In the business world, communication is a common problem. In a survey by training company Fierce Inc., 86% of respondents blamed lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures.

The communication problem becomes greater as a company grows and takes on more employees, but even small businesses can run into issues. When you just have one or two employees, you can probably just keep things simple and informal, but as you take on more staff and start to organize the company into groups with a management structure, you’ll need to pay serious attention to how you communicate with your employees—and how they communicate with you and with each other.

In this tutorial, we look at how to communicate effectively with employees. We cover strategies for keeping everyone informed, ways of communicating the firm’s key values, and methods of seeking feedback and resolving conflict.

We also look at some real-world examples of along the way to illustrate important points. By the end of the tutorial, you’ll have some solid pointers for improving employee communication in your small business.