Employers are responsible for company culture in addition to their other tasks, and if open communication is breaking down, it’s up to them to fix it.

A number of methods are available, but it all begins with listening and acting on what you’ve been told. 

Failure to encourage a culture of speaking out has led to many disasters, such as the crash of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003. If managers at NASA had communicated openly about engineer concerns of the shuttle’s heat shield, the disaster might have been averted. As NASA Administrator Michael Griffin says, “A healthy organisation allows information to move up, down and sideways, and pushes decisions, and trust in those decisions, down to the place where they can be best made.”

Fostering employee input

It can help to let workers know the ‘door is open’ if they want to discuss ideas they have for improvements, or to bring ideas to their supervisor’s or manager’s attention. Follow through on their suggestions fosters further communication and input.  

Employees may initially be wary of such an offer to listen. It can be worth repeating. 

Identifying a champion can help, someone who leads the way, and letting staff know they can raise suggestions with that ‘champion’.  

Identifying and responding to an issue that has been raised, by seeking employee input and implementing a solution, encourages further employee input.  Employees are more likely to follow the lead, once they identify their words and concerns will be taken seriously. 

It can also help to gain an understanding of why employees aren’t speaking up.

Some employees may not be keen to discuss their concerns or ideas in person. It might therefore be useful to provide different communication options. These could include for example a suggestion jar, a web form or a dedicated phone number. Some may be more comfortable submitting suggestions anonymously.  

In meetings

To assist in opening communication channels, it is useful to conduct regular meetings. 

These might be team meetings, or theme-based sessions inviting people from different teams to collaborate. Building communication between teams builds awareness of the issues which other teams face, and this may make it easier to resolve challenges.

In these meetings, the aim is to get a wider view of what’s been happening in the workplace and what needs attention. Let people know that you are seeking honesty and openness, and that there will be no negative repercussions from raising difficult issues. Wherever possible, let good ideas take priority in discussions.

Encourage solutions as well as the identification of problems. Build consensus with the team on the best method of tackling the issues. 

These sessions work best when managers foster input.  This can be challenging, particularly if such approaches are new to the organisation, and there is insufficient trust.  Persistence pays off.  

Suggestions can be followed by a group discussion about the pros and cons, and an agreement on implementation.  An open commitment to change helps.  

Give credit where credit is due, both in the meeting and in further discussions. This applies even if the idea has been modified. The manager needs to be held accountable for making changes. If there are no results, employees will be less willing to contribute in the future.

At the conclusion of meetings, ask as a matter of course whether there is anything else which people would like to raise. 

One on One Conversations

One on one conversation are useful, in addition to regular meetings. The location of one on one meetings is worth considering. People may be less willing to speak openly on the factory floor, for example, but may be willing to speak candidly in a closed environment.

Alternately, employees may be more willing to speak up when they’re away from the workplace.

If confidentiality is requested, it’s important for this to be provided.

Breaches of such confidentiality result in employees being far less willing to share their views.