Whether you are a CEO, manager, team member, freelancer or supplier, the importance of communication is just as crucial. However, in particular for a HR Director role effective communication with your workforce is fundamental. Contributor Simon de Cintra, Founder of founded MyFirstTrainers®, coach and author – Unlock Your Business Voice: How to Sound As Good As You Think
An HR Director manages organisational development, recruitment and have the tricky task of maintaining a positive work culture thus cannot afford to be experiencing any communication mistakes.
BEING UNAPPROACHABLE
If an employee has an issue either in their home life or at work that may be impacting negatively on their productivity it is crucial that they feel comfortable to approach you and be open with their situation. However in reality a common communication error made by HR Directors is unwittingly coming across as unapproachable, this can occur either through non verbal communication such as distant body language, or through verbal communication for example an unsympathetic tone, paired together this can come across as you are generally uninterested in their welfare. It is important to be engaging, ask questions and take an obvious interest in each and every employee. Simple actions such as smiling when passing an employee in the corridor or operating an open door policy will help create a positive atmosphere where employees feel welcomed by the HR Department should they require its services.
INABILITY TO SAY NO
As aforementioned you do not want to portray an unapproachable persona to the workforce, nevertheless with that said being too understanding can be a fatal communication error as people are quick to take advantage of any sign of weakness. Struggling to say no to employee requests is often the catalyst for bad communication in HR, as well as avoiding difficult conversations can result in problems getting heightened as they are left to bubble under the surface and build, only to erupt at a later date. As a HR professional you are responsible for employee relations thus difficult conversations can definitely not be avoided if you are to build a strong, happy workforce.
FAILING TO MANAGE CONFLICT
Too often in business a HR Director has to fix problems that have happened because of a breakdown in communication, either due to different views of the truth or because someone said everything was ok when you enquired when it wasn’t. When faced with different versions of the truth a common mistake is to ignore the issue and hope the parties will fix the issue between them when in fact this enables the conflict to escalate. It is critical that HR Directors ensure that everyone understands and agrees to the same terms and intentions, whilst also understanding the differences in opinions, views and experiences. You need to be prepared to act on any sign of conflict whilst also making allowances for differences in order to boost collaboration, ensuring that any conflict is of healthy nature.
TRYING TO CHANGE YOUR COMMUNICATION STYLE
We all want to improve our ability to communicate and learn new tactics that can aid our role as a HR Director. However trying to completely revolutionise your communication style all in one go can have devastating consequences and is often a waste of time in the long run. Most personality type theories believe you are born with a certain personality and that it would take a lot of dedication and time to change this, we are all familiar with the saying in business “time is money” thus this would be a very impractical strategy. It is best to prioritise areas of weakness and improve on these aspects gradually which will help make the process of improving your communication seem much more achievable.
