The communication skills of your employees and teams will make or break your efforts to bring a shift to your company’s corporate culture. Effective communication has greater influence over a successfully implemented culture shift than clearly set goals, appropriately delegated tasks or managed expectations. It is the most important element in your company’s change strategy.
Training your employees and teams to communicate effectively is an investment in the success of your organization. The good news for companies seeking change is that communication soft skills are learnable and within reach for everyone, from supervisors and managers to entry-level workers.
Changing the beliefs, actions and outcomes for your organization requires buy-in from the entire workforce. Communicative leaders are essential to the process of lasting change, as coworkers and subordinates look to their example to determine how to respond to new requests and processes.
The Equitable Food Initiative (EFI) Program produces leaders who are skilled and confident in their abilities to communicate with coworkers and management. EFI workforce development training teaches the transferable soft skills of communication, conflict resolution and problem-solving. Several EFI Leadership Team members cite improved communication between coworkers and management as the most significant change in their organization as a result of EFI training and certification, noting increased confidence and proficiency in both personal and structural communication.
Having EFI as a platform to communicate both how do we do things and why are we doing what we’re doing has made us a better organization.”
– EFI Grower Vernon Peterson
“In my personal experience, the EFI training brought me so much confidence to communicate with my coworkers,” said Blanca Acosta, Leadership Team member and administrator for The Peterson Family Inc. with Homegrown Organic Farms.
EFI Leadership Team member Yessica Iglesias Tamaniz with Alpine Fresh Inc. observed that the communication skills employees gained through EFI training produced a more effective organization. “I think what we primarily improved through EFI was communication as a team. Before, there was a breakdown in communication. Employees didn’t really talk to management. But thanks to the EFI training and certification the workers can approach us more and there is now a channel to solve the problems we had.”
In addition to producing communicative leaders representing every area of an organization’s workforce, the EFI approach creates a structure to facilitate communication for the organization through monthly Leadership Team meetings and a network of employee and management representatives available to hear suggestions and feedback from the the rest of the workforce.
Lacking employees with communication skills and having poorly functioning systems for communication can be costly. According to the Holmes Report, companies with effective communication strategies have 47% higher returns to shareholders, more engaged employees and less employee turnover. Among the 400 companies surveyed, an estimated $37 billion was lost due to employee misunderstanding or error from poor communication.
Recent months have revealed that quality of communication can also affect the safety and health of workers and the viability of the organization. According to EFI growers, the communication structure built through EFI certification has been vital during the coronavirus pandemic.
Vic Smith, CEO of JV Smith Companies, said, “As the pandemic began, it really showed us how much our communication networks had evolved with EFI. Having the EFI Leadership Team in place provided the most effective way for communication to flow through our many teams and crews.”
Vernon Peterson, with Homegrown Organic Farms, said having EFI teams aided the implementation of at least a dozen new procedures in his packing shed and in his stone fruit growing operation in the first three months of the pandemic. “It’s really been a benefit to have the EFI Leadership Team during this coronavirus so we could sit down and talk about what’s going on and how do we keep people safe,” Peterson said. “Having EFI as a platform to communicate both how do we do things and why are we doing what we’re doing has made us a better organization.”
Good communication practices not only help direct a shift in company culture but also point to a high-performance culture overall. Find out more about how EFI can train your staff in communication, problem-solving and conflict resolution by visiting equitablefood.org or contacting Director of Business and New Product Development Kevin Boyle.
