Considering how vital communication is to the success of each and every business, it is important that we constantly strive to improve upon our methods and work to avoid the common pitfalls.
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Mishaps in communication can result in a drop in prodcutivity and focus that will make a significant impact on your top line. And when you study recent research into how often office miscommunication occurs, you’ll realize the importance of recognizing bad communication and tackling it.
Where Miscommunication Occurs in the Office
The research has found 56% of all workers have committed a digital miscommunication in the office (defined here as unintentionally sending a communication to the wrong person).
The most common platform for miscommunication was e-mail, with over a third of all workers (34%) admitting that they had sent one to the wrong colleague. 269 billion e-mails are sent worldwide every single day—many of them, it seems, are sent to the wrong person.
Miscommunication is not exclusive to e-mail. Over a fifth (22%) of workers said they’d sent a text or instant message (such as a WhatsApp) to a colleague by accident. More than 1 in 10 were also found to have miscommunicated using chat services like Skype (12%), and 12% have left a voice mail on the wrong person’s cell phone.
The study also uncovered examples of what kind of information was involved in office miscommunications. As many as 23% of us have accidentally sent something confidential to the wrong person at work. The majority of this was personal information (13%), but 1 in 10 of us have sent confidential business information to someone it was not intended for.
Men were found to commit workplace miscommunication more regularly than women. For example, 70% of men have carried out a digital miscommunication at work, compared to 49% of women.
45% of men have sent an e-mail to the wrong person, 14 percentage points higher than women. Elsewhere, 32% of men have miscommunicated via an instant message or text, and 20% via a voice mail (compared to 19% and 9% respectively for women).
Men also seem much more likely to find themselves in hot water by accidentally sending something insensitive or inflammatory to someone it was not intended for. One in 10 men in the survey admitted to sending some form of sexual content to a colleague it wasn’t meant for (compared to 5% of women).
Men are also much more likely to send insulting comments to the wrong person—26% said they’d done it, an 11 percentage points increase over women. In 10% of cases, the insulting comments ended up being sent to the person they were about, rather than the intended recipient.
Confidential information is miscommunicated on a much more regular basis by men, too. More than one in three have done it (35%), a significant increase from the 24% of women who have done the same.
Three Ways to Avoid Office Miscommunication
When you consider how commonplace miscommunication is in the office, and couple it with the estimated cost—$26,041 per employee each year according to the Holmes report in 2011—you can see why every business needs to make improving communication a priority.
Depending on you, your business logistics, and the nature of your employees, this could be done in a number of ways. Here are three ideas for giving communication a shake-up in your office:
1. Adopt an Open-Door Culture
Miscommunications can often happen when staff are uncomfortable asking managers for clarification of instructions.
Fundamentally, this is a result of bad management. Although miscommunications between managers and staff can be an accident, be sure that all of your managers are fostering an open and relaxed environment with their staff so people feel that they can ask for extra help or clarification when necessary.
Ultimately, managers need to be approachable and recognize that sometimes tasks may need to be explained a little more clearly. By the same token, employees need to be forthcoming if they are not entirely sure on the direction they’ve been given.
2. Review Your Communication Platforms
E-mail is the most commonly used communication method in the workplace, but that doesn’t mean it’s always the most effective.
E-mails can so often be (intentionally or otherwise) ignored and deleted, and in comparison with instant messaging conversation, they can be tediously slow. Look to introduce collaboration tools such as Slack for faster, more effective cross-team communication.
3. Go Old School
You could even get a little bit old-fashioned and inspire staff to increase their level of face-to-face communication. This could be encouraged by introducing a “daily stand-up” or “scrum.” These are brief, daily meetings that cover ongoing projects, allowing employees to voice any barriers or concerns.
Again, e-mails and other digital communication can make ignoring issues all too easy. Adding a direct, face-to-face element allows any barriers to be overcome on the spot, increasing productivity throughout the day.
Travis May is CEO of Tollfreeforwarding.com, providing U.S. toll-free numbers to 25,000 customers spanning 125 countries worldwide.