Improving Business Communication Skills at Data Solutions Limited

The document is a business communication skills memo from James Stewart, Director of Data Solutions Limited, addressing areas of improvement in the company's internal communication system. The memo reports on an external audit that found issues with employee communication channels, limited inclusivity in the organizational communication network, and ineffective inter-organizational meetings. It outlines action steps to address these problems through training, modification of the internal communication system, and introduction of new strategies for inter-organizational meetings.

Running head: Business Communication Skills 1
Business Communication Skills
By
Course:
Tutor:
University:
Department:

Business Communication Skills 2
1. Opening
TO: Employees
FROM: James Stewart (Director)
DATE: 24/03/2018
SUBJECT: Communication Audit Report
2. Objectives and Background
a) Communication audit process
The communication audit process was carried out by the organization’s external auditor. The
process began by determining the audit scope which included both the external and internal
communication systems. Then a review of the past six months communications was carried out
to ascertain if right messages and information were being conveyed and whether the right target
audience was addressed. The auditor then decided to use interviews and informal and formal
methods to gather data. Then a sample of employees was sampled from each department to get
an equal representation of all the staff. Additionally, feedbacks from specific employees were
identified for analysis. The gathered data was then filtered and analyzed and a SWOT analysis
conducted after which findings alongside recommendations were made to the management.
b) Specific Objective

Business Communication Skills 3
To examine the strengths and weaknesses of the organization’s communication system between
the staff and the administration, and with its clients and to develop a strategic plan for
improvement.
c) General Objective
To evaluate the effectiveness of the organization’s external and internal communication system.
3. Problems
a) Employees are not always choosing the appropriate means of communication (traditional or
digital) for the context and audience.
According to the auditor’s report, the employees are neither using the recommended means of
communication nor is the information directed to the right audience. The use of a wrong channel
of communication will significantly affect the organization in several ways. The inappropriate
channel of communication implies that the information will be misunderstood and consequently
wrong decisions will be made. Message distortion will also impact the flow of work in the
company, and this will disrupt the overall organizational production regarding late completion of
the projects assigned to the staff. This will ultimately affect the sales revenue because products
will be produced behind schedule.
b) The internal organizational communication network is limited and partial, with some group
left out.
It was also found out that the organization’s communication network is not all-inclusive and as a
result, some workers or teams are left out. The impact of this issue affects both the organization

Business Communication Skills 4
and the employees. This implies that the skills of some employees are not fully utilized in the
organization's production because they cannot access the communication network to make their
contribution. This affects the quality of the products that our company produces because these
workers were hired because the organization needed their input. Low-quality products will lead
to the loss of clients to our competitors, and this will affect our market share in addition to the
loss of revenue. Also, the employees that are left out may feel separated which will make them
feel demoralized thus affecting the interrelations with their supervisors, other employees, and
customers.
c) Inter-organizational meetings are ineffective
The third problem that was found with the internal communication system was that the inter-
organizational meetings were no longer beneficial. As you all know, the objective of inter-
organizational meetings is to share knowledge and skills to improve the quality of our products
and to meet the current market needs. The ineffectiveness of the inter-organizational meetings is
a big blow to our company because it implies that we are no longer advancing regarding
knowledge acquisition and application and thus our products will stagnate while those of our
competitors will be changing to meet the varying market needs. This means that our sales
revenue will fall and thus the organization will be forced to terminate most of the employees in
order to reduce the costs of production.
4. Action steps to solve the problem

Business Communication Skills 5
To address the issues mentioned above that are affecting the internal communication system, the
organization will embark on the following action steps to provide the relevant and cost-effective
solutions.
a) Organizing for Training on Effective communications
The human resource management department in collaboration with the IT department will
arrange for seminars and workshops to inform and create awareness to the staff on the
significance of using the right communication channel and addressing the right audience that is
befitting that kind of group. The administration will also lay down strategies to ensure that the
active communication channels are used as the fundamental means of communication. This is to
ensure that all staff gets used to the recommended system.
b) Modification of the internal communication system
The challenge of the communication system leaving out some teams is at this moment regretted
by the management, and drastic measures are to be made to solve the issue. The administration
will task the IT department, the human resource department and an external IT expert to make
necessary changes to the internal communication system and to ensure that it is all-inclusive and
useful. The communication loopholes as indicated in the reported audit will be examined, and
appropriate action is taken.
c) Introduce new strategies and policies on inter-organizational meetings
Having ascertained the qualitative and quantitative significance of the issue, the administration
has decided to make changes to the policies about inter-organizational meetings. The

Business Communication Skills 6
management has resolved that the dates for the meeting shall be communicated at the beginning
of every financial year through emails and social platform network that the IT team will
introduce. It is also expected that any apologies for non-attendance shall be communicated to the
respective supervisors in time, and the absence of employees in the meeting shall be severely
punished. The administration also passed that all the teams shall prepare and make presentations
of the meeting outcomes and how they intend to incorporate the learned skills in their work. This
is meant to ensure that the meetings are useful both to the organization and to the staff.
5. Closing
This memo has outlined the areas of improvement in the internal communication system
according to the auditor’s report and the corresponding actions to be taken.
All employees are hereby requested to comply with the recommendations agreed upon by the
administration for this will ensure that our workplace is comfortable, functional interrelations
and the achievement of organization’s and individual’s objectives
In case of any inquiry, you are free to reach the director through the contacts below
Regards
James Stewart
The Director, Data Solutions Limited
Phone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]