Effective Communication in Workplace

This assignment analyzes the significance of communication skills in managing workplace relationships and resolving issues. It examines how effective communication, including polite and respectful interactions, can enhance problem-solving and efficiency. The study also highlights the importance of employee engagement for organizational success and explores various HR strategies implemented by small firms to foster a positive work environment.

BUSINESS
COMMUNICATION
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................................3
TASK 1.................................................................................................................................................3
Drafting of e-mail message for information about award for outstanding services to local
residents...........................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2 ................................................................................................................................................4
Letter in response to a customer complain......................................................................................4
TASK 3 ................................................................................................................................................5
Investigative report for exploring good practices for the employee engagement. ..........................5
TASK 4.................................................................................................................................................9
Reflection: My Experience in compiling this portfolio- a reflection...............................................9
Conclusion..........................................................................................................................................10
References...........................................................................................................................................11
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INTRODUCTION
Business communication refers to sharing of information between inside and outside
individuals of organization for the purpose of running business. It is performed by the firms for
their commercial benefits (Hooker, 2012). There are many types of business communication
methods such as web-based
to customer complaint, etc. Along with this, the file consists of investigation report on
exploring communication, reports, presentations, telephone meetings, etc. Various qualities are
considered for making business communication more effective such as conflict management, good
written communication, cultural issues, clear hierarchy, etc (Guffey and Loewy, 2012).
Present study is based on the given case study. It includes email composition for requesting
for more information, letter in response good practices for employee engagement and reflective
essay. At the end, conclusion is explained with the key findings.
TASK 1
Drafting of e-mail message for information about award for outstanding services to local residents
To: [e-mail]
Subject: regarding information about Jack Russell
Dear ma'am,
As you know that City Council is organizing a ceremony for the honouring local residents
for their outstanding services to the community on 15th October, name of the nominees are
submitted by various community leaders for their contribution in developing community by
resolving the present issues. This ceremony is for appreciating and recognizing the work of local
residents so that they can effectively contribute in the development of communities. We need more
information about the nominated people so that we can make award ceremony interesting.
Provided information will also publish in the newsletter of council.
As per the above information, city council wants to get more content about the Jack Russell
who is nominated by you. This information will help us in deciding whether the nominated
candidate is eligible for the award ceremony or not. There are some questions formed by the
council which you need to answer appropriately.
 What is the educational background of Jack?
 Where did he work in his past?
 Which type of award or recognition he got in the past, if any?
 Where he is working at present and at which post?
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 Is he suffering from any type of disease or disorder?
 In which area Jack gives his contribution?
 What are the reasons behind the nomination of Jack by you?
 Can you please provide two or more than two references for cross checking the provided
information about the nominee?
Please provide us accurate and appropriate information about the nominee otherwise; the
candidate will be disqualified from the award ceremony. Appropriate actions will be taken by the
council on giving wrong information. Closing date of providing the entire required information is
10th October. You need to adhere with the given deadline otherwise information will not be
accepted. An attachment regarding more information is added with this mail which you need to
fulfil and revert it to me.
Thanks & Regards,
Secretary of City Council
TASK 2
Letter in response to a customer complain
Response to Complaint
246 Portland Road,
London,
SE1 8YT.\
12th March 2016
Dear Cora Duncan,
Thank you for communicating with us about your problem with the product you purchase
from our website. Garments Delight apologizes for the inconvenience occurred to you due to the
product. We want to meet your needs and expectations by resolving the issue in the best possible
manner.
As per your complaint, there is a large stain on one of the garment purchased by you from
our company. After proper analysis of the issue, we get to know that there is your sign on the
delivery sheet 15 weeks ago and there is not such complaint about the damage in the gown. Along
with this, you have accepted the product without any issue and query. Our company has some
policies and according to them, it is not possible to refund the money as per your demand. The
reason behind this is acceptance of the product by you at the time of delivery without any problem.
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But you are our valuable client and it is our prime responsibility to resolve your issues
regarding the firm's products or services. Company is offering you an opportunity of dry cleaning
your purchased gown on its expenses. All you have to do is to take defected dress to the nearest
laundry and send the dry cleaning bill to our address which is given as below:
We hope that this solution of your problem will satisfy your expectations with us. We will
like to hear from you about your perception towards our products and services and will like to
serve you again in the future.
