糖心原创

All employees deserve the knowledge they need to do great work every day. But why exactly is access to information so important? 

We sat down with Dr. Wendi Adair, Professor of Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Director of at , and Co-founder of , a communication assessment and empowerment tool for organizational development, to learn about the psychology of employee communication, what uncertainty does to frontline employee wellbeing and how information can boost retention and help make employees perform better. 

What does information鈥攐r a lack of information鈥攄o to a person鈥檚 mental and emotional well-being? 

Adair: Information is power. Having information makes you feel capable and able to do what you need to do. It makes you feel able to help other employees. And that gives you a sense of well-being. We talk about it as power, but it鈥檚 really feelings of capability, competence and confidence. 

And then on the flip side is when you don鈥檛 have enough information. Maybe there鈥檚 something about your role that鈥檚 ambiguous. You don鈥檛 know exactly how you鈥檙e supposed to do a certain procedure or task. Or you have role conflicts鈥攄ifferent supervisors asking you to attend to different things and you haven鈥檛 been given clear instructions on prioritizing. That lack of information leads to feelings of uncertainty, which leads to stress and decreases employees鈥� psychological well-being.

There are a lot of theories on this鈥攍ike 鈥攖hat explore how we are motivated as humans to feel like we have a good sense of what鈥檚 going on. Our brain is trying to figure out what鈥檚 going on around us and find ways to feel like we have a sense of control. Not that we can necessarily control everything around us, but we want to know what to expect. So when there are feelings of uncertainty or ambiguity, we鈥檙e motivated to reduce those feelings.

When we鈥檙e not getting enough information, when that uncertainty kicks in, what exactly is happening to our brains?

If you鈥檙e experiencing uncertainty, that is going to create a stress response. That can be anything from minor impacts, like your heart beating a little bit faster or your palms getting a little sweaty, to a more serious sort of panicky, fight-flight stress response. Employees who are chronically feeling uncertainty at work could be experiencing chronic stress, and we know that chronic stress over a long time has massive impacts on .

How can organizations improve the overall effectiveness of employee communication? 

So, what we say when we鈥檙e teaching effective communication in the workplace is that clarity is really important. Try to keep it as concise as possible.聽

And then respect鈥攖here鈥檚 got to be that interpersonal element to it. Whatever the message is, start with some kind of greeting. Those are the little things that, in corporate communication, people aren鈥檛 going to do naturally because it鈥檚 all about the message, it鈥檚 about the task, it鈥檚 not about the socio-emotional connection. But the socio-emotional connection helps employees connect with an organization and foster loyalty and commitment.

For decades, we鈥檝e known that it鈥檚 not just about how many widgets you make. It鈥檚 about creating a good work experience; it is about humanizing it. There has to be attention to interpersonal respect. We call it socio-emotional communication. 

What can organizations do to boost retention of the information they鈥檙e sharing? 

From the cognitive side, there really is no such thing as multitasking. Unless it鈥檚 a totally automatic cognitive process like walking or anything else that demands our attention, we can only attend to one thing at a time. What that says for organizations is that it鈥檚 important to make time for employees to have opportunities to communicate, get information, ask questions and receive feedback. It鈥檚 not going to be as effective if they鈥檙e getting a massive update that they鈥檙e supposed to read while doing their job. It鈥檚 going to be more effective if they are allowed, permitted and encouraged to take time to read and absorb. 

What about feedback? How can it mitigate鈥攐r compound鈥攖hese feelings of uncertainty for frontline workers? 

Everyone wants to feel heard, and like they鈥檙e connected to others. In a grocery store or restaurant, people are going to be interacting regularly. But in, say, a car factory where the distance between people on the line can be half a block long, you might not have that sort of interpersonal connection as part of your daily work routine. People need that and want that. They want to feel heard and to know that they鈥檝e not only been heard, but they were understood.  

In industrial organizational psychology, we talk about psychological safety. That is when employees feel that they are secure enough in their job, work environment and with colleagues that they can speak up if they think something could be done differently or if they have dissatisfaction about something. That sense of psychological safety, that their voice is valued and they鈥檙e not going to be punished for saying something is something that all organizations should foster. That has a lot to do with leadership, organizational culture and, of course, communication.

It鈥檚 also really important to make sure employees know what the norms are for both receiving feedback and giving feedback. What is appropriate if they get a message and they want to give some feedback? Do they just send a message to their direct supervisor? Do they reply to all 100,000 employees that got the message?

If the processes and channels are made clear, communication can happen. But when people don鈥檛 know, that just feeds more uncertainty. Then, they won鈥檛 ask questions, give feedback or seek it. That鈥檚 when there鈥檚 going to be a disconnect.

Why does more information make employees perform better? 

There鈥檚 this thing in psychology that we call the common knowledge effect. Anytime you get people together and a communication is sent out, people start talking about it. And what they do is share information that others have already shared. 

The example that often comes up in research is solving a murder mystery. You have a group of people, and everyone gets a different set of information, and then they come together and have to solve a case. What happens is that someone will share some information. Well, I heard that John was not even near the scene of the crime on Saturday night. And then, Oh yeah, I have that information too. John was nowhere near the scene of the crime. Then, Oh yeah. I have information that John was with his children that night or whatever. People tend to narrow their conversation to focus on information that they have in common鈥攅ven though we know that in terms of making good decisions, solving problems and coming up with creative solutions or innovations, it鈥檚 the unique information that is key. 

There are lots of reasons that people don鈥檛 share unique information. One is that everyone is rushing and you don鈥檛 want to be the person who raises your hand. There鈥檚 also pressure for conformity. You want to agree with what everyone else is saying. You don鈥檛 want to be the person who stands out or thinks differently. And then, especially in a group setting, trying to reach a course of action. We know it鈥檚 going to be hard to reach a consensus, so we just want to move towards that. We don鈥檛 want to keep bringing up pieces of information that might derail the path to the decision.

And so what the common knowledge effect means in a workplace setting is that if there鈥檚 a piece of information that one employee has that could lead to some sort of a better way of doing something or could alert someone to something bad that鈥檚 going to happen down the road鈥hat information is unlikely to be shared unless there are procedures in place to encourage it. You might get that information in town halls, forums, discussion boards, surveys鈥攑laces where the organization overtly encourages employees to share. It鈥檚 related to psychological safety, too, people speaking up. But you need to have that channel in place, otherwise it just won鈥檛 happen.

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Thanks to Dr. Adair for her insights on employee communication! For more on her work, check out the at the University of Waterloo and .