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It’s common knowledge that strong communication skills are essential to professional success. Being able to communicate your ideas in a clear, confident way creates better professional relationships, more satisfied clients, and a more efficient business. You’re also probably aware that poor communication skills can create a range of problems in the workplace. But did you know how significantly poor communication can impact your bottom line?
The Independent Directors Council (IDC) commissioned a study to determine how much miscommunication cost companies on average each year. Employee assessment firm Cognisco conducted a series of telephone interviews with managers, HR and staff from 400 companies and found that companies with 100,000 employees were losing $62 million per year on average due to misunderstandings! At an average of $624 per employee, that type of loss can even impact smaller companies.
Poor communication can result in a wide range of problems. For this particular study, misunderstanding was defined as “actions taken by employees who have misunderstood or misinterpreted (…) of company policies, business processes, job function or a combination of the three.” The quoted number doesn’t include lost revenue due to more generalized poor communication skills, which can impact customer service, getting and retaining clients, and general sales. That means the costs of miscommunication are even higher than the $62 million found by the study.
Although the numbers themselves are shocking, what is even more surprising is that only one third of the companies surveyed had taken any action to correct the issue! Don’t let your company be one of the thousands nationwide that are hemorrhaging money due to poor communication. If you think your employees, staff, and management could benefit from improved communication skills, contact a professional communication coach or corporate speech-language pathologist, and learn how to keep miscommunication from impacting your bottom line.