Business communication

Business communication is the ability of a group of individuals to speak the same language internally
and externally towards business promotion. Business communication is one of the most important
tool for an organisation to succeed in a professional manner. Communication that takes place in an
organisation between its employees and management team is crucial to business growth and must
reflect a common goal towards which every member of the organisation is working. The common
goal gets permeated in every employee’s role through a set of communication like vision, mission,
business objectives, financial goals etc. Thus, it is of paramount importance to comprehend the real
contribution of business communication to organisational growth. This understanding will pave way
to groom oneself on the various aspects of communication making it an effective one in a long run.

Importance of business communication

1. Business communication is an in indispensable component of all management functions.

business communication helps in motivating, supervising, directing, and planning.
2. It links two subordinates and fosters mutual understanding among them. It is a two-way
communication system that stimulates initiative and creative among subordinates.
3. Effective business communication eliminates the possibility of misunderstanding, thereby
leading to job satisfaction and increased morale of employees and results in sound human
relations within an organisation.
4. Effective business communication is necessary to build meaningful relationships between
management and workers that aids in growth of manpower and trade unions. Business
communication helps in maintaining public relations by creating and projecting a positive
image of the organisation to the customers, government, suppliers etc.
5. It aids in motivating the employees and boasting their morale by fostering a positive attitude
and inspiring people in an organisation.
6. Business communication is imperative for effective decision making.

Dimensions of Communication In an organization

Communication flows in 4 main directions

1. Downward
2. Upward
3. Horizontal /Lateral
4. Diagonal

Downward Communication: Communication that flows from a higher level in an organization to a

lower level is a downward communication. In other words, communication from superiors to
subordinates in a chain of command is a downward communication. This communication flow is
used by the managers to transmit work-related information to the employees at lower levels.
Employees require this information for performing their jobs and for meeting the expectations of
their managers.

Downward communication is used by the managers for the following purposes

1. Providing feedback on employees’ performance.

2. Giving job instructions.
 3. Providing a complete understanding of the employees’ job as well as to communicate them
how their job is related to other jobs in the organization.
4. Communicating the organizations mission and vision to the employees.
5. Highlighting the areas of attention.

Organizational publications, circulars, letter to employees, group meetings etc are all examples of
downward communication. In order to have effective and error-free downward communication,
managers must:

1. Specify communication objective.

2. Ensure that the message is accurate, specific and unambiguous.
3. Utilize the best communication technique to convey the message to the receiver in right
form.

Upward Flow of Communication: Communication that flows to a higher level in an organization is

called upward communication. It provides feedback on how well the organization is functioning. The
subordinates use upward communication to convey their problems and performances to their
superiors.

The subordinates also use upward communication to tell how well they have understood the
downward communication. It can also be used by the employees to share their views and ideas and
to participate in the decision-making process.

Upward communication leads to a more committed and loyal workforce in an organization because
the employees are given a chance to raise and speak dissatisfaction issues to the higher levels. The
managers get to know about the employees’ feelings towards their jobs, peers, supervisor and
organization in general. Managers can thus accordingly take actions for improving things. Grievance
Redressal System, Complaint and Suggestion Box, Job Satisfaction surveys etc all help in improving
upward communication. Other examples of Upward Communication are -performance reports made
by low level management for reviewing by higher level management, employee attitude surveys,
letters from employees, employee-manager discussions etc.

Lateral / Horizontal Communication: Communication that takes place at same levels of hierarchy in
an organization is called lateral communication, i.e., communication between peers, between
managers at same levels or between any horizontally equivalent organizational member.

The advantages of horizontal communication are as follows:

1. It is time saving.
2. It facilitates co-ordination of the task.
3. It facilitates co-operation among team members.
4. It provides emotional and social assistance to the organizational members.
5. It helps in solving various organizational problems.
6. It is a means of information sharing.
7. It can also be used for resolving conflicts of a department with other department or conflicts
within a department.
Diagonal Communication or crosswise communication: Communication that takes place between a
manager and employees of other workgroups is called diagonal communication. It generally does
not appear on organizational chart.

For instance - To design a training module a training manager interacts with an Operations personnel
to enquire about the way they perform their task. The Accounts people of an organization visiting
different employees in various departments for their IT calculation, bonus for workers etc. fall under
diagonal communication.

Importance of business communication in an organisation

Effective business communication improves employee engagement: A company’s workforce

represents its most significant investment and ultimately determines the success or failure of the
organization. Engaged employees are far more likely to demonstrate the dedication and
commitment that are essential to the long-term growth of any company, large or small.

 Effective business communication is important to employees, managers, senior leaders, and other
stakeholders. Effective communication can increase employee engagement, boost workplace
productivity, increases financial performance and drive business growth.  Effective business
communication between team leaders/manager and employees shows employees how to access
information efficiently. This creates a sense of empowerment and respect that immediately makes
communications more engaging. Also, effective communication between team leaders/managers
and employees helps employees to voice their opinions without fear. This helps to create to room
for discussing one’s creative and innovative ideas on a project and helps top level management to
understand their subordinates.

