Business Development Jaime Bongiorno, Business Development Coordinator

Communication is Key in Today’s Work Environment

The positive impact of diversity on corporate growth is widely accepted in today’s society and can be seen in the wide array of diversity products and programs available for corporations to choose.  That diversity affects an influx of new and innovative ideas within a workplace which, in turn, should create revenue generators and increase profits seems to be a common belief in today’s world. 

Good communication practices accept the immense obstacles that working with a variety of people presents.  Successful communications strategies provide long-term, behavioral change.

Harvard Business School released seven ways to better communicate in today’s diverse workplace1, here are a few recommendations based on their framework:

Learn how the source best receives communications.  (Deborah Valentine, of the Management Communication Department at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, advises managers to analyze their audience to find the best way to communicate a message.)

Assign mentors. Implement mentoring programs to guide new employees in the new culture and in their professional skill development.

Train for culture-shock.  Managers should understand that there are major and minor differences among workplace environments and diverse employees.  Culture-shock, although temporary, is very real.  Evidence of understanding from managers can help alleviate the negative effects.

In company-wide communications, avoid jargon and slang.  Employees may have difficulty understanding company communication that uses jargon and slang.  Jargon and slang falls short of effective workplace communication.

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