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Personal Communication Is Critical to Deterring Rumors and Soothing Employee Concerns

A great way to stop the uncertainty often felt by your employees is to create an environment of confidence by communicating with them well and often. When times are tough, the workplace rumor mill swings into action act quickly. Therefore, managers need to communicate openly and honestly with employees to stop rumors in their tracks. Below are five techniques to help ease employee apprehension and keep gossip in the workplace in check.

 

1. Be Accessible

 

As a senior leader, you need to be accessible and visible to your employees. When there is a problem, don’t wait until all the details of the solution have been fleshed out before informing your workers. It is much better to keep them posted of the how the situation is developing and what you plan to do to respond to the situation along the way. In uncertain times, it is more important than ever to be accessible. You’re not just there to share information with the workforce, but to build trust with them along the way, and dispel rumors as they spring up.

 

2. Don’t Hide From Bad News

 

You have nothing to gain by withholding bad news from your employees — they know times are tough and that your business will have to adapt in order to survive. Trying to pretend that all is well will only result in a distrustful workforce, and communicating with them will become even more tough. The best course of action to stop rumors and gossip is to communicate openly with your employees about the changes that are planned. When a workforce has faith in their management, they will trust they will heard bad news from the source and stop spreading rumors amongst themselves.

 

3. Emphasize Personal Communication

 

All too often, leaders communicate bad news via e-mails and memos. While personal communication takes more time, it is key to the continued productivity of your employees, which is a core priority. Research has shown that face-to-face or voice-to-voice conversations build up trust in a relationship and also improve the clarity of your message. While there is always the chance that you are asked a question you don’t have a good answer to, this should not be an area of concern. Your people don’t expect you to be perfect, but they will appreciate the time you took to talk to them.

 

4. Listen

 

Face-to-face communication is two-way, which is a massive advantage. Many employees will be able to give you solid suggestions to resolve the challenges the company faces, but this is not the only advantage to listening to your workforce. Your employees will be motivated by the knowledge that their ideas and feelings are valued, and it can help them engage with the business and with you.

 

5. Acknowledge the Unknowns

 

Talk as honestly as you can about what you do know and what you don’t. They will understand that you don’t know all the answers yet, and will trust you more and understand the situation better by being told where the uncertainties lie. Don’t make promises you can’t keep — if you are unsure, talk about probabilities and possibilities instead.

 

Communication is the bedrock of good management practice, and the only way to get the best out of your workforce. Make sure you communicate openly, honestly, and readily.

 

Wendy”>http://www.WendyMack.com”>Wendy Mack is a professional advisor, trainer, and author with a focus in leading

and communicating change. Contact Wendy at, or Download her free e-book, Transforming Anxiety into Energy at

href=”http://www.WendyMack.com”>www.WendyMack.com>.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 26th, 2009 at 8:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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