Coronavirus: How Does It Affect Communication Skills?

Does coronavirus really affect our communication skills? To answer this question, we look at how drastic changes in the home and business environments amid the COVID pandemic affect communication! Find out more today.

The coronavirus is spreading globally at an unprecedented rate, affecting thousands of people every day. While public health experts concur that the pandemic is a public health crisis, it cannot be disputed that the virus is also affecting the global economy significantly. Affecting both the public health sector and the global economy only means that the impact extends down to the family level.

One of the major impacts of COVID-19 is felt on the communication landscape. Considering how work processes are changing in light of the pandemic, organizations must implement strategic communications to transmit accurate and pertinent information to their employees. In turn, employees need to relay information about their work to their family members in a positive way. Communication skills are required to achieve this communication flow successfully.

Why Communication Skills Are Needed in the Home Setting

How communication skills help in the home setting is quite easy to identify. Сonsidering that working from home makes employees vulnerable to pressures of heavy workloads and emotional stress brought about by this pandemic, it may interfere with their ability to communicate effectively and efficiently to their family members and friends. But, if you leave alone, it is more difficult to cope with stress. We would recommend you to not close in yourself and looking for new friends or love through social media or dating sites. It is an excellent decision during the pandemic.

Communication Skills in the Business Setting

The pandemic has triggered a game-changer in how businesses operate. Many organizations have scaled down their operations, and most companies have opted to adopt remote work. In light of the pandemic, many organizations have seen the need to reorganize their teams, update their road maps, and review their long-term strategies.

In as far as organizational structures and internal processes are concerned, the communications teams in most organizations are now tasked to find effective methods for informing company employees about COVID and how it affects their work. They have to achieve this objective without spreading panic and fear across the organization. To achieve this objective, companies worldwide have to re-evaluate their internal communications strategies and upgrade their communications specialists' skills.

Why Communication Skills Are Needed in the Business Setting

Are communication skills important? In the business setting, communication skills are needed to ensure the effective sharing of information to quarantine employees in different places. Communication skills benefit the organization in that it helps management maintain high workplace productivity and team collaboration, even when the employees are geographically dispersed. 

Therefore, organizations need to subject their internal communications (IC) teams to communication skills training to update their competence. While panic is continually spreading and the dynamics of organizational processes are changing, it's not surprising that employees can get confused, worried, and insecure. They want to know how the organization's changes are going to impact their work, if they will lose their jobs, or if their paycheck will be affected now that they are working from home. That is why communication skills are needed for the HR and IC teams.

The HR and IC teams play an essential role in informing employees and providing answers to their concerns accordingly, to avoid the panic that can lead to a workplace crisis. Communication skills in leadership are vital since failure to address employee concerns amid this COVID-19 pandemic can lead to panic in the employees. Therefore, having the right set of communication skills benefits the HR and IC teams, enabling them to communicate effectively with employees, inform them about updated safety procedures, and any arising issues in the organization.

Communication Skills in the Home Setting

Considering the dynamic shifts in organizational processes, many employees now have to work remotely, which means working from home. As such, they will spend most of their time with their family members at home. Since they'll be working from home, employees will need to reorganize their schedules to respect work time and home time.

As far as working from home is concerned, the employees will interact with their family members even as they strive to complete assigned duties from their employers. And as leaders in the family, they need effective ways to communicate with their family members about the corona situation, their work-from-home situation, among other things. Given the need to maintain social distancing and isolation, employees must adapt to their communication. Communication skills training may be needed to take advantage of both verbal and non-verbal communication aspects effectively. 

Conclusion

Can communication skills be improved? Of course, communication skills training can significantly help an employee learn to relay information in a loving way to their family members, through verbal and non-verbal communication aspects. The need to communicate using the right tone of voice, eye contact, gesture, and posture to pass vital information to the family makes it essential for employees to know when to develop communication skills when working from home.

Are you currently working remotely, quarantined, or self-isolating at home? Don’t be lonely during this COVID pandemic. Improve your communication skills and find people online.

Do you know of other ways to connect during the coronavirus pandemic? Please share them below!

***Written for Meridian Counseling by Mrs Simyone.

Author’s bio:

Mrs. Simyone works as a  freelancer and also she has two wonderful kids.  Together with her sons, she travels around the world and discovers new meals.  In free time Mrs. Simyone shares her experience about a toxic marriage and helps others to build healthy relationships.