Please accept our apology again for trouble occurs to you due to our product. Garment
Delights highly appreciate your feedback as it will make us to provide better quality services and
products to the customers. We will take care that any kind of problem will not occur to you in the
upcoming future. It is the major aim of the firm to satisfy and retain the customers.
Thanks & Regards,
Garment Delight,
45 Jenkins road,
SE1 8YT
London
TASK 3
Investigative report for exploring good practices for the employee engagement
As per the given case study, Gareth Ltd., a small scale company is facing various issues with
respect to the employee engagement. Workers of the firm are not satisfied with their job and
company. The firm is suffering from improper communication between employees and top
management, lack of team work, reward system, motivation, training and development and
increasing conflicts. By watching all these problems, boss wants to resolve all these problems for
increasing staff retention and morale.
The smallest 5 companies from the “Best Companies to Work For” are PARAGON
INTERIORS GROUP, PHAIDON INTERNATIONAL, EDUC8, REASSURED and
THE7STARS (The Sunday times best 100 companies, 2016). These firms belong to different
backgrounds but all works for employee engagement for getting success and growth in the
respected market. By the analysis, it is identified that various strategies and approaches are used by
these organizations for increasing the level of employee engagement.
Brief introduction of these firms is as follows:
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PARAGON INTERIORS GROUP:
This firm was established in 1985 and its founder was Alan Hardy. The company has
developed itself a lot in last five years and increases its profit by resolving various isseus and using
appropriate HR strategies. The main thing on which company believes is team work and due to it,
all the employees work with proper cooperation and coordination. Various training programmes are
also conducted by the firm for developing team management and relationship management skills
among the workers. Along with it other strategies and method of the small scale firm are paid
leaves, zero holiday policy, share option scheme, provides free breakfasts and bacon bottles once in
a week.
PHAIDON INTERNATIONAL:
It is recruitment firm which was established in 2005 by Adam Buck. This firm believes in
the policy of practice what you preach. It also promotes employee engagement by conducting
various activities. Along with this, other HR practices used by the organisation are healthcare
insurance, gym facality, encourage workers for charity work during company hours, free travel
insurance and many more. These strategies make employees to stay in the company and to perform
well for accomplishing its objectives.
EDUC8:
This vocational training company uses various HR practices for maintaining the employee
retention and for motivating them to perform well. It provides training to the staff members for their
development and improvement. Along with this, encourage relationship management, cooperation
and coordination among the team members.
THE7STARS:
It is a media company and it has achieved a remarkable position in market in last 10 years.
The firm gives more emphasis to the innovativeness and creativeness. Along with this different HR
functions are followed by the firm such as full salary to the female employees at the time of
maternity leaves, contracts regarding school hours, healthcare packages to dependent, gym facility
for the workers and many more. These strategies help in increasing employee retention with
effective performance.
REASSURED:
It is insurance broker company in which timing of the workers is from 10 am to 4 pm. Open
door policy is being followed by the company for encouraging employee engagement. Different
strategies used by the firm are share option scheme, high paid sales consultants, trips and holidays
to the employees.
The main aim of all the smallest companies is to improve the performance and working style of
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workers so that they can give their best in their progress. The key areas of good practice for
employee engagement identified from the above 5 smallest companies are as follows:
Training and Development:
It is one of the important factors of employee engagement. Each and every small scale
company explained above conducts training programmes for the development of their workers.
These activities provide employees an opportunity to enhance their skills, knowledge and abilities
which results to develop and grow their career. On the other hand, Garth Ltd. does not follow this
function in its system and there are no funds available for providing training to the employees. This
is de-motivating the workers and making their performance poor. Due to lack of training, staff
members are not able to update themselves as per the requirement of market which is declining their
career graph.
Communication:
Without proper communication in any firm, it is difficult to work and to achieve its
objectives. Effective communication helps in conveying message to the employees and guiding
them to work as per the requirement of company's goal. It also leads to maintain good relations with
the colleagues and team members. In contrast to it, Garth Ltd. is suffering from inadequate
communication between upper management and workers. Due to this, middle and low level
management is not able to get proper information regarding the objectives decided by company.
Due to lack of communication, there is no effective relationship between higher authorities and
their subordinates. This issue is also reducing the sense of community among staff members and
due to this; they are not able to work in a team.
