Since effective communication is the key to satisfied and happy employees, you can start there! Best businesses are recognized by a healthy and friendly environment, and one of the most efficient ways of creating it is by improving communication. Here are a couple of tips that will boost in-house communication in no time!

1. Focus on the onboarding process

Even though the communication with the future employee starts well before their first day, the onboarding process is the crucial aspect of building quality in-house communication. Not every new recruit will be friendly and open straight away. Therefore, you need to focus on the onboarding process and make them feel comfortable.

During the process, highlighting the importance of communication in your firm is essential. Try to come up with different approaches that will suit different individuals during their first week on the job. On top of that, be hospitable enough, and introduce the new employee with their colleagues, help them start the conversation and get to know each other better!

2. Create a healthy atmosphere

Sadly, toxic workplaces are more common than healthy ones. No matter where you go, you’ll certainly meet at least one toxic person. That’s why it’s HR’s and manager’s job to create a healthy and friendly atmosphere where everyone will feel welcomed!

The truth is, you can’t spot a toxic person straight away. But if it is in your team, don’t indulge in gossiping, maltreatment, bullying, and similar. That’s how you’ll support healthier workplace culture and enforce your beliefs onto others. In addition to that, a healthy atmosphere creates effective and honest communication, which is much needed in any type of workplace.

Also Read: Workplace Injury – What to Do if You Are Injured on the Job

3. Build trust and honesty

How much time do you need before genuinely trusting someone? Some people build bonds within days, weeks, months while some may even take years! While trust and open communication are important in business, you don’t have time to waste! Is there a way to speed up the process in the workplace?

Give your team a little nudge in the right direction by organizing team building and team bonding activities. By getting to know each other you’re building an atmosphere where trust and honesty will grow. This results in open communication and better productivity, which will naturally lead to a happier and more satisfied team. Keep in mind that you don’t have to agree with everyone to be their colleague! So, put your differences aside and work together towards the shared values and goals.

4. Enforce feedback culture

Without feedback, communication doesn’t make sense! It’s a two-way process that encourages people to grow and develop their skills and abilities further. However, to ask your colleagues or teammates for honest feedback, you need to teach them how to provide one. Is there a wrong way of giving feedback?

Definitely! Feedback should be aimed towards behavior, never towards someone’s personality. It should include advice on how to improve or where to seek improvement. Also, if you want to enforce a feedback culture, you need to learn what is the appropriate context to ask for one. Face to face and one on one situations are more suitable as you wouldn’t want to insult anyone. Feedback is a fantastic way of improving communication as it will strengthen the bond and create room for improvement.

5. Use apps and tools

We can agree that in-person communication works the best for some people. However, is it always the most efficient way of reaching out to someone? Various communication apps and tools can help you get the information you need faster. So, why not give them a chance?

Besides being able to reach your colleagues faster, communication apps tend to increase engagement, trust, and in-team bonding. They are a fantastic means of sharing important data and information you need to access straight away, yet they are faster than emails. So, if you want to learn more about the benefits of such tools, find out more here.

6. Provide communication training

Last, but not least, including some type of informal education in the process of communication improvement is extremely beneficial. Some employees won’t take you or the HR department seriously, therefore providing training may be the best solution to improve internal communication.

When choosing suitable training for your team, ensure it will teach them communication types, assertive communication, and types of different communicators. Explain that it’s training that benefits the employees and increases productivity and workplace effectiveness. Additionally, training can also be an incredible way of bringing people together and creating a stronger bond.

Final thoughts

Effective and honest communication is the right path towards success. Instead of focusing only on the end result, pay more attention to the people. It all begins with open and truthful communication and ends with a healthy and happy team. Keep in mind that the change won’t happen overnight. It’s a rocky road with a lot of ups and downs, but in the end, it will all be worth it!

