Interview Memo

Date:       February 28, 2001

To:          Professor Campbell

From:      Heather Gillis

Subject:   The Importance of Communication Skills in the Workplace

Good communication is vital in the workplace.  No matter what kind of business a person is in, communication is the most important thing.  I found this out by interviewing two people (both in their late twenties) in the business world.  I interviewed Michelle Sparks, who is an administrative assistant at Hanlin Moss Group (an accounting firm in Seattle).   I also interviewed James Smith, who works as a programmer at Nintendo (located in North Bend).  Both workers shared the same thoughts about the importance of good communication. 

Communicating at Work

Although James and Michelle work in two different fields, they both had very similar answers to my questions about communication.  Both do most of their communication with other workers.  This is done the majority of the time through e-mail.  They both find e-mail to be the most efficient form of communication.  Michelle feels that e-mail is “the quickest way to send messages.”  James finds e-mail “the most convenient form of communication” because he and other co-workers are at their computers all day.  I was surprised to find that both James and Michelle found that people tend to communicate well with business sorts of items, but do not communicate quite as well when it comes to interoffice communication.  Michelle feels that it is due to “lack of communication skills.”  In James’ situation there are a few employees where English is a second language, and that can put a strain on communication. 

Communicating Through E-mail

Michelle receives about five e-mails a day.  These e-mails are usually little reminders of things that need to be finished.  She only sends about one or two e-mails a day.  These are also reminder e-mails.  On the other hand, James receives 15 e-mails a day, and sends between 10 and 15 e-mails a day.  His e-mails pertain to different projects he is working on.  Since Michelle works in an accounting firm, she has to keep track of each accountant’s time sheets on clients’ work.  She always notices grammatical errors when looking over this information.  She rewrites many of these statements so that they are acceptable to mail to clients.

Importance of Communication

Michelle has found that her customers prefer to communicate either on the phone or through e-mail.  Although James does not communicate directly with the customer with his job, other employees have found that their customers prefer e-mail.  Michelle and her colleagues have meetings once a week, whereas James sometimes has a few a day.  Michelle and James both agreed that face-to-face communication is the most reliable, and (as stated earlier) e-mail is the quickest form of communication.  Michelle has noticed that phone messages sometimes get messed up, so she feels that “the phone is not always reliable.”  Michelle has seen first hand what damage lack of communication can do.  Earlier this year a few workers misunderstood each other, and something went out to their client when it was not finished.  “This is very unprofessional, and could have cost us a client,” stated Michelle.  This is an example of how good oral communication is necessary to run a business successfully.   

Important Writing Skills

Michelle feels that “spelling and the ability to put sentences together” are two important skills employers may look for when hiring.  James feels that it is important “to be able to get a point across clearly.”  I was surprised to find that James and Michelle thought that good writing skills are not extremely important for being hired in their fields.  Michelle said, “The ability to orally communicate well with your co-workers tends to be more important than your writing skills.”