Module 7

Effective Communication in the Workplace

The best way to learn new things is to listen, to read, to understand and to do things that help in
making these skills impressed in your mind
Let’s begin by understanding these few means of communication in the workplace.
• Minutes of the Meeting
A Minute or Minutes of the Meeting is the summary of what happened in a meeting. Since
business meetings have become important communication in business and the industry, a record
of their minutes is always filed. Minutes are considered official, permanent records, and regarded
as legal documents.
Minute writing is a skill which can be learned, and even thoroughly enjoyed! There can be great
satisfaction in producing a succinct, accurate summary of what happened at a meeting, and
thereby enabling others to see the wood for the trees. The minute writer's task is to produce as
tidy and orderly a record of the meeting as possible, while still reflecting accurately what
happened.
Functions of a Minute
Every set of minutes can have some or all of the following functions:
1. Discussions preceding them, to be used as part of the information on which other bodies base
decisions.
2. Making information available to members of the company and others (via the Web)
3. Providing the company's official formal record of what took place at meetings (for use by
present and future staff, and for the Archives.
4. Providing an accurate record of decisions taken, which are then the official authorities for
specific actions (at various levels of the company)
Parts of a Minute
1. Day, time, and place of the meeting
2. Name of the group holding the meeting
3. Name of presiding officer or chair
4. Names of present and absent members
5. Approval or amendment of minutes of the previous meeting
6. For each major point, what was is indicated
a. What was discussed, suggested, or proposed
b. What was decided and the votes, including abstentions
c. What was continued or tabled for further study or for another meeting
d. What time was the meeting officially closed
7. Secretary’s signature
Guidelines in Preparing the Minutes
As official company document and evidence in court litigations, minutes of the meeting should
be prepared with care and as a beginner, these tips could help you in the trade.
• The most important skill in taking minutes is listening carefully to what is said, and mentally
sorting the wheat from the chaff as you take notes. (Record only points of substance).. If you
tape-record the minutes or take them down verbatim in shorthand to avoid the mental sorting at
the meeting, you'll effectively have to go through the whole meeting again before you can do any
sorting (potentially very time-consuming)
• As you listen, write down briefly all points which seem to have substance. If you're well
prepared and understand the issues, you'll find it easier to recognize these points. If you're in
doubt, as inexperienced officers often are, err on the side of caution and record the point. You
can then decide later whether it needs to be included. Do not report/write verbatim (word for
word) what are said.
• Use initials of speakers (as far as possible) to identify who made the point. While you won't
normally use names in the minutes you may occasionally wish to refer back to a speaker for
clarification of a point made. It can also be useful if there's any dispute later over who said what.
• By all means use your own form of shorthand in making notes, to reduce the amount of writing
you have to do - initials, short forms of words, symbols and the like, as long as you'll understand
after the meeting what you've written.
• Keep careful track of any motions moved during the meeting, as you may be asked to remind
members of them by reading them out. If a member moves a motion which is longer than you
can readily record, ask that he/she give it to you in writing to ensure that you get it right. If a
motion is amended, keep careful track of the new motion. It's useful to record motions in
CAPITALS and perhaps to highlight them in color, so that if you have to flick back several
pages of notes you can quickly find them.
you miss a point, don't panic, or you may miss even more points as the meeting moves on
If you have a vague grasp of the lost point, you can always ask the Chair or the speaker after
the meeting.
• If you don't understand a point made, despite having listened carefully to it, ask through the
Chair for clarification. Chances are that others won't have understood it either.
• The past tense is always used.

• Memo
A memo is usually written for internal or in-house communication. It is usually short, direct to
the point, clearly stating what must be done or not done. They provide data or various functions,
such as the following (Kolin, 2015):
1. Making announcements;
2. Giving instructions;
3. Clarifying a policy, procedure, or issues;
4. Alerting staff to a problem;
5. Sending recommendations;
6. Providing legal records;
7. Calling a meeting; and
8. Reminding employees of a corporate history, policy and procedure.
Memo Protocol
1. Be timely. Do not wait for the day of the event before your announcements.
2. Be professional. Although a memo is an in-house correspondence, it should still be
well crafted, factually accurate, and free of grammar lapses and faulty writing
mechanics.
3. Be tactful. Politeness and diplomacy are important qualities of any business
correspondence.
4. Send memo to the right person. In business, a memo is typically for internal
communications; hence, it could also be considered as an upward communication
through which any complaints, issues, opinion, views and suggestions are sent.
Memo Format and Parts
Memos vary in format and the way they are sent. Whatever the format, they should have
standard parts. The memo has basically two parts: HEADER or identifying information and
MESSAGE, aside from the word MEMO or MEMORANDUM on top of the paper (Searles,
2014; Kolin, 2015).
1. Header, which includes four parts.
a. To: Name and job title of receiver (if more than one, arrange names in order of job
status)
b. From: Sender’s name (you may use first name depending on your familiarity with
the receiver)
c. Date: Full calendar date (February 11, 2020)
d. Subject: Indicate the purpose. This serves as the title of your memo; it summarizes
the message.
(if a memo is sent in the body of the email, you do not need to include the header parts; they are
automatically included in the email’s heading)
2. Message, which follows the Orientation-Information-Action format.
a. Orientation (opening paragraph): What is your purpose or reason for writing?
b. Information: What do you want to tell or convey to the reader?
c. Action: What step or course of action do you intend to take?