Research shows that keeping employees informed with personal, relevant, and engaging
communication gives companies a competitive edge and has direct results on the bottom line. Thus,
we can say that business communication improves employee engagement. Engaged employees are
twice as likely to be top performers, miss 20% fewer days of work than their less engaged
counterparts, are more supportive of organizational change, and have lower turnover rates. 

Eliminates email overload: In most companies, email is used for everything from information
requests, employee communications and feedback, status reports, task assignments,
communications with customers and suppliers, meeting invites, document distribution, notices from
HR on various team activities, benefits and birthday wishes. A research showed that an average
corporate worker spends 25% of the workday on various email-related tasks.

Increases employee productivity: Effective business communication causes workers to keep one
another accountable. This is because effective communication in the workplace provides clear
instructions, it helps workers to know exactly what is expected from each of them. This helps
improve accountability, which in turn increases productivity. If there is no accountability in the
workplace, there will be no incentive to get improved.

When the information is not transferred correctly to the right people, there might be some
miscommunication and misunderstanding which can be a reason for the downfall of companies.
When there is a lack of effective communication in the workplace, confusion is always present. Some
employees think managers said one thing, others think that they said something completely
different.  Thus, effective business communication between team leader/manager helps employees
understand what the goals are and how they can work towards them together.
For example, if John creates a new Facebook promotion strategy for the company, He should clearly
communicate new tasks and goals with his employees. If they don’t have a clear understanding of
what they should exactly do, such as posting, liking, sharing and so on, then his strategy will probably
end up in a mess. Thus, if John communicates effectively to his employees, his employees will have a
better understanding on how to perform the given task, thus increasing employee productivity.

Effective business communication between team leaders/managers and employees helps to

empower employees. If the team leader/manager communicates effectively on how to access
information and on how to perform a certain task smartly then the employees will have more
information on how to perform a particular task, they will feel more empowered to complete their
tasks with confidence and direction. Those employees who have more information about specific
tasks and know how to complete them are more motivated to get it done effectively.

For example:

Effective business communication helps to build healthy culture. Healthy and productive cultures
within organizations are based on effective communication. Effective business communication
between employees and team leader/manager helps the culture of the company to improve and
become a healthy one.  The three main things that create the culture within a company are respect,
empowerment and thankfulness.

For example: if managers are not able to speak with their workers in a respectful way, then workers
become afraid of asking questions. This results in weak culture in the organisation. This is proof of
the fact that communication forms the culture of the company. Thus, when managers through their
way of communication respect the ethnics, caste, religion, gender, productivity, talent and
individuality of the employees then then employees feel valued and work better. As a result, in those
companies where there is a healthy culture, people feel respected and understood, which in turn
increases morale and enhanced productivity.

When there is good business communication among managers and employees, it becomes clear
where the company is, where it needs to be in the future and which steps need to be taken to get
there. All this information provides clear directions for all employees, which increases productivity
and decreases uncertainty. Giving exact direction to employees makes their works less stressful,
faster, more efficient and enjoyable. Usually, a good organisation increases effective business
communication through few non-costly ways.

For example, Organisations use these three methods to easily improve their internal communication.

Newsletters: Organisation improve communications by making their employees read the company
newsletter once a week. A company newsletter usually contains all of the achievements during the
week/month and shows how much the company values the dedication and motivation of its
workers. An organisation increases its internal communication by publishing all the achievements
like employee of the month, best team, the team that gave the most creative idea or the teams that
showcased the best presentation on its newsletter. When employees read these newsletters, they
feel motivated and are encouraged to perform better. Another example, if the Twitter campaign of
an organisation was successful because of so much of its employee, they can mention this in their
company newsletter to make him/her and other employees more motivated.

Intranet: There are many companies that don’t use this channel and really miss a great chance to
stay connected with their employees. A company intranet may create two-sided communication
between managers and employees. Intranet helps managers to share some questions, interesting
tips, planned marketing campaigns, videos, designs and other important and useful information to
their employees to improve employee engagement.

Face-to-face: The face-to-face method is the most used method by managers/team leaders to
increase communication with their employees. The methods such as Newsletters and intranet of
course are effective, but nothing is more effective than face-to-face interactions. The face-to-face
method helps managers/team leaders to chat with their employees, discuss their problems, give
them advice, feedback, and clear instructions.

Applications of business communication

Company: Netflix

At Netflix, internal communications best practices are all about keeping comms simple. When it
comes to communication between board members and management, most discussions happen in
the form of brief online memos where questions can be asked and answered and archived for the
future.

Netflix was founded on August 29, 1997, in Scotts Valley, California when their founders Marc
Randolph and Reed Hastings came up with the idea of starting the service of offering online movie
rentals. Netflix’s culture that values transparency, communication, and ownership.

Internal communication at Netflix

Feedback is a very crucial habit. It creates this dream team mentality where it’s easy to
communicate and share your thoughts and feelings. Management, as well as entry-level employees,
share direct, not anonymous, feedback openly about anything related to the workplace. The
feedback is random and not formal, where it comes across like a constructive note that enhances the
harmony between teams and colleagues.

