World statistics show that large companies lose tens of millions of dollars every year just because of ineffective communication. In smaller companies, the count is in the hundreds of thousands. Therefore, 70% of employers indicate that effective communication is an important skill for potential employees.

A low level of development of communication skills immediately makes itself felt. Among its manifestations are the passivity of employees, violation of deadlines, distrust of team members, loss of customers and other mistakes that cost the company dearly.

What refers to communication skills
In every job posting, there is a requirement: communication skills. And which of them are the most important in your team? The ability to listen, persuade, justify your point of view? Or the ability to build successful communication strategies? The more accurately you formulate, the more suitable candidate you will get.

Communication skills are the abilities that a person possesses when communicating effectively, accurately, and efficiently. Mastery of the art of communication determines success in business and social relations.

Meetings, presentations, business correspondence are forms of business formal interaction. Informal communication is correspondence in chats, requests and receipt of information, discussion of work problems, requests, approvals. These informal dialogues maintain social connections, build a culture of communication, establish points of contact and trust between employees.

What do active communication skills include?

Psychologists name the 10 most important communication skills needed in the workplace:

Oral speech, reading (verbal communication) are language skills, by developing which a person learns to accurately express his ideas and thoughts. People who can speak professionally and convincingly are always appreciated.
Written communication is the ability to write emails, draw up reports, documents. The more developed the ability to talk about complex things in simple language, convincingly convey information, and control the reader's attention, the better the skills of such a dialogue are developed.
Active listening involves listening to what others are saying without interrupting, showing interest in what is being said, asking questions, jumping to conclusions, and summarizing things. This helps to better understand colleagues and customers, and to solve problems faster. Stephen R. Covey writes in his book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People": "Most people do not listen with the intention of understanding; they listen with the intention of answering." We often spend more time thinking about our response than actively listening to what others have to say. As a result, we miss out on a lot of potentially valuable information.
Empathy is the ability to put yourself in the shoes of others and understand their perspectives and feelings. Empathy helps to establish business relationships and a collaborative atmosphere.
Constructively defending one's view of the problem, expressing ideas and opinions clearly and respectfully, without aggression or pressure.
Non-verbal communication. Body language, facial expressions, and gestures help to better build interaction in the work environment.
Adaptability of communication is the ability to adjust one's style of communication depending on the situation and context.
The skills of diplomatic and constructive dialogue help to resolve conflict situations and find joint solutions.
The ability to convincingly convey information: the essence of projects, ideas at presentations, meetings improves interaction.
10. Possession of constructive feedback, strengthens skills and personal and team development.

Why you need to develop the communication skills of your staff
Statistics will help answer the question about the importance of staff communication skills for business:

40% of employees believe that their companies lack cooperation and communication;
33% say there is a lack of transparency in internal communications;
43% claim that due to poor communication, they lose trust in management;
when employees receive convenient communication technologies and skills, productivity can increase by up to 30%;
Effective communication and team collaboration increase employee retention by 4.5 times.
Strong communication is the basis of corporate culture, which is directly related to the productivity of the company. Regardless of the field of activity, investing in the development of these skills has a positive impact on the career and personal growth of employees.

What does the development of communication skills give the team:

Effective communication eliminates misunderstandings and misinterpretations. People with good speech skills can express their ideas clearly and concisely.
Interpersonal relationships improve, strong relationships are built between colleagues, bosses, subordinate clients. Empathy helps to strengthen mutual understanding, people communicate openly and willingly.
Conflicts at work stop. The ability to communicate constructively helps resolve disputes before they escalate into an unsolvable problem, which often ends with the dismissal of one of the conflicting parties.
Teamwork and collaboration become more thoughtful and productive. People better understand their roles, save resources and time.
Leadership becomes more effective because leaders with communication skills can inspire and motivate teams, bring people together, and set a clear direction.
The company's image grows, because communication with customers and partners becomes more productive, customer churn decreases, and the company's reputation increases.
Career prospects improve: clear and persuasive speech is valued among leadership and managerial positions.
The number of innovations, the creativity of the team is growing, 

and the profitability of the business is increasing.

Methods for assessing communication skills
Testing is used to assess the communication skills of candidates. The task of HR is to prepare a set of tests that best match the skills of the future employee. For example, you need to understand how a person is able to listen to the interlocutor and express his thoughts clearly.
You hire sales representatives, account managers, and administrative workers. It is necessary to assess the candidate's ability to express his thoughts in oral speech, understand the intentions of others, and also determine the ability to appropriately use gestures and body language so that he is heard and understood.

What testing is suitable for this:

psychological tests – assessment of behavior, motivation, character traits, dialogue skills, ability to build harmonious relationships with colleagues;
situational tests – assessment of the candidate's reaction to non-standard and conflict situations.

Competency-based interviews are used to understand the candidate's past experience and behavior in various situations. They are more often used in the selection of top managers and executives. This is a prepared structured conversation, the purpose of which is to see how developed the candidate's communication skills are.
Polls. It is best to start surveys with an assessment of the manager's communication skills. Each top manager can ask himself how often he talks to people, how much time he spends listening, whether he asks questions.
The answers may not please yourself. The results of the survey of subordinates will bring even less satisfaction when the communication problems of the leader are highlighted, which are worth working on. And they will have to do this, forgetting about their own pride and defensive position.

Employee surveys reveal the abilities of everyone, suggest positions for adjusting communication skills. Use questionnaires that contain answer options and a 10-point scale, which reduces the subjectivity of assessment. For example:

He is able to establish contacts, negotiate with other people and argue his own position
Conveys information clearly and accurately, knows how to talk about complex things in simple language
Easily finds a common language with different people, takes the initiative in communication
Adapts his/her style of speech to the interlocutor (form of communication, gestures, pace of speech) to achieve mutual understanding
Listens attentively and understands the interlocutor, asks the right questions for additional information
Clearly argues his position, supports it with facts and reliable information
4. 360-degree assessment is an effective HR tool for all-round assessment of the qualities of team members based on a competency matrix. Survey experts are colleagues, subordinate managers, clients, partners. The assessment will identify the strengths and weaknesses of the communication of each survey participant.

Ways to develop communication skills
Strong communication skills are not given to people by nature. This is something that everyone can develop in themselves to become a good communicator. This requires time and resources.

There are many ways: trainings that specifically focus on how to effectively communicate with different people in the company, training courses, online marathons, business coaching, case solving, etc.

Communication skills can be improved by individual training. Set a few rules for yourself that you will follow in the dialogues:

Ask yourself 5 questions before the conversation:
Why do I need it?
Who needs to get your message across?
What is my main task?
What result do I need?
In what format is it better to do this?
Start the dialogue with the main idea so that people immediately understand what you are talking about.
Find simple and clear formulations of your thoughts and ideas, ask questions to participants, involve them in a dialogue.
Record your communication on video and look at yourself from the outside: whether you have made eye contact, whether you look confident, calm, or tense and constrained.
In the end, you can ask for feedback from the participants in the conversation to understand how effectively you communicated.
To make communication regular and open, adhere to these rules:

Make face-to-face meetings regular.
meet with teams weekly;
Make sure everyone understands what's expected of them.
Think about the productivity of meetings, the psychological safety of the interlocutors.