How to Improve Communication in the Office and Improve Staff Relations
As shown by a recent EU-OSHA (European Agency for Safety and Health at Work) survey, improve communication in the office is a sore point for many employees and their associates. According to that research, it would seem that a hefty six out of ten workers questioned suffer from stress caused by factors such as:
- conflict with colleagues
- the allocation of tasks
- a sense of job insecurity
Recent scientific studies suggest that in order to improve working relationships (and, therefore, maximize performance) it is essential to learn how to deal with these relationships. This depends, above all, on the fact that nowadays, every skilled professional must interact regularly with colleagues in different roles.
Although on the one hand it is clear that relationships, dialogue and communication in the office are fundamental, on the other hand the existence of certain interpersonal rules connected to the various roles occupied is apparent. Each individual must, in their professional role, interact with others in different roles, but that role can change according to the person they are dealing with.
Let’s take the example of a Human Resources manager with two (or more) roles: that of being informative and helpful towards colleagues and a second role involving being obliging and compliant towards the Director. Despite possibly feeling more at ease in one position than the other, in order to improve working relationships that person must adapt their personality to fit the circumstances.
In order to obtain efficient communication in the office it is necessary to reconcile one’s personal temperament with the role held, by softening the less conducive aspects of one’s character and (above all) learning to manage relationships with individuals, before dealing with their professional roles.
Achieving success in this task is not at all simple, but experience and practice can yield excellent results: training oneself to listen, observing the gestures of others, learning to be persuasive, rendering oneself co-operative and explaining things in the correct way, are just a few examples of the many things which may be done each day in order to improve both ourselves and our interpersonal relations.
Translated by Joanne Beckwith
