Gain knowledge on the latest business communication tools through timely reports, articles and newsletters. Raise the bar when communicating with employees by keeping business communication tools readily available. Tap resources that reflect your company needs and invest in tools to improve communication in your workplace.

The latest industry trends address handling email overload, reading body language, improving verbal communication, and dealing with stress caused by mobile phones and laptops. Stay abreast of these and other communication issues by accessing resources to upgrade your workplace communication.

1. Determine if technological advances add stress to workplace communication.

2. Peruse workplace communication news and trends in newsletters and articles.

3. Fortify your business communication tools with skills that enhance staff relations.

Action Steps for Developing Communication Skills
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Read reports that outline the pros and cons of business communication

Examine the fine line between helpful and harmful technology to keep stress at bay. Research ways to prevent cell phones and other modern communication tools from keeping staff connected to work.

I recommend: BNET Business Network suggests reviewing ways communicating through technology could increase workplace stress. In other words, size up your workplace communication to determine if modern technology enhances or hinders employee communication. InformationWeek.com shows study results about the benefits and challenges of business communication through technology. Learn how your laptop, mobile phone, and PDA serve as mixed blessings for workplace communication.

Access the latest business communication updates in innovate articles and newsletters

Internal communication at the workplace includes verbal and non-verbal employee communication through email, effective listening, speaking, presenting and a host of other areas. Subscribe to newsletters or tune-in to online media sources to stay abreast of industry changes.

I recommend: Tap Business Communication Headline News to access up-to-date trends affecting communication in the workplace. Published by authors of top textbooks on communication, this resource offers reports on listening, presentation, telephone skills and dozens of other topics on workplace communication training. Forbes.com features advice on dealing with email inundation such as archiving company emails as one way to handle the overload.

Build bridges between employees through effective business communication training

Empower your employee communication program with useful skills such as best practices for leaving voice messages. Additionally, show your staff how to read body language to help break down communication barriers, a progressive step toward improving communication.

I recommend: Contact Allbusiness.com to gain a fresh perspective to improve voice mail messages. This company outlines six basic steps to help your employees leave better voice messages. Learn how to check body language for communication cues at The Brampton News. Read this newsletter regularly to gain useful news for communication in the workplace.

Tips & Tactics to Foster Communication in the Workplace

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Use a unified messaging system to enhance your business communication. Access your company's text, fax, email and video messages through a unified system.

Team-building exercises, loved by managers, are often looked upon by employees as time-wasters. But beyond the touchy-feely stuff is what managers know well: Information gets trapped when people don't have communication skills, or when they think communication in the workplace is happening but simply isn't.

Freeing up the flow is a matter of building trust, but it's also hard behaviors that often have to be learned through practice. People talk a lot, but communication in the workplace, getting through — and listening well — are necessary business communication skills.

Covered in this guide:

1. Communication skills as a learned skill
2. Training for effective business communication
3. Electronic means of workplace communication and employee communication.
4. The importance of consistent employee communication.

Action Steps
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Communication skills are learned, and that means consultants

One of the keys to driving better performance, and any kind of change process, is to get your team aligned behind a goal. If employee communication skills in the workplace are lacking, no amount of management pressure will make it happen.

I recommend: What specialists have long called interpersonal communication skills are now taught at the corporate level through structured programs over short periods to meet a specific goal. Some providers of workplace communication skills programs include Engagement Strategies, Trident Communications, Dix & Eaton and Joan Lloyd.

Communication in the workplace means training

Sometimes the issue is not some cultural bottleneck but simply underskilled middle managers. Teach your employees new skills with communications skills workshops and presentation training. To be effective, business communication requires know-how.

I recommend: Booher Consultants does communications skills training for employees. If things are out of hand or seem they might be, consider conflict management training from Mediation Training Institute International.

Effective business communication can be electronic

In large organizations, and even some small ones, it can be reasonable to expect communication in the workplace among teams but impossible for the larger institution to understand what is going on. Imagine how lost managers must feel at times.

I recommend: One means of understanding workplace communication, although not enough by itself, of course, is software. Pollstream and EmailOpen do electronic employee polling, while GoalCentrix links communication to business intelligence.

Workplace communication is a two-way street

Employment alone, let alone management goals, involves a lot of effective business communication. From day of hire through the entire life cycle of an employee, communication in the workplace means reaching them with clear and effective business communication while allowing feedback that can be effectively processed -- crucial to employee communication.

I recommend: See Business.com directory topics on communication skills, employee communication and effective business communication.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Get out ahead of the information. Whether it's informal 'town hall' gatherings, company blogs, a company newsletter or internal electronic mail, effective business communication is important. Letting a competitor or the media make news for your own people can make you look bad or, at least, incompetent when it comes to communication skills.
• •  Understand that office chatter is normal. If the watercooler talk is about the latest movie or the game, fine. But it will also be about the company, prospects, promotions and the like. Within reason, as workplace communication goes, this is a good thing. Imagine if no one cared enough about their work to even discuss it.
• •  Give your people permission to talk and ask questions. Be in the hallways, stop by social events (but don't linger!), be available, and effective business communication happens. In terms of employee communication, an open door policy is good. Managing by walking around is better.