The type of feedback given by the management focuses on behaviour rather than certain
characterizations of a person, such as “you’re unfocused”. The management ensures that the
feedback given to employees should not be sent across as a personal attack, but rather one that
includes giving specific examples, and being clear about any expectations and actions going forward. 

Netflix created this term, “Informed Captains”, where each employee is responsible for his/her own
ship, where the employee makes a judgment call after sharing and digesting others’ views. Rather
than having committees take decisions, they have group meetings where a discussion takes place,
but in the end, only the “informed caption” makes a decision, no matter what position that
employee has.  

Employees are given the full responsibility and freedom to make decisions when they are reasonably
confident of the right bet for managers to take, where the managers trust their team members and
take that bet. Afterward, when the impact of the decision can be measured, they reflect on that
decision and see if they can do better in the future. Such a strategy helps to speeds up the decision-
making process, enabling a fast-moving environment based on trust and openness. 

Communications between management and employees: Managers provide their employees with all
the information they need to make informed decisions. They spend time talking to their team
members about what they are trying to achieve and then give people real responsibility to get it
done without any interference and lots of flexibility and freedom. 
Employees are trusted to make the right decisions especially because they are the expert in what
they’re handling. They believe that the job of the manager is to liberate the employee and to
remove any barrier that would limit effectiveness, rather than paralyze situations where decisions
are not being taken, and actions are needing too much time to be applied. Also, Managers are asked
to communicate regularly with staff about their performance, and staff are encouraged to ask how
they’re doing in order to get honest, constructive feedback.

Flexibility at work: The employee has the freedom to choose when he starts and ends his day or
when he takes a vacation depending on their work progress.

According to the feedback of Netflix employees, if they had a certain time to start and leave, they
would not be in the same place of motivation and level of execution. It helps their mindset knowing
that they can take a few days off when they need to. It pushes them to get the job done and feel
motivated, and then reward themselves with some time off to come back more productive and
fresher.

Job performance measurements: Netflix defines itself as a “high-performance culture”, meaning that
every employee is expected to perform not only excellent, but way beyond, and hence why they
don’t measure performance.

Employees are rather measured by their teams and cross-functional partners, and most importantly
measured by themselves, as Netflix attracts people who want to do the best of their ability. They
pick their employees based on their talent and the mindset they carry (making sure they embody
Netflix’s values).

Thus, we can say that Netflix focuses on encouraging independent decision-making by employees
and the management encourages to share information openly, broadly, and deliberately.

Company 2: Stagecoach

Stagecoach knows that employee engagement and good internal communication go hand in hand.
That’s why they implemented an employee app to effectively reach and enable their biggest asset—
their customer-facing workforce. To reach the 30,000 individuals (including 21,000 bus drivers)
within their organization, they utilized a mobile employee app, which received phenomenal
feedback team-wide. Not only did more than 84% of employees actively use the app within the first
week, but Stagecoach saw an overall increase in employee satisfaction too.

Bus operator Stagecoach has replaced an ineffectual intranet with a mobile app for over 20,000
frontline workers, primarily bus drivers. The app is accessed via employee-owned phones. The app
combines news, social updates, two-way chat and a series of micro-apps, focusing on key processes
which were previously largely manual.

The app has exceeded expectations with very high levels of adoption and is already driving
measurable process improvement, as well as supporting wider engagement and communication
goals.

Stagecoach has collected two top awards that is the 2019 Intranet and Digital Workplace Award and
2019 Digital Workplace of the Year Award for introducing the first employee experience app in UK
transport. The company introduced the Blink mobile and desktop app in 2018, which is now
available to all of Stagecoach’s bus and rail employees. Almost 20,000 staff now use the mobile app
to find out company news, communicate with colleagues, provide feedback and access training and
policies.
Stagecoach communicates with their staff through Group-wide internal publications and intranet
and they recognise their employees for their hard work and high-quality service through internal
award schemes, including the Group-wide annual Champions Awards, which help their feel valued
and respected.

This bus and rail companies regularly hold dinners to recognise staff who have delivered long service
to the business. In addition, the Stagecoach Group Board holds an annual dinner with around a
dozen emerging managers from across the Group to share views and ask questions of the Board
directors. This method helps to enhance better communication between top level management and
employees. It helps to increase employee retention, recruit better talent, improves brand
reputation, enhances productive, increases employee engagement, reduces stress, generates more
incomes and boasts employee morale.

Reason on why this mode of communication was helpful:

1. The decision to go with a mobile app available on employee-owned devices has proved to be
highly successful with a remote, frontline workforce.
2. The app helped the employees to get things done rather than just being a communication
tool, leading to some impressive levels of adoption.
3. The roll-out methodology is robust, onboarding a high number of employees with no digital
identity very quickly.
4. It increased levels of engagement, resulted cost reductions and even showed an
improvement on the number of buses leaving on time.