Companies struggle to integrate new employees and build successful cultures because of a lack of communication, according to Steve Slater, COO, Stellar Industrial Supply, Tacoma, WA, in Soft Skills Make Tough Competitors, from the 2017 Distribution Trends Special Issue.
“You’ve heard ‘location, location, location.’ It’s really like communication, communication, communication," Slater says.
Communicating expectations is often a main hurdle when addressing a soft skills gap and can bolster or diminish company culture. The need for effective communication applies not only to prospective candidates but to current teams, as well.
"When we have our meetings, we’ll check back and make sure," Slater says. "Are you cascading the information down from our meetings? Do your people have a sense of what is going on in the corporation and what senior leadership is trying to accomplish guiding the company? What their role is in that? Communication is huge.”
Read more about communication skills in Soft Skills Make Tough Competitors.
