, simple language across your internal communications.
You can even add humour by inserting animated GIFs in emails or including fun employee survey questions. Comedy is disarming and can make your employees feel more comfortable sharing and engaging in two-way communication.
Add GIFs and embed videos into internal communications using ContactMonkey&#;s HTML templates. Our responsive template builder allows you to incorporate a range of multimedia directly into your employee emails.
4. Always acting on employee feedback
Acting on employee feedback is one of the most durable ways to encourage two-way communication. It shows your employees the value of their feedback and provides an incentive to speak up more often.
Say you&#;ve sent your employees a Slack message asking them for ideas on incentivizing customers to leave more reviews. You&#;ve gathered some great suggestions and plan to implement them into your Customer Success workflow.
The next step is to recognize the value of employee feedback and share how you plan to use it. In your next employee newsletter, add a quick appreciation message to your team and highlight how you&#;ll be utilizing their recommendations.
Not only is this incredibly simple to do, but it will incentivize employees to share their input in the long run.
Improve employee engagement and boost two-way communication by implementing one of our 20+ employee recognition ideas.
Examples of Two-Way Communication
Two-way communication is crucial when it comes to getting employees to weigh in on company decisions and ways to improve employee experience. Let&#;s look at some two-way communication examples to see practical ways to implement it in your organization.
1. Interactive employee newsletters
Interactive emails promote two-way communication by encouraging employees to engage with a range of different media. Unlike static emails, interactive newsletters invite employees to rate content using stars and like buttons, respond with comments, and complete surveys.
With ContactMonkey&#;s interactive internal communications tool, users have access to all of these features alongside powerful internal analytics. You can gather employee feedback, along with engagement metrics all in your ContactMonkey dashboard.
Learn how to improve your employee communications with compelling internal communications storytelling.
By tracking engagement, you can use data to improve your two-way communication strategy.
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2. Employee pulse surveys and anonymous questionnaires
The short, focused nature of employee pulse surveys makes them easy to use on a frequent basis. By getting staff in the habit of sharing input and ideas, pulse surveys help make two-way communication feedback the norm across your organization.
Pulse surveys are normally positioned alongside other communications, like employee newsletters. This helps contextualize their topics.
For instance, if you want to find out whether employees are interested in more employee engagement opportunities, you can ask engagement questions next to an announcement about your upcoming virtual team building engagement games.
Anonymous feedback options also complement pulse surveys by giving employees the option to elaborate on their survey response:
Whether you&#;re conducting employee exit surveys, company culture questionnaires, or employee engagement surveys, ContactMonkeylets you embed feedback options across your internal emails. Your company newsletters turn into a two-way employee engagement channel through emoji reactions, thumbs up/down, and a range of survey options.
Want to make beautiful newsletters faster? Learn how to create an employee newsletter that stands out with our step-by-step guide. Or if you&#;re looking to create newsletter content quickly, try using our OpenAI ChatGPT integration. Leveraging AI tools for corporate communications is a great way to try out different formats, create first drafts, and get ideas for your newsletter that can then be tweaked and customized for your audience.
3. Virtual town halls
Virtual town halls are live stream events that bring together employees and leaders. It&#;s where managers provide key updates and employees have time to ask questions face-to-face. This makes virtual town halls a hub for two-way communication&#;if managed properly.
In addition to reserving time for Q&A sessions, you can conduct polls throughout your town hall to boost two-way communication. Employees can also be invited to give &#;shoutouts.&#; This gives staff an opportunity to recognize fellow colleagues and improves two-way horizontal communication.
You can maximize two-way communication during your next town hall by following our complete virtual town hall meeting guide. To ensure that your town hall runs smoothly, we also recommend using ContactMonkey&#;s event management tool. It allows you to create, promote, and manage your virtual events straight from your internal newsletter.
4. Employee wellness check-ins
Wellness check-ins enable managers to assess a number of factors that impact employee wellbeing and engagement in the workplace. But they also facilitate two-way communication and encourage employers and managers to build trust.
Staff gain an outlet for sharing any challenges that they&#;re experiencing. They can also suggest resources that your company can provide to help.
Wellness check-ins can be done in-person during your weekly meetings with staff. They can also take on the form of two-way communication campaigns. In the latter example, employee wellness surveys are sent out to employees in their newsletter.
Our guide on employee wellness surveys helps you learn how to lead successful employee wellness check-ins. It also shows you how to use them to promote two-way communication.
5. Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)
eNPS surveys are designed to check employee engagement levels across your organization. They do this by measuring the likelihood of your employees recommending your business to others as a place to work.
What makes them an effective two-way communication tool is their ability to tackle two priorities at once. While measuring employee engagement, eNPS surveys also invite employees to give feedback consistently through their simple, straightford structure:
With ContactMonkey, you can track the results of your eNPS survey in your analytics dashboard. If you notice glaring issues with employee engagement, you can reach out to employees directly, asking for further feedback. In this way, eNPS surveys help promote continuous two-way communication.
Learn how to build a business case for internal communications campaigns, tools, and initiatives with our step-by-step guide.
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Use Two-Way Communication to Drive Productivity
Two-way communication ensures that information moves in all directions across your organization. This maximizes collaboration and idea-sharing, promotes innovation, and boosts trust in leadership. But to get the most out of two-way communication you need to have tools designed to promote dialogue.
Learn how to use an internal communications software to improve employee dialogue at your organization. Track your improvements over time to demonstrate the real benefit of your internal communications.
ContactMonkey doesn&#;t simply send out information. It helps you engage employees in conversation through interactive emails and embedded pulse surveys. Book your free demo to see ContactMonkey in action.
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