Now, when an unavoidable circumstance happens in the workplace, there is a report that one
would be asked to do and this is the incident report.
• Incident Report
An incident report deals with the unexpected that brings harm to people and property, like fire,
vehicular accidents, law-enforcement offense, environmental danger, machine breakdown,
computer virus, delivery delay, cost overrun, or production breakdown, it is written either by the
person involved in the incident or by a person in charge of the area where it took place to explain
the circumstances behind the troublesome occurrence.
In writing this report, be sure to include the following information (Searle, 2014)
1. Names and job titles of all persons involved, including onlookers;
2. Type of incident and step-by-step narrative description of the incident;
3. Exact location and cause of the incident;
4. Date and exact time of each major development;
5. Clear identification of any medical intervention required, including names of
ambulance service and personnel, nurses, physicians, hospitals or clinics;
6. Reliable statements (quotations or paraphrases) from persons involved; and
7. Outcome of the incident.
To avoid liabilities, it is important to use qualifiers, such as “maybe., perhaps, it seems that, it
appears that, possibly” and others that insinuate only possibilities but not actualities. Guard
yourself against doing the following:
1. Do not report comments and observations of witnesses because these are not verified
facts and are usually exaggerated;
2. Do not report exact words of the uttered by people who are very angry, distraught, or
bewildered;
3. Do not comment on issues not related to the incident; and
4. In your recommendations, avoid blaming or focusing on incompetence; instead
encourage the adoption of measure to avoid a repeat of the incident.
You should as much as possible file incident reports as protection for yourselves and to make it a
valuable lesson to learn for all concerned.

However, when your work is still in progress when these things are happening, you might also be
asked to do a progress report.
• Progress Report
A Progress Report, whose purpose is to ensure the successful completion of the task or project
within the specified time, informs the reader (who is usually in the management sector of the
organization) about the status of an on-going project or task – how much had been done, is being
done, and will be done by a particular date (Kolin, 2015; Smith-Worthington Jefferson, 2011). If
correctly prepared and submitted on time, progress reports are very important in helping the
management make necessary adjustments to meet deadlines, avoid crisis, and prevent
unnecessary expenses.
These reports generally include these components (Searles, 2014; Kolin, 2016).
1. Introduction: This is the background of the project where the project is identified, its
objectives are reviewed, and the reader is informed about any development since the previous
progress report.
2. Work Completed: it is the summary of accomplishments to date, which is organized
chronologically if the report covers sone major task, or by classification of task if it deals with
more than one related project.
3. Work Remaining: it gives a summary of all uncompleted tasks, emphasizing what is
expected to be accomplished first.
4. Problems: this part, which identifies any delays, cost overruns, or any other unanticipated
difficulties, may be omitted if all is well or no problem causes any harmful effect.
5. Conclusions: This part summarizes the status of the project and provides recommendations to
solve major problems.

When the task at hand is completed, you might be asked to make another project proposal. This
is ensuring that you remain productive in the workplace.
• Proposal
A proposal, a document designed to convince or persuade someone to follow or accept a specific
course of action, is written to propose: (a) change of process or policy, (b) solution to a problem,
(c) purchase of a product or service, (d) pursuit of an activity, or (e) research (Sims,2003;
Mucherson, 2013).
Proposals may be categorized as solicited or unsolicited, depending on the origin; internal or
external, depending on the reader or audience type; and formal or informal depending on the
length. If the proposal is solicited, the business, agency, or organization requesting the proposal
identifies a situation or problem it wishes to solve and issues an RFP (request for a proposal).
Responding to an RFP of a solicited proposal is easier than writing an unsolicited one because in
the solicited, the problem has already been identified; hence, there is no need to convince anyone
of its existence (Kolin, 2015).
Guidelines in Writing a Proposal
Whatever kind of proposal you intend to write, you do the same basic task listed below (Searles,
2014; Sims, 2003).
1. Summarize the situation or problem that the proposal is addressing. If
unsolicited, the proposal must convince the reader that there really is an important
unmet need.
2. Provide a detailed explanation of how the proposal will correct the problem
(this is the “Project Description”)
3. Confirm feasibility of the proposal and the expected benefits of completing it, along
with the possible negative consequences of not doing it.
4. Convincingly refute any probable objection.
5. Establish the writer’s credentials and qualifications for the project.
6. Identify any necessary resources, equipment, or support.
7. Provide reliable timetable for completion of the project.
8. Provide honest, itemized estimate for the costs. Deliberately understating the timeline
or budget is not only unethical but also deceitful, which can gain legal liability.
9. Close with a strong conclusion that will motivate the reader to accept the proposal. A
convincing cost-benefit analysis is helpful.
Having been able to understand the forms of communication in the workplace. Later on, you will
be asked to do these things on your own and knowing them will become your advantage at work.

Activity #1 (Individual)
Find a sample for each type of communication (5) mentioned in our lesson and be ready to
identify the parts in them.
*Sample may be taken from the web and printed out.
Parts identification must be numbered and handwritten; you may use a blue pen.

Activity #2 (Group Output)

Make a portfolio of your own written -
a. Minutes of the meeting - a meeting of your company regarding cost-cutting measures
b. Memorandum- a reminder for employees to observe health protocols.
c. Progress report- a report on the progress of your project
d. Incident report- a report on a mishap in your company
e. Project Proposal – a community-based project