Communication Challenges for Freshers: How Can Students Prepare for the Workplace?

We are trying to understand what problems organizations face with respect to communication skills of freshers and young employees. Not English skills but simple communication skills such as listening, speaking, or even writing. Where all does it affect? What areas should us students be prepared for before venturing into organizations?

It seems from your post that you are a student and want to know about communication skills. Any employment or, for that matter, any activity needs good communication skills, without which all activities go haywire. It should be noted that the communication process is critical in employment, especially.

Example of the Importance of Communication

A simple example of this is when a fresher or new employee needs to be informed about their job roles. Here, communication is about informing them of their role as well as ensuring their understanding and execution of the job is done in the best possible manner.

Hi Venkata,

Many thanks for your response. I am not quite a student but have been working for the past several years in independent policy making. I wanted to understand what areas or aspects of communication organizations want to focus on and where do the freshers or young employees generally lack. If you could speak from an organization's standpoint, what issues do you face? That would be extremely helpful.

"What areas should we students be prepared for before venturing into organizations?" This statement made me think that you are a student. As stated by me earlier, every step in the job needs proper communication. It can be doing a job, reporting on the work closure, intimating a problem in the work sphere, suggestions on improvement, coordinating with the rest of the members, etc. Training needs also depend on communicating the knowledge acquired or to be acquired in the interest of the individual and the company. Individual performance reporting or KRA, KPIs of employees also need to be communicated in the organizational context to know the achievements.

Communication Problems Faced by Employees

In my view, based on my corporate experience, the communication problems faced by most employees are as follows:

- They are unable to structure their thoughts clearly. The resultant communication lacks a coherent structure, a logical flow, and is often stilted.
- Employees need to be taught the art of writing an appropriate subject line (not a generic subject line), which will assist them in keeping in mind the crux of the communication and the key points to be outlined and emphasized.
- Anyone initiating the communication must learn to effectively close the communication, clearly outlining the response sought from the receiver.
- Every meeting must have a clear agenda, and minutes/conclusions of the discussions must be circulated. Ideally, the action plan, timeline, and responsibilities must also be spelled out so that there is no ambiguity regarding the follow-up actions to be taken.
- Anyone attending a meeting must come prepared to contribute. Far too often, meetings are seen as obligatory to attend but ineffective in outcome, and most attendees treat them as such.
- All employees must be made aware that their communication should ideally convey a 'we approach' (team contribution) and must have a 'you focus' (receiver of the communication focus) so that the communication is most effective.
- Top management must address the tendency of corporate email communications being marked to a large number of recipients. This is the bane of corporate email communication simply because the facility exists, and it is a safe way to 'spread the risk of the outcome of the communication'.
- Having a clear 'Corporate Communication Policy' would help standardize the style, tone, and response time of all communications.

Training and Interaction with Employees

Appropriate training and constant interaction with employees on the subject are important. Freshers and young employees are novices to the corporate culture and business environment; hence, they require a complete understanding of how the organization works.

Challenges in Personality Development

Employees usually lack patience and are in a hurry to climb the growth ladder, which makes them overlook the essential aspect of personality development.

Understanding Communication

When it comes to understanding communication, it is vital that they are made aware of the organization's structure, the expected approach to, and interaction with various people within the structure. The most important aspect is to learn how to speak, write, and understand the impact of being more precise and concise in communication.

Creating SOPs and Instruction Cards

I typically prefer creating short Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and instruction cards using easy-to-understand language, allowing them to check off the tasks completed on a day-to-day basis.

Instilling Basic Discipline

The crucial foundation to start with is ensuring that basic discipline is instilled in them from day one.

The Importance of Communication Skills in Career Progression

I think the question raised is a genuine one. In my experience, I have seen people lacking communication skills lag behind in career progression irrespective of their work performance. People who are good at communication move up the career ladder with ease, even though their performance may not match their skills.

I have observed youngsters shy away from presenting their innovative projects and avoid the limelight. Of course, in any organization, teaching English or communication skills cannot be expected. The individuals concerned should realize their weak areas and try to learn in their personal time. However, the organization can give them small assignments to help them hone their skills, such as advising them to prepare note sheets for proposals, minutes of meetings, and reports on important incidents, and ask them to speak a few words on important occasions or festivals like Independence Day. Here comes the role of a mentor who takes responsibility for grooming the youngsters.

The Role of Mentorship in Developing Communication Skills

Another area where these youngsters fail is in projecting themselves and their achievements due to a lack of communication skills. A feeling of inferiority can engulf them at times. A mentor can take care of this.

I have seen mentorship programs in many organizations where mentors are assigned by top management. I am yet to see an organization where the mentee chooses his or her mentor. That is the ideal situation.