Employee engagement is a hot topic and as a manager it is up to you to improve your communication skills to breed success in the office. If you are looking for new ways to ensure that your employees are happy on their jobs and doing their best work, here are some ideas to improve your management skills.

1. Don’t start by needing something. If every communication begins with a request your employees are going to become distrustful of you. It is also important not to be disingenuous. Don’t begin with small talk for the purpose of eventually make a request and don’t try to phrase your request as a favor. This can come across as passive aggressive behavior. Instead, spend time having real conversations with your team getting to know them so when you do have a request it will be genuine and well received.
2. Be creative. You can motivate your staff with rewards and recognition, but you can also have more fun with it. Try a “bring your dog to work day” or trade places with your employees for one day to see how their job fits into the organization. Host a summer party over the weekend and invite each employee to bring a spouse or a guest. If you can’t do that, bring a barbeque to the office one summer afternoon.
3. Be direct. A recent study showed that people only retain 3 to 5 points of information from any form of communication. This means an email with long paragraphs will be skimmed and your real message may not be what your employees remember. Whether it is written or in person, be direct in your communications to make sure the message does not get lost.
4. Be receptive to feedback. When you advertise that you have an open door policy you need to make sure your staff feels comfortable approaching you with concerns and ideas. More importantly, once they have trusted you with information it is important to act on that and improve the situation. If they have an idea for a change of process that could streamline the system, allow them to try it. If they are concerned about bullying within the office, investigate further.

Are you looking for more ways to improve your communications skills as a manager? Contact StaffEx today to see how we can help you!