Business communication is simply the process of sharing sensitive information between various employees within and outside of an organization. Businesses use this information to aid in decision making and improve overall business performance. However, proper business communication skills are essential in any organization. Without it, a business owner runs the risk of losing important business information and strategies that can greatly impact future business efforts.
One of the primary reasons for the low employee satisfaction rate in today's business world is because communication within the business has become highly complex and challenging. Many businesses have replaced direct human communication with a computer generated email and verbal communications. This has created a low employee satisfaction rate due to a lack of meaningful communication between people within an organization. In addition, it has led to employees searching for more business opportunities outside the company in order to make more money.
Effective business communication requires an objective and detailed way to share information among employees and departments. This requires thorough planning and systematic development of communication strategies among departments and across the entire organization. The creation of organizational goals is a crucial component of any effective communication strategy.
Organizational goals dictate all of the business communication activities leading up to the creation of those goals. To create an effective communication strategy, communication among all levels of the organization must be considered in depth. Planning and writing effective business communication agendas are a time consuming task that often leads to inefficiencies and mistakes. To avoid these mistakes, a clear understanding of the organization's objectives and purpose is necessary prior to the scheduling of meetings, managing staff meetings, scheduling regular feedback meetings and other written communication activities.
Regular feedback meetings regarding business communication processes should be scheduled. These meetings provide an opportunity for current and new employees to voice their opinions and problems without fear of disapproval from higher management. It is also a perfect time to implement improvements in organizational policies and practices that may be beneficial to the organization and its employees. Management meetings are a valuable tool for addressing employee concerns. Management meetings are also a valuable tool for monitoring and assessing the effectiveness of internal communications policies and procedures.
To facilitate in external business communication, it is important for organizations to take steps to mitigate internal communication channels. Internal channels include e-mail, internal intranet, groupware, discussion boards, fax and phone. External communication is largely dependent on two major factors - the nature of the business (i.e., face-to-face interaction with real people) and the appropriate channel selected (i.e., direct mail, internet, etc.). Most external business communication takes place in face-to-face meetings. External communication, therefore, is a part of most businesses and focuses on two main issues: the promotion of the organization's message and the countering of negative internal and external messages. The effectiveness of internal and external communication depends on the ability to effectively use the resources available to meet the goals and objectives of the organization.
One of the important ways to measure business communication and its effect on organizational performance is to look at how well communication and teamwork among employees improve organization-wide performance. A variety of studies have found that among employees, those who work in high stress environments are more likely to be prone to unhealthy corporal behavior such as smoking, drinking and theft. Although work-related stress and absenteeism can increase workload among employees, workers in high-stress environments are more likely to be susceptible to negative interpersonal communications (i.e., gossip, criticism, and hostility) which can undermine their performance.
Among the many tools available for effective business communication and among the most popular are web-based conferencing, teleconferencing, video conferencing, and online chat/video sessions. Video conferencing can help organizations conduct meetings when it is inconvenient to travel to remote locations. Web based conferencing provides easy accessibility to participants even if they are located in different time zones. Web-based conferencing has a number of advantages over traditional face-to-face meetings, including reduced costs and inconvenience. It also provides employees with the ability to see a presentation on their screens from wherever they are--which can also save them time. With the wide variety of features and options available on web-based conferencing, it's possible to incorporate all kinds of business communication functions to ensure that every employee gets the advantage of meeting objectives.