In my work experience, there are many different times where communication has been ineffective,
most situations I can think of occur more on an inter-departmental communication scale rather
than an organization wide communication scale. a One instance I can recall on an organization wide
scale is when the facility I worked at was undergoing a change in operator, resulting in a change to
all benefits and many systems. a At first there was a lot of concern over what this meant for the
current employees, but what the new operator did well was making sure to meet with all of us in
shifts to explain in person what was happening and detailed out who to contact with any concerns. a
One area that the communication did not quite hit the mark was in the official changeover for
payroll and benefits. a The new operator sent out memos regarding the start of the new benefit
options and the transition to a new payroll system at the same time. a The enrolment in new benefit
plans went smoothly, but it was found when the changes went live, executives had not
communicated to employees that the change in payroll system would result in pay checks being
delayed a week. a The delay is due to the switch in pay periods from the old operator to the new
operator, but it caused a lot of concern from employees as they often live pay check to pay check
and count on the money coming in at a certain date. a The company did release notification once
they realized no one had been notified previously, and for individuals requesting it they issued
manual payroll checks for the week of pay that was delayed. a Given their efficiency at correcting the
issue, I believe this miscommunication was just an oversight, with all the changes we were
experiencing at the same time, but it was cause for a hectic week. a I have worked in HR for the past
three years and I have seen the consequences of ineffective communication. There are different
types of communications such as formal, informal, directional, oral, and written communication. An
ongoing miscommunication that I have experienced is during the promotion and salary increase
processes we have set in place. When a division wants to promote an employee, they must email a
salary increase packet for the employee and submit corresponding documents to the Human
Resources division to get approved. The Human Resources division evaluates the employee and
follows a checklist to ensure the employee is deserving of the promotion/salary increase.
Afterwards, the packet is submitted to the budget division to ensure there is appropriate fundings
for this salary increase. Afterwards, it goes to the Deputy Commissioner of Administration for final
approval. He decides on all of the promotions after reviewing, but he is the sole employee that
does this while the other divisions have more than one person reviewing the packet. He verbally
approves or denies the promotions and only to the Deputy Director. Once it is approved, the
budget team must submit the promotion to the oversight agency to make it official. However,
verbal communication tends to get lost and becomes confusing because we are unsure on what is
the status of a promotional request when the division asks us. Because he is the division head, no
one has really told him that it causes a lot of stress. The reason being that our oversight agency
only provides the submission of promotions to be inputted once a month. Once we miss the
deadline to submit, we must wait a whole month to input it which usually makes our divisions
really upset.
