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Language is the principal building block of relationships. It’s constantly evolving and that has implications, not only in everyday life but also for enterprise.
Nicky Thompson – an expert in change management and cultural and behavioural change at North Highland UK and former board member of The Association for Business Psychology – has seen a marked development, since the start of the pandemic, in the way we communicate at work.
“From my experience as a business psychologist and through my work in various consulting jobs, I can see that the language and vocabulary used in business has changed. And given the push to everything being online, it’s changing at a much faster pace,” she says.
“Our interactions have gone from being more formalised, in writing and verbally, to more relaxed. We are also having smaller conversations and more ad hoc communications online throughout the day.”
Our interactions have gone from being more formalised, in writing and verbally, to more relaxed
NICKY THOMPSON, expert in change management and cultural and behavioural change at North Highland UK
How we interact at work is changing fast – and the best businesses are communities with a shared culture. It’s good to talk; it’s better to have the tech to do it well
Technology, shifting demographics and changing social behaviour are transforming the way staff, management and customers interact.
The best businesses are communities with a shared culture and a common language, but those take time to instil. When the office was the epicentre of business life, that culture simply percolated through. With hybrid working and distributed workforces, it is harder to achieve. Giving people tools that encourage effective communication is vital to the promotion of a cohesive, harmonious culture.
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Jeremy Butt is senior vice president of international and strategic alliance partnerships at RingCentral, a unified cloud communications-as-a-service platform. He has witnessed progressive change first hand in other roles and is now responsible for helping companies implement solutions.
“From my own perspective I think we have to be more careful with our business language, because we don’t spend as much time together to get to know each other as we did. That can be a problem, particularly when you’re trying to onboard people into a business remotely.
“I think businesses are trying hard to accommodate the needs of staff and customers. A streamlined communication service can help them strike the right balance.”
Staff recruitment and retention are a huge problem in hospitality, so businesses need to be proactive about making the work environment more positive. That includes promoting a progressive culture and making everyone feel welcome. Nearly 50 per cent of Côte’s staff come from overseas so it’s important to show respect culturally and to surmount language barriers. Having something like your internal comms available via a phone app means messages can be translated if there’s any confusion.
“At Côte our communication is now consciously more relaxed and inclusive, and rightly so,” says Petryna. “We avoid assumptions in job titles and try to have more open language. We also try to be less top-down in the way we communicate, and we tone down technical jargon. It is more important that we are descriptive so people understand rather than being technically accurate. Feedback with regard to company-wide communication has definitely improved compared to when I started here six years ago.”
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Côte continues to look for ways to simplify its internal messaging and encourage engagement. “We cascade it down the chain to every waiter and porter, which has the double effect of making communication that might once have been done in writing or by email much less formal and helping with staff engagement,” says Petryna.
“So, for example, it allows people to set up social subgroups about things like cats or football. It means a dishwasher can find themselves talking about VAR with the finance director. It helps people interact, and the better they engage the more staff retention there is.”
Workplaces have always been complex social systems and, if anything, they are becoming more complex. Technology’s job is to keep the lines of communication open, help build relationships and encourage the exchange of information.
“With all the pressures there are now, there’s a need to be able to move seamlessly across all channels,” says Jeremy Butt. “I think the expectation of business is that they want more choice – and those choices need to be easier to make.”
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“Using RingCentral’s Contact Centre allowed us to become more flexible, for both ability to scale and response times,” says Chris Petryna, IT manager at Côte. “Our centralised system for enquiries allowed all communication for our agents to take place via a single portal, blending interaction and transactions seamlessly for guests and co-workers – that alone was worth the adoption of the platform.
“Calls can be transferred across the UK between teams on a laptop, mobile or landline, which is essential given our use of hybrid working.”
Changes to working environment, personnel and daily operations make effective communication vital in highly competitive and volatile markets. Balancing what is appropriate, breaking down silos and reducing hierarchies keep companies agile – and technology can facilitate that.
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One-stop shop: streamlining comms can help with remote and hybrid working
Our communication is now consciously more relaxed and inclusive. We avoid assumptions in job titles and try to have more open language – Chris Petryna, IT manager at Côte
Short and sweet: simple messaging is often best
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Nationwide brasserie chain Côte grapples with these challenges on a daily basis. Just prior to the pandemic it replaced its malfunctioning legacy system with RingCentral’s platform. The decision paid off impressively. It allowed Côte to launch a home delivery service within two weeks during lockdown, and now enables it to operate hybrid teams and promote a positive workplace culture.
“Businesses need to have a solid idea of how they operate,” says Nicky Thompson. “Where the gap is, and where tech teams can get more involved, is having that strategic alignment with the organisation’s goals and helping it focus on what it wants to achieve culturally.”
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With all the pressures there are now, there’s a need to be able to move seamlessly across all channels – Jeremy Butt, senior vice president of international and strategic alliance partnerships at RingCentral