Over the summer I had the opportunity to speak with a group of HR leaders about workforce analytics. The day’s agenda included a number of presentations from consultants and practitioners about different initiatives underway at a variety of organizations.
As I listened to the other speakers, I noticed that in almost every discussion, “effective communication” was highlighted as one of the keys to success. This was certainly not news to me; I’ve heard the same refrain hundreds of times in my two decades in the business world. And in fact, I was planning to make the identical point later during my session on “critical skills for HR analytics professionals.”
Then this thought struck me: if we constantly have to remind each other that effective communication is essential to driving successful business outcomes, doesn’t that imply that too often our best efforts and initiatives fail precisely because of ineffective communication?
I decided to test a hypothesis. During the Q&A session after my presentation, I asked the audience how many of them provided training for their HR teams in building the various skills I had highlighted. Business acumen? Check – every organization has core business training for the HR staff. Analytical skills? Yes, most organizations provide that, at least for a subset of their HR teams. And so on, until I asked about written and verbal communication skills. Fewer than 10% of the organizations in the room provided formal training to their HR teams in these critical areas. And most of those whose hands were raised were from the consulting firms in attendance.
We recognize that these are essential skills. We correctly point out that effective communication is often the single defining characteristic that differentiates successful change efforts from unsuccessful ones. And yet by at least this one (admittedly unscientific) study, organizations seriously underinvest in teaching those skills. Why is this?
Do we take these skills for granted and just assume that if you are a business professional you must be an effective communicator? Implicitly I think that’s exactly what’s happening. But this assumption flies in the face of the evidence. Nearly every professional job posting I’ve ever seen calls out effective communication skills as one of the essential abilities that applicants need to possess. We wouldn’t highlight the importance of those skills if everyone had them. More to the point, ask yourself how many mediocre – or even truly awful – presentations you’ve sat through in your business career. How many impenetrable powerpoint decks have you seen? How many utterly ineffective business memos and reports have you waded through? Perhaps you’ve even written and delivered some of those less-than-stellar communications yourself.
My challenge to you is this: if you truly believe that effective communication is critical to your business, then make sure your organization is investing in building those skills. Especially during a time when your organization is likely working harder than ever before to achieve its goals, this may well be the most critical investment you can make in your people.
Tags: Data Analysis, Data driven decision making, Human Capital Analytics, strategic hr management, Workforce Analytics