Reward system:
This approach plays major role in improving the performance of the employees within the
organization. With the help of increased motivation staff members try to achieve the standard of
quality performance which leads them to get reward. Reward type used by ID Medical Group
smallest firm is of two types extrinsic and intrinsic. By this approach, employees feel like they are
part of the organization and it is thinking for their welfare and career development. On the other
hand, there is no reward system followed by the given company in the case study. The work and
performance of the staff is not valued by the firm which is creating feeling of disappointment
among them. Employees are not recognised and appreciated by Grath and due to this they are losing
their confidence and motivation. Some workers have started doing work with the poor performance
due to the increasing interference of managers to their work.
Conflict management:
For managing and maintaining relations with the employees it is essential to manage their
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conflicts and problems. Nowadays, companies have started using conflict management into their
working environment for resolving the issues of the workers. This helps the firm in managing open
and friendly environment so that employees can work with proper coordinator and cooperation for
accomplishing objectives of the enterprise. The reason behind the dispute can be diverse
background, religion, beliefs, perceptions, etc. So along with the conflicts, it is also necessary to
manage diversities as well. With reference to the Gareth Ltd, there is not such approach in the
working environment. It results to cause disputes, misunderstandings, confusions, stress, etc among
the staff members. These issues are causing imbalance between the professional and personal life of
the workers.
Flexible Working Policies:
For satisfying the expectations of the workers and balancing their working and personal life,
all of these smallest 5 companies provide them flexible working opportunities. These help workers
in managing their role at office and family properly and effectively. These policies include part-time
job, flexihour, work from home, etc. This also leads to provide full satisfaction to the employees
with respect to their job. On the other hand, Gareth Ltd has not such policies for their staff
members. Due to this, workers feel stress and burden of work on them. They are unable to spend a
good time with their family members. In addition to it, there is no policy for the female workers
who are managing their home with their office work. All these factors are leading employees of the
organization to disappointment.
Team management:
Team work is most effective strategy for achieving the goals and objectives of the firm
effectively. It leads to exchange their ideas, knowledge, opinion, etc which helps them to reach at
fresh, innovative and creative results. It needs proper cooperation and coordination with relationship
management. Proper team management also helps in understanding each and every member's strong
points and delegating work accordingly. On the other hand, in Garth Ltd, there is lack of team work
due to which, employees are not able to cooperate and coordinate with each other. It also prevents
them to understand and know about each other for developing good relations. Somewhere this
problem is linked with the inadequate communication in the system.
Performance Appraisal:
Various methods are used by the 5 firms for evaluating the performance of their workers.
These methods include checklist, 360 degree appraisals, management by objectives (MBO), etc.
Most commonly method used by all the organizations is 360 degree appraisal. This evaluation helps
the firm in identifying quality and poor the performance of the employees. This approach is
connected with the reward system of the organizations. Quality performer get reward in the form of
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recognition, promotion, raises in salary, trust, empowerment, etc which encourage them to perform
better. With respect to this, Garth does not use any kind of performance appraisal which prevents
workers to perform well for achieving the targets of it effectively and efficiently.
Relationship Management:
From analyzing the 5 smallest companies, it is determined that they are also organizing
formal, informal meetings, parties, picnics, tours, etc for enhancing the relationship among
employees. In these meetings, parties, picnics, etc workers try to understand background, religion,
perception, language, culture, etc of each other which results to create good relation between them.
It is important to manage the relationship among the staff members for increasing engagement and
performance. It also results to decrease conflicts, grievances, misunderstandings, etc. and this
results to create good, ethical and valuable working environment in the organization. With respect
to this, Garth needs to organise some tour, parties for their employees. It will also help the firm in
managing effective relationship between the top, middle and low level management. It will lead to
increase the employee retention rate and commitment to their work.
Recommendations:
From the above analysis of 5 smallest companies of “Best Companies to Work For”, it is
determined that, Garth is facing serious problems in the matter of employee engagement. It is prime
responsibility of the company to fulfil the expectations of their staff members as they are its most
important assets. For achieving growth, good market position, reputation and success, it is essential
for the firm to implement changes for improving the present conditions. It will also help in
increasing employee retention with engagement. Recommendations for the improvement are as
follows.
 Garth need to accept the demand of workers to work from 9 a.m. To 5 a.m. So that, they can
manage their life properly.
