A 2024 report on “Communication in the Workplace Statistics 2024” indicates clearly that effective communication skills are critical skills for job success. One might think that that’s a bit of a no-brainer. However, this topic comes up again, and again, in workplace surveys and articles about career success, and has done for years. Just one example is Debra Hamilton’s Top 10 Email Blunders That Cost Companies Money from fifteen years ago in 2009.
The statistics show that 86% of employees and executives cite the lack of effective collaboration and communication as the main causes of workplace failures. Lack of effective communication creates big problems for everyone in many organizations. According to the Workplace Statistics 2024 report, 70% of people surveyed believe that wasted time is one of the worst consequences of poor communication, and 81% of global recruiters believe that cross-cultural competence is the most important communication skill job candidates should have, followed by multilingualism (77%), and active listening (75%).
Benefits of effective communication include:
- Increased Productivity
- Improved Employee Engagement
- Increased Retention and Job Satisfaction
- Facilitation of Trust
Conversely, ineffective or poor communication leads to:
- Burnout and (subsequent) decreased productivity,
- Professional failures, and
- Financial consequences for corporations.
The Communication Statistics 2024 report reveals that the costs of poor communication within organizations results in:
- Wasted time (according to 70% of survey respondents),
- Missed messages (55%),
- Burnout, stress, and fatigue (53%),
- Lost files (36%),
- Bad customer experience (28%),
- Customers lost to competitors (12%), and
- Increased turnover (12%).
Conversely, teams that communicate effectively may increase their productivity by as much as 25%. According to the McKinsey report, well-connected teams that communicate effectively see a productivity increase of 20–25%.
Discussions on communication inevitably include intercultural and language issues as well. A 2019 Harvard Business School report found that 89% of employees serve on at least one global team and that 62% of corporate employees have colleagues from at least three cultures. The United Nation’s analysis of the GDP of various languages between the years of 2019 and 2021 showed that English, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, German, French and Arabic rounded out the top 6 most-impactful business languages, in that order.
Communication encompasses more than just the languages spoken in verbal communication and the quality information transmission within those conversations. There’s also written communication to be considered. A study by the National Commission on Writing found that American firms spend as much as $3.1 billion a year remedying their employee’s writing deficiencies, according to Debra Hamilton.
In emails and written communications, vague subjects, the inclusion of unnecessary information, errors and inaccuracies and off-putting tones cause problems. Poor grammar and spelling skills exacerbate these issues and are the hallmarks of poor writing ability. These kinds of errors reflect poorly on the skills, abilities, and competency of the author. When sent out to customers, clients, or vendors, they also reflect poorly upon the organization as a whole. There’s also little excuse for such things in the age of SpellCheck, Grammar checking software, and AI.
Deficient and poorly composed communications can also have legal or financial consequences. Hamilton reports that, in 2001, Neil Patterson, the CEO of Cerner, berated 400 of the company’s employees and managers via email. The email was made public and Cerner’s stock plummeted over 20% within a week.
Finally, according to Gallagher’s State of the Sector 2024 report on communication trends, although 66% of leaders believe that their priorities are aligned with those of the employees — only 44% of employees share that conviction. Clearly, there’s a disconnect, and thus, it’s clear that communication issues are multi-faceted, and complex.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, therefore, that communication skills are highly sought after abilities that employers look for in job applicants.
- Cross-Cultural Competence – 81%
- Multilingualism – 77%
- Active Listening – 75%
- Digital Communications – 74%
- Video Conferencing – 74%
- Conflict Resolution – 74%
- Verbal Communication – 74%
- Negotiation – 73%
- Presenting – 69%
- Nonverbal Communication – 66%
- Writing Ability – 62%
Luckily, there are many ways for employers to ensure that all of these skills are present when hiring new recruits. There’s a plethora of assessments available to help hiring managers, teams, and organizations confirm the presence of job-critical communication skills, help teams work more efficiently, and aid in alleviating all of the problems highlighted above.
