Performance Scoring Reviews: Kimberly Zhang’s Article on Miscommunication and 5 Policies for Businesses to Solve It

In the recent Business 2 Community article, “Miscommunication Is Killing Productivity: 5 Ways to Solve It,” Kimberly Zhang examines the impact of miscommunication on a business, and how to improve communication. One recent report suggests “that companies with 100 employees waste $420,000 every year through miscommunication.” Company culture and moral also take a hit, as Zhang adds that “the negative effects of miscommunication create a cumulative headache of finger-pointing and low productivity.” Miscommunication, in some form, is a challenge that most businesses would acknowledge as an area they could improve upon. Performance management systems, like Performance Scoring, exist in part to harbor continuous feedback and communication. The solutions that Zhang offers are all be bolstered by a performance management system that drives employee engagement and opens a new feedback channel.
“1. Streamline the Schedule”
The first step to solving miscommunication involves better planning and preparation. “Meetings and appointments are a natural part of office life, but they shouldn’t stop colleagues from working together,” begins Zhang. There are a variety of time management tools that would improve the communication of scheduling to all relevant parties. Performance Scoring serves as one of those tools, with one feature being real-time feedback of the progress towards goals. The application communicates this information to relevant peers, managers, executives and other departments depending on the permissions set by the organization. When this data is made available to all relevant parties, an inherent consensus always exists for a company, which is a key solution to eliminating unnecessary miscommunication.
“2. Diversify Conversation Channels”
There are a variety of time management tools available, and the same can be said about conversational tools that exist. Outside of emails, “experiment with different options to figure out what works with your team,” Zhang recommends. These mediums include instant messaging, text, video meetings, and an effective performance management tool. Performance Scoring is one of the top employee feedback systems available and allows for almost instantaneous peer-to-peer feedback and communication. Many conversational tools, such as instant messaging, can pose as a distraction at times and hurt productivity when conversations wander. One benefit to a performance management system as a conversational tool is that all communication from the system will drive business solutions and employee development. “No matter how many new tools you introduce, though, email will probably remain your most-used communication medium,” Zhang concludes. Some of Performance Scoring’s clients use our system, in part, to bring accountability to email communication with certain Factors.
“3. Improve Meeting Agendas”
The third solution that Zhang offers to improve communication really drives home one of benefit exclusive to Performance Scoring: informed meetings. “People are bored to death of unnecessary and drawn-out meetings,” Zhang says. “You can’t eliminate meetings entirely, but you can ensure that every meeting has a purpose by creating (and sticking to) meeting agendas.” As a reporting feature, Performance Scoring’s FactorBoard is the ultimate tool to improve meeting agendas. The FactorBoard informs all relevant parties of the entries for a specific date range, which harps back to the inherent consensus mentioned earlier. Meetings no longer begin trying to get attendees in agreement and on the same page. Leadership now has objective and continuous data about occurrences at the company and can proactively strategize from a consensus starting point. Zhang advises to “limit meeting agendas to specific topics to prevent [off-topic] conversation.” These specific topics could be areas of low performance, as easily identified by the Company ScoreBoard, or Factors that have been persisting. Whatever the reason a meeting has been scheduled, a performance management system will inform beforehand, and this is the best way to truly improve meeting agendas.
“4. Provide Regular Updates”
With this solution for miscommunication, Zhang is hitting stride why a performance management solution is a necessity for an organization. It is now well known that providing more frequent updates and feedback is desired by employees and is directly correlated to lower attrition. “Avoid leaving stakeholders out of the loop by creating a list of people to update and making sure those people know the state of the project at every turn,” urges Zhang. One feature of Performance Scoring that helps with regularly updating people is the new Push Notifications feature that enables a company to schedule automated emails of data captured by the talent management platform. Zhang points out that “a couple minutes spent composing an update could save hours of frustration down the road.” Providing regular updates is critical, and Performance Scoring is a platform designed to do just that.
“5. Accelerate Feedback Schedules”
“Don’t limit employee feedback meetings to annual reviews or disciplinary hearings,” Zhang advocates. “Instead, schedule regular one-on-ones with team members to talk” in an open forum. Performance Scoring is a continuous feedback platform that accelerates feedback schedules by directing where engagement is needed. It can be difficult to balance an increase in check-ins with team members alone, but an effective performance management tool enables employees to manage up and initiate the conversation themselves. Zhang recommends that companies “transform regular meetings into a two-way opportunity for employees to give and receive relevant feedback.” Check-ins too often are a lecture from supervisor to employee. Managers utilizing Performance Scoring change this dynamic by using evidence-based management strategies in their check-ins with employees to have a proactive, two-way conversation focused on growth and development.
The initial solutions that Zhang explains in this article are strengthened by a performance management solution, but the final solutions are almost impractical without utilizing a performance management system. We must remember that all challenges that arise from miscommunications are completely preventable for an organization. Zhang cautions that “bad communication shouldn’t cost your business half a million dollars (or more) every year.” Performance Scoring has yielded a positive ROI for every client that has implemented the platform, with some seeing return as high as 20x. “Changing the culture will take time, but the more you invest in improved communication, the better your results will be,” closes Zhang. Performance Scoring has been implemented across several industries and template versions of the system are available for next-day onboarding. Working to eliminate miscommunication is not a massive project, get started today with Performance Scoring.