Click below to find out what happens when employees learn to speak up assertively.

Speaking up assertive communication skills increase employee retention.

The pace of employee turnover is forecast to be 50–75% higher than companies have experienced previously according to Gartner. Plus, turnover can cost up to 200% of an employee’s annual salary, depending on the role, amounting to nearly $700 in 2020 according to HBR article. Not only is it important to reduce turnover, but to retain those who stay.

Speaking and assertive communication skills improve retention because they:

• Help employees feel heard, understood, and appreciated.
• Give employees the skills to advocate for their own needs.
• Give employees the skills to make others treat them with respect.
• Give employees the skills to propel their own career and opportunities forward.

Speaking up assertive communication skills help teams be more productive.

Employees in United States companies spend approximately 2.8 hours each week involved in conflict. This amounts to around $359 billion in hours paid that are filled with – and focused on – conflict instead of on positive productivity (CPP study).

Assertive communication helps employees:

• Prevent and minimize conflict
• Help handle small issues before they escalate into big conflict
• Resolve conflict promptly
• Express mistakes in a timely and productive way
• Express opinions, ideas, perspectives and engage in meetings.
• Get point across.
• Respectfully disagree.
• Express concerns to authority.
• Ask for clarification and ask smart questions.
• Speak up for the team and customers.
• Speak up for what is right.
• Ask for and receive feedback in a way that gets you relevant and useful information.

Speaking up assertive communication skills increase employee engagement.

51% of the U.S. workforce is not engaged (Gallup, 2017). According to Gallup, the key drivers for employee engagement are development, ongoing conversations, a caring manager, focus on strengths, and purpose.

Assertive communication helps employees be proactive around what they need to to happy and engaged at work:

• Express what they need to be happy, engaged, and successful (e.g. ask for a development plan)
• Proactively seek ongoing conversations with their managers.
• Ask for the kind of work that focuses on their strengths and gives them a sense of purpose.
• Influence others to appreciate, value, and recognize them.
• Create positive relationships at work for themselves.
• Express their ideas more often and in a way that is heard, understood, and taken seriously.
• Train others to treat them with respect.

Speaking up assertive communication skills support innovation.

Companies that have employees who feel more comfortable asking for help, sharing suggestions, or challenging the status quo innovate more according to Mckinsey.

Assertive communication teaches employees how to communicate in innovation-inducing way:

• Challenge authority and the status quo
• Share suggestions in a way that gets across
• Ask for clarification
• Ask questions
• Ask for help
• Disagree without being disagreeable
• Communicate mistakes and concerns early on

Speaking up assertive communication skills help leaders be more effective.

Leaders often avoid or delay necessary hard conversations and other leaders do so in an ineffective way.

With assertive communication skills, leaders can have the appropriate skills to have hard conversations in a timely, positive, yet impactful way, such as:

• Give constructive feedback (both negative and positive), in a way that engages rather than deflates people.
• Communicate negative messages in a humane and positive way.
• Prevent conflict from happening or from escalating.
• Resolve conflict without being confrontational or emotional.
• Confront without being confrontational.
• Be decisive as a leader when it matters without coming across as uncaring.
• Hold people accountable without blaming, shaming, or micromanaging.
• Better communicate expectations positively and at the right time.
• Express feelings and ideas in non-threatening way.
• Be an effective advocate for others.
• Balance the use of power and warmth based on the situation and people.
• Express impatience and anger in the right way

Speaking up assertive communication skills increase diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Assertiveness improves diversity:

• MORE INTERNAL PROMOTIONS by helping minorities position themselves and other minorities for internal promotions by self-promoting, communicating with warmth and authority, and making the ask.
• MORE SUCCESS IN LEADERSHIP ROLES by providing essential soft skills for minorities rising through leadership to succeed (give feedback, share perspectives, disagree, handle conflict, request resources, hard conversations).
• INCREASED RETENTION of minorities because they feel more in control (and less like victims) with speaking up assertively skills.

Assertiveness improves equity:

• MORE ACCESS by empowering minorities to ask for access to resources, opportunities, and key decision-makers in a way that minimizes backlash or retaliation.
• MORE FAIRNESS by providing minorities the skills to become their best advocate, stand up for themselves when they experience unfair treatment, and pursue their interests.
• LESS BIASED JUGEMENT by enabling minorities with assertive questioning skills to reduce assumptions and judgement in interactions.

Assertiveness improves inclusion:

• MORE FEELING VALUED by providing minorities with actionable skills to make themselves heard and understoodin meetings, to help superiors appreciate and recognize them, and to get coworkers to take them seriously.
• MORE AUTHENTICITY by giving them the ability to express their differences and individuality in a positive way.
• MORE VOICE by boosting their confidence to speak up at work.