 Company should talk to upper management and find the reason behind their inadequate
communication with the employees.
 There should be some tea or other break for the workers so that they can reduce their stress
of work by communicating with each other.
 Firm needs to develop conflict management committee for handling and controlling disputes
and grievances of the staff members. It will also help the enterprise in providing open and
friendly working environment to the workers.
 Firm need to motivate its workers by using various motivational theories which will also
help them in performing well.
 Garth need to apply reward system to its working environment so that workers can perform
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well for getting rewards.
 Company can increase employee relationship by organising tours and parties.
 For managing communication, Garth should use information and communication technology
(ICT), presentation, emails, etc.
 It needs to implement some policies regarding the flexible working for the women staff
members for helping them in managing their work. So that, they can balance their personal
and professional work effectively without any stress.
 Enterprise should provide training programmes for the development of its workers so that
they can enhance their skills, knowledge and abilities with the career. It will help in
providing them satisfaction. For this, Ganth can use on the job and off the job training
activities for their employees.
From the above discussion, it is concluded that the top five small scale organisations are
taking effective actions with respect to the human resource development. Effective strategies are
used by these firms with respect to the communication, conflict management, relationship
management, performance appraisal, flexible working policies and many more. These approaches
are helping the7stars, Reassured, EDUC8, phaidon international and paragon interiors group to
develop and grow in the competitive environment. These small scale firms are building competitive
advantages, market position, brand image and good reputation among the customers by working
properly.
TASK 4
Reflection: My Experience in compiling this portfolio- a reflection
For compiling this portfolio, I use various secondary sources so that I can collect appropriate
and suitable information for the given assessments. I read and understand the techniques for writing
e-mail and letter as per the given case scenario. This helps me in enhancing my knowledge with
email and letter writing skills. Along with this, I read articles, journals and websites, for collecting
information about the employee engagement. In addition to this, I analyse the 5 smallest companies
of the given website for identifying their employee engagement techniques. This leads to develop
my research skills, abilities and knowledge in the field of worker engagement. These skills and
knowledge will help me in future for conducting research on any topic or related to it. Various key
areas for improving employee retention an engagement enhance my knowledge in this particular
field. With the help of this, I can make good relations with my friends, colleagues, family members.
I am also able to mange my work effectively for balancing my personal and working life.
For the above topic areas, I find communication as effective and important factor for solving
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any kind of issue and problem. Along with this, I also find reward management effective for
improving the performance of the workers. While researching for the present topic, I came to face
various limitations such as lack of time, resources and experience. But by reading articles, journals
and by using computer, high speed internet, etc I achieve my objectives regarding this study
effectively. With the help of this technique, I use all the limitations properly. I try to achieve each
and every assessment as per the given time period and due to this I manage my time properly.
Proper time management and work management result in completing the whole research effectively
in the given span of time.
From the above analysis, I come to know that root of weakness is inadequate an improper
communication among the workers. Ineffective communication results to create misunderstanding,
conflicts, confusions among the team members which leads to improper cooperation and
coordination. With respect to myself, I come to know about my weaknesses also such as ineffective
time management and work management. And the reason behind this is lack of proper knowledge
about the given assessments.
I learn research, technical, communication and time management skills from this research.
These skills will also help me in future while conducting research on the same topic. Along with
this, now I am able to manager my work as per the given deadline and can take decisions for
developing and growing my career.
CONCLUSION
From the above study, it is concluded that communication skills play important role in
managing and maintaining work and relations. The language of e-mail and letter shows that polite
and respectful communication can make individual to solve any problem or issue effectively and
efficiently. In addition to it, employee engagement also plays essential role in achieving the
objectives of the organization and in increasing employee retention. Along with this, various HR
strategies are used by the small scale firms for encouraging employee engagement in their working
environment. There are various key areas which can improve and develop the employee
engagement in companies properly. Garth needs to adopt these key areas for resolving its different
issues regarding training and development, communication, stress, etc.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Guffey, M. E. and Loewy, D., 2012. Essentials of business communication. Cengage Learning.
Hooker, J., 2012. 19 Cultural Differences in Business Communication. The handbook of
intercultural discourse and communication. 29. pp.389.
Online
The sunday times best 100 companies. 2016. Available through:
<http://appointments.thesundaytimes.co.uk/article/best100companies>. [Accessed on 11th
March 2016]
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