We were pondering over ideas on where to go. A lunch/dinner would simply be too dull and repetitive. That’s when one of my colleagues suggested going to an escape room! After researching on various websites, we decided to go to Breakout, Koramangala. That was the closest to the office, hence easily accessible. Also, we chose to go on a weekday, so that the chances of having the place to ourselves was more.

The booking was made prior, to their website. It was an easy process. We were asked to reach the place 15 minutes earlier to complete certain formalities.  The game master took us through the format of the escape room and handed us a basic phone that we could use to contact him, in case we got stuck somewhere.

To make the experience wholesome, we were not allowed to carry our own mobiles and the clicking of pictures was strictly prohibited. I am glad it was like that since we could soak in the entire mystery-solving process without distractions!

We were about 21 people. We divided ourselves into teams of 7 each and the people at Breakout were kind enough to organize a competition between the teams to see who beats the clock faster!

The puzzles to choose from were so wide in variety. To mention a few, for example, you could play a detective solving a case or you could involve yourself in looting the vault of a bank!

Oh boy, we definitely spent a lot of time debating which one to go for!

Almost an eternity later, we settled for ‘Bank Job,’ where we had to become robbers. Our mission was to loot the extremely secure safe in the Royal Bank of Rajasthan. The safe contained antique gold bars that were worth quite a fortune!

After a briefing of the rules, we entered the escape room. The minute we stepped in, it felt like we’d been teleported into a whole different universe. Even better, it was like we were starring in a crime genre film. The room was so movie-like, with a cinematic ambiance. It was filled with props that were so convincing.

We were instructed not to change the position of the props or cause any damage to them. The game would be terminated if there was any such occurrence.  The game master announced that our time had begun. We had an hour to make our escape!

Now, who really thought we’d be pulling an Indian version of Money Heist even before it became a thing? As we shuffled around the room, the clues kept getting more confusing, but we did manage to decode them after wracking all our brains.

There was a point where we were not able to figure out a clue and the game master graciously provided us with guidance that cleared our path to the next clue!

We were running tight on time and finished exactly five minutes before an hour. The amount of relief and satisfaction we got was way more than what we felt when we cracked that deal in the office!

Maybe that’s what escape rooms essentially do. They help you get rid of stress and loosen up. They help you escape. It is an escape from real-world, into one of fantasy.

What made it unique, was the fact that we took this experience as a team. It helped us understand the importance of communication. We worked up solutions together, decisions were made unanimously.

The escape room is a thorough mix of adventure, problem-solving, and creativity. Additionally, it also challenged us into managing time efficiently. It is designed in such a manner that it serves not just as entertainment but also as a team-building activity.

By the end of it, I can guarantee that escape the rooms are indeed a great option for corporate outings. It has contributed majorly towards the bond that we all share.  We discovered how each of us possesses a skill that would’ve never come up in the work environment.

With each ticking minute, the stress begins to build up, causing tension amongst the team members as we did not want to fail.  However, by talking to one another and moving ahead with some clarity, we got to the exit. And we were on cloud nine!

The escape made everything worth it! We’d just cracked open a vault stocked up with gold, rob all of it and managed to escape after a brilliant heist. How exciting could it get? It is a healthy way to challenge your co-workers towards achieving a common goal- the escape.

Coming from the experience I’ve had, I’d suggest not to appoint power positions such as a team leader. Let go of all that for a day and act based on team consensus, where each member gets to contribute equally.

That day, we got to see everyone in a competitive spirit, without being disappointed if faced with defeat. We cheered when a team made it out the quickest, even if that meant we weren’t the winning team. It helped us mingle with people outside our department, it was a much-needed ice breaker!

I’d recommend Breakout to everyone thinking of corporate outing or team building activities. They gave us first-timers a memorable experience that we’ll cherish for the longest time.

The day filled with fun, laughter, a lot of thought, and mystery finally came to an end and we knew things were going to change on the work front when we got back, for good. I walked into the escape room with ‘colleagues’ and walked out with friends.