Creative Organizational Design offers nearly 100 different solutions to help employers screen for the skills listed above. They include:
| Business Communication – Adaptive | Use the Business Communication to screen applicants for their ability to communicate effectively with co-workers and at all levels and with external business contacts. |
| Business Communications | Use the Business Communications screens for the ability to effectively communicate in writing focusing in the following five areas of business writing – Basic Grammar, Business Tone, Responding with Incomplete Information, Appropriate and Inappropriate Apologies, Responding with Incorrect Information. |
| Business Letter Compose | Ability to accurately type and make corrections from a text original containing grammar, punctuation, spelling, and formatting errors. |
| Business Letter Edit | Business Letter Edit assesses candidates for the ability to accurately type and make corrections from a text original containing grammar, punctuation, spelling, and formatting errors. |
| Business Writing | Business Writing screens candidates for knowledge of the principles of business writing including letters, grammar, spelling, tone and vocabulary skills. |
| Cognitive Skills Test – Basic Reading & Math | Hire the right person with the Cognitive Skills Test – Basic Reading & Math test and assess general reading and math skills. |
| Communication Effectiveness Profile | Use the Communication Effectiveness Profile development tool to collect feedback on communication competencies like communication skills, clarifying, understanding, non-verbal clues, feedback, empathizing, and receiving the message for both individuals and groups. |
| Communication Skills Assessment | Use the Communication Skills Assessment to assess your candidates or employees for effective listening and communication skills. |
| Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory | Use the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory to assess candidates you’ll send overseas and immerse in new cultures and face new challenges. It gives insight into people’s ability to adjust to a new culture/environment and future stressors when transferred overseas. |
| Employee Attitude and Personality Test – Revised | The Employee Attitude and Personality Test – Revised is an overarching assessment of a person’s work personality profile, including trainability, initiative, abrasiveness, analytical thinking, emotional stability and more. |
| English Vocabulary | The English Vocabulary test assesses a candidate’s knowledge of English vocabulary, including analogies, foreign words, professional terms. |
| Grammar & Spelling Aptitude Test | Ensure that your candidates have the language, grammar and spelling skills required for any job requiring the creation and management of documents using the Grammar & Spelling Aptitude Test. |
| INSIGHT Inventory Series | The INSIGHT Inventory Series helps people gain in-depth insights into themselves, better understand others, and identify how to flex (adapt) their style to communicate better. |
| Interpersonal Skills Test | The Interpersonal Skills Test assess candidates on their interpersonal, customer service and teamwork skills as well as their workflow management abilities. |
| Kenexa Tests | Over 1500 cheap and skill-specific tests that include over 18 for reading, 26 for math/arithmetic, and 17 for writing ability. |
| Listening Effectiveness Profile | Use the Listening Effectiveness Profile to assess an individual’s current capacity to listen attentively and move towards improving key listening skills. |
| Listening Skills Inventory – Revised | The Listening Skills Inventory – Revised assess how attentive a person is to a speaker, and whether they are an active participant in listening. |
| Personnel Relations Survey | Use the Personnel Relations Survey assesses the communication practices of managers. Used for communication and relationship building with managers, supervisors, and team leaders. |
| Proofreading | Use the Proofreading solution assess a candidate’s ability to identify and correct errors involving spelling, punctuation, grammar, and word choice. |
| Reading Comprehension – English/Spanish | Use the Reading Comprehension – English/Spanish test to measure a candidate’s ability to read and comprehend written text. |
| Reading Comprehension Aptitude Test | Use the Reading Comprehension Aptitude Test to assess applicants for the ability to read and interpret training materials, MSDS information, company policies, customer correspondence, etc. |
| Reading for Customer Service Reps & Telemarketers | Use the Reading for Customer Service Reps & Telemarketers Test to assess applicants for the reading comprehension skills you need to ensure success. |
| SkillCheck Tests | Over 1500 inexpensive and skill-specific tests that include over 20 for math/arithmetic, and 14 for reading skills. |
| Skills Profiler Test | Use the Skills Profiler Test for solid basic skills (mathematical, verbal and written) that can be successfully applied to a variety of situations and responsibilities. |
| Spelling Aptitude Test | The Spelling Aptitude Test measures the ability to identify and correct commonly misspelled words in clerical and proofreading roles. |
| Spelling US | Use the Spelling US to measure a candidate’s knowledge of spelling in American English. |
| Survival Simulations Series | The Survival Simulations Series allows teams that meet remotely to test their communications, interpersonal relations, and group problem-solving skills in a safe environment. |
| Team Effectiveness Survey | Use the Team Effectiveness Survey to assesses the patterns of communication within a team and their effects on team functioning. |
| Technical Writing Test | Use the Technical Writing Test measures experienced writers’ knowledge of the appropriate design and style for technical documentation. |
| Workplace Math Skills Test | Use the Workplace Math Skills Test for jobs requiring the ability to understand and apply basic mathematical concepts correctly. |
| Workplace Reading Comprehension Test | Use the Workplace Reading Comprehension Test for jobs requiring the ability to read and understand basic written material. |
| Workplace Vocabulary Skills | Use the Workplace Vocabulary Skills test for all proofreading, secretarial, editing, writing and customer service positions. |
| Written English – Written French – Written Spanish | The Written English – Written French – Written Spanish are 3 separate assessments of grammar and reading comprehension offered in 3 languages. |
If you’re struggling with a lack of skills amongst your applicants or internal communication problems – there’s a test for that!
We like to help. Call us for help finding the solutions you’ve been looking for.
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Additional Reading:
The Cost of Poor Communications: The Business Rationale for Building this Critical Competency – February 18, 2016 – https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/organizational-employee-development/cost-poor-communication
The Cost Of Poor Communications – Holmes Report 16 Jul 2011 – https://www.provokemedia.com/latest/article/the-cost-of-poor-communications
Communication in the Workplace Statistics 2024 – https://pumble.com/learn/communication/communication-statistics/
Communication Statistics 2024 – https://www.project.co/communication-statistics/
6 Tips for Managing Global & International Teams – Harvard Business School – https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/how-to-manage-global-teams
Top 10 Email Blunders That Cost Companies Money – Debra Hamilton, 2009 – https://fliphtml5.com/eadm/btcd/basic
State of the Sector – The Definitive Report On Internal Communication Trends – https://www.ajg.com/employeeexperience/state-of-the-sector-2024/
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David Towler is President of Creative Organizational Design, a firm offering nearly 50 years of expertise specializing in employee assessments and which has over 5000 different product titles available. Creative Organizational Design has assessment tools designed to help employers screen out other people’s rejects, assess skills, aptitude, attitude and ‘fit’ within an organization. For more information about the options available and help selecting the best tools for your needs please contact us because no matter what personnel challenges you’re facing – there’s a test for that! Please send comments about this article to dtowler@creativeorgdesign.com.