Communicate. Engage. Get results.

A recent Gallup study shows:  “The quality of the workplace can be linked to serious physical and mental illnesses such as clinical depression and chronic anxiety that can have a significant negative impact on workers’ job performance and on their personal lives…Not only do anxiety and depression take a personal toll on workers, but they also result in significant direct costs to businesses in medical expenses — and indirect costs, including lost productivity.”

The report goes on to lay out some pretty impressive facts that link disengagement to anxiety and depression.  Their conclusion:  Engage employees and you can reduce the direct and indirect costs to your organization.

Interestingly, what they don’t mention is that good internal communication is the foundation for engagement.  In their own well-known Q12 survey, 7 of the 12 questions designed to measure employee engagement are clearly related to communication.

So, the answer would seem to be easy.  Better, clearer communications.  Higher levels of engagement.  Lower levels of anxiety and depression.  Reduced costs.  Higher productivity.  Better results.

What do you think?  If you could do one thing today to improve your institution’s communications what would it be?

Tags: Cultural norms, Engagement