Successful Communication Strategies to Help Employees Through Change

What managers say and the connection they have with their employees leads to productivity and change. According to an article in the Business and Professional Communication Quarterly it is necessary for managers to have a solid communication strategy with employees to help them shift through uncertainty (DuFrene & Lehman, 2014). This means open and honest communication. The paper provides a few suggestions.

-Commit to communicate.

-Be direct.

-Validate fears instead of masking the facts.

-Share factual information about losses, downturns, and bad press.

-Communicate throughout the change process.

-Make communications personal and personable.

-Ask for ideas.

-Suggest strategies.

-Talk about something other than the problems.

-Maintain a positive attitude.

Like you, the employee has many unanswered questions about the company, their job, and their future. When information is open and the communication is honest the employees will trust what the manager is saying.

DuFrene, D. & Lehman, C. (2014). Navigating Change: Employee Communication in Times of Instability. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, 77 (4).