Workplace Communication

The workplace communication is extremely important in mobile auto services and if anyone has ever worked with a company, which puts in new windshields, does auto detailed or does mobile installation of audio or video systems, car alarms or cell phones; knows this.

It may not seem that workplace communication is important in mobile auto services but it definitely is something to be considered. You see, so often people think of workplace communication as what happens in an office building with an office manager and several people running around doing things. But workplace communication out in the field is extremely important for efficiency and also safety.

Having been in the mobile auto services business for 27 years I can tell you that when you are working with a crew efficiently it is obvious that it is because the workplace communication is in sync.

In the past I h...

Using the skills, strategies, and smarts of lawyers, you’ll be able to more effectively coach your employees to optimal performance. Here are 4 great tips to help you give constructive feedback in such a way that you motivate positive and productive performance...

1. Give evidence of performance to employee. In litigation, prosecutors are required to turn all of their evidence over to the defense. In order to be fair to employees, supervisors need to do the same thing. Tony frequently received disturbing memos from his district manager about his poor performance on sales calls. "You failed to cover the Five Points for Sales Excellence with a customer last month. This is unacceptable." Tony never received a monitoring sheet spelling out the discrepancies, never heard a tape of a recorded call, and he didn't even have the opportunity to defend himse...

When businesses talk about workplace communication they often talk about the importance of the efficiencies of the workflow. Workflow efficiencies need fewer employees so they can become more productive and develop a stronger synergy and teamwork to get the job done faster.

Workplace communication in the office is one way the business can improve efficiencies throughout the entire company. As we look at some of the top companies and their workplace communication we can see that with high-tech computer systems employees are able to talk over long distances as if the other person were in the real next room. And those who are in the next room often communicate via instant messaging and E-mail rather than peaking their head out the door and shouting down the hall or in a Corporation using the old proverbial paper memo.

If we want to study workplace communication there is pr...

Workplace communication is not just important in office work. In many industries the workplace is larger than just the office. Consider if you will a trucking company that is nationwide with trucks and dispatchers serving the entire North American continent.

There are such companies and there are large corporations, which deliver their own product who also run nationwide; consider Wal-Mart which operates in Mexico, the United States and Canada. It's trucks and dispatchers must deliver all the products and goods to their stores on-time so that the rest of the population can find the product that they are looking for on the shelves.

Now consider 190,000 SKUs in a super Wal-Mart and how all those products have to get to market. Now do you understand the importance of workplace communication with trucking and with dispatchers?

You see, workplace communication in the ...

Workplace communication in companies and corporations is important not only in the office buildings but also out in the field. Consider if you will the importance of workplace communication in the flow of work in a truck wash. This may sound funny but if you study finite capacity scheduling models in manufacturing and you consider that truck washing is somewhat of an assembly line endeavor you can understand that the workflow depends on proper communication between the employees.

Unlike manufacturing were all the machines talk to themselves through computer systems in the modern-day factories; truck washes often have human laborers doing the brushing, washing and spraying. Each member of a truck wash team has a responsibility whether it is brushing a certain part of the truck or rinsing it with high-pressure hot water.

Without proper communication you find that the soap...

Work place experience is extremely important and nowhere is it more important than to military professionals and commanders in battle. Many battles have been won or lost solely based on having superior communication over the enemy. In the new paradigm of warfare you can consider Work Place Communication omnipotent and worthy of your undivided attention.

This is why the United States of America Military has spent billions designing communication systems and state of the art encryption for the modern Net Centric Battlespace. “Lose Lips Sink Ships” and the communication must be secure, just as if it were an IT system in a modern Corporation trying to secure itself from hackers.

A lot can be learned from the military, their chain of command and their seriousness of the little details in the Net-Centric Battlespace. Work Place Communication in the Net Centric Battlespace is the...

With hundreds of sex offenders lurking in every corner, it is impossible to always stay protected. Unfortunately, these sexual predators are now showing up in some of our safest places, including the workplace. While these issues can become dangerous and humiliating, it is important to always stay informed on what to do if this happens to you. Below are tips on how to not only recognize sexual harassment, but also how to prevent such occurrences.

If you start to feel uncomfortable at work, you need to explore why this is happening. If an employee is verbally attacking you – whether it is through offensive language or jokes, you need to take action. Far too often employees are sexually assaulted, yet they feel that it is not a big enough deal to report. Although this is a huge type of sexual harassment, there are others that aren’t so obvious. Nonverbal communication is also a fo...

There is no doubt about it - meetings take up a good amount of our time on a weekly basis. Think back for a minute on all the time you spent in meetings this past year - whether they were one-on-one meetings or a group meeting in a conference room. WOW, that's a lot of time spent meeting! Was it all necessary? And how much time was spent traveling to and from those meetings? Would some of them have been just as effective without everyone in the same physical place?

Do all meetings need to be face-to-face meetings? That's a question people don't ask often enough. It's not as ‘new' or radical a concept as it seems at first blush. Isn't a telephone call a type of virtual meeting? But we are so accustomed to meeting face-to-face that our natural reaction is to think it is necessary. But is it always necessary? And is there a better way to use both the time and money spent just getti...

