Communication barriers can have a significant impact on people's personal and professional lives. This is especially evident in the current climate, when people across the globe are facing social distancing restrictions.
When we are limited in communicating using digital tools and technology, communication barriers have an even greater impact. However, digital means of communication are here, and they are here to stay.
Employers around the world are being forced to adjust to new ways of working, and they need to be more accommodating to their employees. Therefore, now that we depend on technology to communicate with our colleagues and peers, we need to find ways to leverage it and even use it to remove existing communication barriers.
Identify communication barriers
Communication barriers can include anything that prevents or disables the communicator from delivering the right message to the right person at the right time or the receiver from receiving the right message at the right time.
There are three main types of communication barriers that can make effective communication difficult.
- Physical communication barriers such as social distancing, remote work, deskless nature of work, closed office doors, and others.
- Barriers to emotional communication due to emotions such as distrust and fear.
- Language communication barriers refer to the way a person speaks both verbally and nonverbally.
However, these communication barriers are only a high-level overview of the causes of ineffective communication. Let's take a deeper look at some of the most common communication barriers employers face today.
The top 13 communication barriers organizations face today
1. Communication skills and style
People have different communication skills and styles. Often, these differences in communication skills can create communication barriers between the communicator and the receiver of the message.
For example, while some people may be very detailed and specific when communicating, others may tend to generalize. Although communication skills are extremely important, only 18% employees were evaluated on their communication skills in performance reviews.
2. Social distance and physical barriers
As mentioned earlier, many companies now rely on digital means of communication due to social distancing and remote working. These physical barriers are even more evident in organizations with blue-collar employees who do not have designated workspaces.
Such barriers can lead to long-term damage for an organization that does not know how to leverage technology to eliminate communication challenges.
3. Fragmentation
Effective communication is about the bond between the parties involved in the communication. When there is no participation from both parties, this defeats the purpose of effective communication.
Unfortunately, organizations around the world are struggling with the problem of empty workplaces. They are fighting to attract employee attention and promote a culture of open communication, engagement and transparency.
4. Organizational structure
Complicated and rigid organizational structures can be a major culprit in ineffective communication, making it one of the most common communication barriers. Such organizations may have ineffective communication and information sharing systems, often leading to frustration, lack of engagement and productivity among employees.
If a company is highly hierarchical, information can easily become obscured, lost, or distorted as it passes through each layer of the hierarchy.
5. Information overload
Too little information is no good, but too much information can cause more damage. However, information overload is always one of the biggest communication barriers. Furthermore, information overload has been shown to have a very negative impact on employee health, productivity, and work success.
6. Lack of trust
When there is no trust, there is no effective communication. In other words, when employees don't trust their employer, leader, or manager, communication will suffer.
This is why one of the main goals of organizations around the world is to build trust in the workplace. However, many employers still have a long way to go to become more trustworthy.
7. Clarity, consistency and frequency
Communications professionals need to understand the importance of communicating clearly, consistently, and frequently. When messages across different channels are inconsistent, trust is damaged. When messages aren't sent regularly or promptly, employees miss out on important information or updates.
According to a Gallup study, employee engagement increases when managers provide consistent and clear communication. Another study found that four-fifths of employees surveyed would like to hear more often about how their company is doing, and more than 90% employees surveyed said they would rather hear bad news than no news.
8. Listen
Communication should always be a two-way street. Furthermore, listening is often much more important than speaking. Yet many companies still don't understand the importance of encouraging employees to share their voices and the value of their feedback.
Those who promote and nurture a culture of open communication in the workplace enjoy a happier, healthier and more engaged workforce.
9. Wrong communication channels
There are many different communication channels that people use today. This is also true for companies, especially large enterprises. Such complexity in the communications ecosystem makes it difficult for employers to ensure that they use the right channels to inform their people and provide relevant information in a timely manner.
As a result, on average employees spend about 20% of their time searching for internal information.
10. Demographic and cultural differences
The way people interact with each other can vary depending on demographic and cultural differences. If the communicator is not aware of these differences, communication barriers will arise.
Therefore, it is important to find common ground for effective communication and adapt to the organization's work culture for effective communication.
11. Miscommunication technology
Communications technology can make or break any organization's communications strategy. In the sea of available technology, employers need to be able to find and implement solutions that best suit their needs and organizational goals.
Luckily, modern internal communications solutions are created to solve the biggest communication barriers.
12. Lack of personalization
Lack of personalization is one of the biggest reasons why churn occurs. When recipients receive information that is irrelevant to the nature of their work or messages that do not interest them, they are more likely to ignore future communications that come their way.
As a result, content localization has become one of the key priorities for communications professionals whose goal is to improve employee engagement and experience in the workplace.
