Most companies don't track communication as a cost. They track it as a soft skill.
Poor communication in the workplace is information that does not reach people clearly, completely or in time. It includes unclear messages, such as vague instructions or thin feedback, and a plain lack of communication at work, such as priorities that shift without explanation or decisions that stop at one team.
The consequences of poor communication add up to real money. U.S. businesses lose up to $1.2 trillion a year to it, according to a 2022 survey by Grammarly and The Harris Poll.
That's a mistake.
Poor communication rarely costs a business through one catastrophic failure. The cost comes from the daily accumulation of missed handoffs, misread emails, unclear directives, and meetings that produced no clear decisions.
The question isn't whether poor communication is costing your organization. It is. The question is whether your leaders have the skills to close the gap.
Effects of Poor Communication in the Workplace
In that 2022 Grammarly and Harris Poll survey, business leaders estimated their teams lose 7.47 hours a week to poor communication, nearly a full workday, and one in five leaders said poor communication had cost them business or deals. The survey covered 1,001 knowledge workers and 251 business leaders at U.S. companies with 150 or more employees, so the figures are leaders' estimates, not audited costs.
And that's only the financial figure.
The hidden costs include:
Increased employee turnover — and replacing one employee costs about one-fifth of that worker's annual salary (Center for American Progress, 2012)
Delayed decisions when information fails to transfer clearly across teams
Lower team performance when expectations are consistently unclear
Damaged client relationships when professionals can't communicate value precisely
Reduced psychological safety when feedback is delivered poorly or not at all
These costs are real, measurable, and preventable. For the survey figures per employee and per year, see how much companies lose to miscommunication.
Why Leadership Communication Is the Leverage Point
Individual communication skills matter. But leadership communication has a multiplier effect. Gallup estimates that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units.
When a leader communicates well:
Teams understand priorities and act accordingly
Conflict gets resolved rather than escalating
Expectations are set clearly, reducing rework and frustration
Employees feel heard — which increases engagement and retention
When a leader communicates poorly, or barely at all:
Information gets lost or distorted through organizational layers
Teams operate on assumptions rather than clarity
Trust erodes — often invisibly, until someone resigns
Psychological safety is part of the cost. In Amy Edmondson's study of 51 work teams, a shared belief that the team was safe for interpersonal risk taking went with more learning behavior, and that learning behavior went with better team performance (Edmondson, 1999). Leaders set that belief through how they ask, listen and respond.
This is why leadership communication training pays off across a whole team. You are not developing one person's skill — you are improving the communication culture of everyone that person leads.
How Leaders Fix Poor Communication at Work: 5 Habits
They are direct without being harsh. They can deliver difficult feedback or unpopular decisions clearly and respectfully — without hedging the message into confusion.
They listen before they respond. They create space for other people's thinking before asserting their own. This generates better information and signals genuine respect.
They match their message to their audience. They can explain a strategic initiative to the board, a technical decision to an engineering team, and a personnel matter to an individual — all in the same week, with different language and emphasis.
They use structure. The most effective leaders are not the most eloquent — they are the clearest. They know their main point before they start speaking. For leaders who present often, workplace public speaking coaching builds that structure into their real talks and meetings.
They communicate consistently. Not just when stakes are high, but in the small daily interactions that accumulate into organizational culture. Building that consistency takes ongoing practice, which is why many teams choose company retainer packages over one-off training.
Key Takeaways
Poor communication at work is information that does not reach people clearly, completely or in time, including what never gets said.
The consequences of poor communication are lost hours, rework, slower decisions, lost deals and turnover. U.S. businesses lose up to $1.2 trillion a year to it (Grammarly and The Harris Poll, 2022).
Leaders are the leverage point: Gallup estimates managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores.
The fix is trainable. Directness, listening, audience fit, structure and consistency improve with practice on real conversations.
Where to Start Fixing Communication on Your Team
Start by finding the barriers, the exact places where communication breaks down. A communication analysis of a recorded meeting or presentation shows how a leader actually comes across, and one-to-one communication coaching turns the five habits above into practice on that leader's real conversations.
If you lead a team and want to experience what high-quality, evidence-based communication development feels like in a live setting, join one of our Open Enrollment Communication Workshops. Each one is built on communication science — practical, structured, and designed for professionals who want to connect and communicate with more intention.
👉 Explore B2B and Leadership Communication Training
Frequently Asked Questions
What is poor communication in the workplace?
Poor communication at work is information that does not reach the right people clearly, completely or on time. It covers what is said badly and what is never said at all, from vague instructions and missing feedback to decisions that nobody passes on to the people who carry them out.
What are the effects of poor communication in the workplace?
The main effects are lost hours, rework, slower decisions, lost deals and turnover. Business leaders in a 2022 Grammarly and Harris Poll survey estimated their teams lose 7.47 hours a week to poor communication, and one in five said it had cost them business or deals.
What are the most common communication problems in the workplace?
The most common issues include: unclear expectations (employees don't know what success looks like), ineffective meeting communication (meetings without clear decisions or next steps), poor feedback delivery (too vague, too harsh, or not delivered at all), cross-team handoff failures, and using the wrong communication channel for the wrong message.
How does lack of communication at work affect employee retention?
Mostly through managers. Gallup estimates managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units, so one manager's communication shapes a whole team's engagement. Each resignation then costs about one-fifth of the worker's annual salary to replace (Center for American Progress, 2012).
What is the ROI of leadership communication training?
No published per-dollar figure holds up for this training alone. The closest evidence is a link, not proof of cause: in a Towers Watson study of 328 organizations, companies rated highly effective communicators had 47% higher total returns to shareholders over five years than the least effective ones.
How do I know if my team's communication problems are related to leadership?
Common signs include: team members regularly misalign on priorities, meetings are frequent but decisions are slow, important information consistently fails to reach the right people, or turnover in a previously stable team seems tied to culture rather than compensation. A communication analysis with an outside professional can provide an objective assessment.
References
Beck, R. J., & Harter, J. (2014, March 25). Why great managers are so rare. Gallup.
Boushey, H., & Glynn, S. J. (2012, November 16). There are significant business costs to replacing employees. Center for American Progress.
Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383.
Grammarly & The Harris Poll. (2022, January 25). State of business communication: The backbone of business is broken [Press release]. Business Wire.
Towers Watson. (2010). Capitalizing on effective communication: Communication ROI study report. Summary by the Institute for Public Relations.
About the author: Sydney Parriott, MA, CCC-SLP, MBA, is a licensed speech-language pathologist (SLP) and the founder of Speak Like a Professional in Kansas City. She holds the Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology (CCC-SLP) from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and is licensed in Kansas and Missouri. She coaches leaders and trains teams on workplace communication. Updated October 26, 2026.