In today’s fast paced corporate culture, knowledge is considered to be a form of power, and your organisation’s ability to share information is directly linked to its efficiency in the marketplace. The effective relaying of information is not only essential to the public, but also to all the internal members of your organisation, in so doing to effectively communicate the ideas, morals and goals of the organisation, as well as streamlining workforce productivity, time management and wide reaching management decisions and business operations.

It is therefore essential to your organisation to have a well designed and smoothly implemented Intranet. Simply put, an intranet is a network of computers sharing information through the use of internet protocols. Intranets are used internally in organisations to facilitate communication and access to corporate information. Being built on t...

Like most organizations in this tough economy, yours is one with challenging issues that aren't going to go away on their own. You're going to have to take real action - something purposeful and programmed to let everyone know you mean change - large scale (like a new corporate strategic focus) or more localized (such as departmental shifts).

You realize that the first step requires you to acknowledge that change is needed - your organization's survival depends upon it. People need to know that you've got a plan for making that change happen. But the truth is, effective internal communication has never been one of your organization's strong suits. Worse yet, you may not even be certain what it is that you need to communicate or how to measure it.

What makes this problem even more alarming is that yours, like most modern organizations, seems armed to the teeth with the kind...

What is a Cultural Training Programme?

A cultural training programme helps to identify the key dimensions of culture such as the concept of self, styles of communication, attitudes and more in exploring the cultural implications of working in a specific country. It builds awareness of diverse culture and is essential for companies exposed to cross-cultural misunderstandings. International communicators can be helped to face the challenge of overcoming differences through programmes of this type.

Cross-Cultural Issues

Culture reflects in behaviour and affects even the simplest common interactions. Consequently, it is important to plan for and manage effectively possible problems that might arise in a cross-cultural environment. The following are among the key issues to be handled in any multicultural organisation:

• There are many theoretical and ...

Establishing and maintaining clear written policies and procedures is one of the key factor is having a successful business. Even if you have just one employee, you need written procedures to prevent mistakes.

Most people it seems would rather eat dirt than sit down and write a policy and procedure manual, but when you understand the benefits of having one, you will realize it is worth the effort. Also, eating dirt may be good for you according to the sea salt advocates.

Some of the Benefits of written procedures:

Having written procedures prevent mistakes
Having written procedures frees your creativity
Having written procedures saves time
Having written procedures ensures consistency and improves quality
Having written procedures will free you from worry about your employee's decisions

The more detailed the procedure the better. Instead of...

This July 4th I ran a road rally in Bell Buckle, Tn. It was lots of fun and it got me thinking about what makes a fun rally. One factor that came to mind is having clear instructions.

One of the best ways I have found for improving employee performance is by giving them clear concise work instructions.

Too many times I have seen work instructions be a list of things not to do. The "Thou Shalt Not" list as I call it. Often these are important safety suggestions like "Thou shalt not place thy hand between the rollers for it shall be severed from thy arm."

But what gets lost here is what are you supposed to do to get the job done correctly.

When we did the process safety management procedure for our distillation process at Westvaco, I made sure that we included what needed to be done to make a quality product come out of the column along with the warnings on what ...

Building a Feedback Culture at Work

Giving feedback simply means telling people how they're going at work. However, the real art of feedback is the ability to also accept feedback yourself - being prepared to listen to what others tell you, without being defensive if it's bad news.

Building a feedback culture in your organization, where everyone is comfortable about giving and receiving feedback about their performance, builds employee morale. Accepting feedback yourself helps you discover ways to improve your own or your business performance.

Many managers and supervisors though equate feedback with delivering bad news, with criticism of poor employee performance. But employee feedback also can, and should, be about giving good news. The reality seems to be that it isn't often done.

Giving, and taking, feedback starts at the top, with the busines...

In the age of the electronic message, many not-for-profit organizations are missing out on vital communication opportunities by doing things the way they’ve always been done. Organizations who successfully leverage email as an instant communication tool can reap the benefits every day. Ideas for using email effectively are listed below:

Volunteer Needs

Sending an email to members requesting a specific volunteer need will ensure the need can be filled quickly and will allow members to pass the information along to others who may be willing to help

Employment or Board positions

Networking through their membership with a quick email will enable organizations to decrease their time to fill on important employment opportunities and/or permanent volunteer positions such as the Board of Directors.

Proxy Voting

Missing a quorum at you...

Feedback at Work - Give and Take

What can you say to your employees and how can you say it?
Where can you give and get feedback?
How can you bring out the best in your staff?
How do you handle difficult interchanges without inflaming the situation?
How do you respond to critical feedback yourself?

Positive feedback, when you tell people they've done well, should be easy. For example:

• thanking people for doing a job well
• commending them for solving a problem for you
• discussing progress with teams and praising their commitment
• celebrating successes when team members' combined efforts have paid off