Utilize mainstream and non-traditional tools to improve employee communication in your workplace. Infuse your training for workplace communication with tips on verbal, written, presentation, negotiation and other customary skills. Take your workplace communication training to a higher level by elevating your standards when communicating with employees.

For instance, equip your staff with effective business communication skills by regularly hosting business communication workshops. Use these training opportunities to tackle tough issues such as gender diversity communication. Introduce essential concepts to your staff such as training on compassionate and non-violent communication skills.

1. Contact companies that provide business communication seminars and resources.

2. Block communication barriers between men and women with gender diversity training.

3. Transform your workplace communication with peacemaking strategies.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Jump-start your workplace communication training with customized seminars

Connect with companies that do onsite training at your place of work. Combine universal tools such as verbal and listening skills with your unique communication needs by hiring trainers with tailor-made programs.

I recommend: Contact Alliance Training and Consulting, for onsite communication in the workplace training. Improving communication in your company is convenient with their customized programs that offer guaranteed training. The Richardson Company offers an extensive array of workplace communication resources. Browse through business communication tools pertaining to written and verbal communication as well as presentation and negotiation skills.

Bridge the gap that hinders communication skills in the workplace

Balance your collection of business communication tools with tips for gender diversity dialogue. Empower your team with proven strategies to improve communication between men and women.

I recommend: Mars Venus Workplace Seminars provides gender diversity training. Break down communication barriers between men and women. Incorporate communication skills for gender diversity into your employee communication program. Additionally, hire a professional speaker to serve your workplace communication needs. Speakers Platform provides first-class speakers to train your staff on effective business communication including gender diversity.

Change your employee communication program with compassion and peacemaking skills

Redesign your company's communication methods through techniques to develop staff professionally and personally. Invest in non-violent communication training and related resources. Engage in communication strategies that facilitate peace to help transform your team.

I recommend: PuddleDancer Press specializes in non-violent communication. Hire them to improve your company’s professional and personal communicating skills. Connect with the Communication Dojo for non-traditional training on how to put peacekeeping skills in internal communication at the workplace.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Work with companies that use certified professionals to train your staff. Inquire about customized programs to fit the most pressing needs facing your internal communication at the workplace. Additionally, ask for a list of references to help you gauge their ability and history.

There aren't too many top-performing business leaders who would disagree with the statement that success in today's marketplace depends upon an individual's capacity to communicate. Asserting your ideas in a clear and articulate manner gets the kind of attention from senior level management that translates into promotions. Honestly divulging potentially hazardous workplace conditions to your employees not only engenders their goodwill but protects you from costly litigation down the road. Because these kinds of situations are not out of the ordinary, as a business owner you should understand the most common key terms that characterize superior workplace communication strategies.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Interpersonal communication

Interpersonal communication in the workplace refers to any kind of communication that takes place between coworkers as they go about their daily work.

I recommend: Essortment treats the subject of interpersonal communication in the workplace with an in-depth discussion of the key elements on which this communication—whether verbal or written—depends.

Power talk

Power talk helps you grab attention. It gets your managers and coworkers to recognize both you and the results you're expecting to achieve, especially when it comes to new business ventures.

I recommend: Let All Sands take you through the process of effective power talk strategies, which have been identified as crucial skills for women who want to make significant strides in their companies.

Cultural awareness

You cannot effectively communicate at work if your verbal and nonverbal language antagonizes a particular group of people. Cultural awareness helps you avoid statements that some would consider insensitive, whether intentional or not.

I recommend: Consider the policy and procedures manual at Sunset Bay Health Campus to get a sense for the mindset promoting cultural awareness in the workplace.

Constructive feedback

Employees need constructive feedback, particularly from their superiors, in order to know whether they are meeting company expectations for their work and, if not, what they can do to improve their performance.

I recommend: Business Performance offers practical tips on how to give your employees the constructive feedback their jobs depend on, including how to navigate through sticky situations that have the potential for disaster if the wrong feedback is given.

Hazard communication

When you honestly explain to your employees that fulfilling their principal job duties may expose them to hazardous substances or situations, you are fulfilling your hazard communication duty that is now required by federal laws.

I recommend: Oklahoma State University aims to help employers understand why hazard communication is so essential in today's marketplace. It discusses how complying with federal right-to-know laws requires businesses to draft realistic hazard communication policies.

Nonverbal communication

Nonverbal communication includes all the methods by which you make your thoughts known to others without speaking or writing.

I recommend: BizMove clearly defines the essential role that nonverbal communication plays for today's business leaders. Find out how your superiors and colleagues are interpreting your facial expressions and body gestures and whether your nonverbal communication is sending the right message.