A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

Visual communication is the act of making a point through images. This is one of the most important skills a good communicator can possess in today’s business environment. That is because the modern workplace has changed and in part due to technological advances including the internet and more recently social media. The average person is bombarded with images on a daily basis that flood social media feeds and enhance or even tell a story on their own. Society has become accustomed to seeing visuals as part of a story line. That is why well-established professional communicators utilize multiple styles of communication within the workplace. The trends have moved from solely verbal communicators to also including visual communications as a part of the delivery of a project or idea. For example, to say that production has increase 13% over last year is good, but to include a graph that illustrates the growth visually makes it easier for others to digest the information being presented as well as makes the data more believable. Another significant component of visual aids in communicating at the work place is the ability for the recipients of the information to retain and then alter regurgitate the data. Visual aids help in the overall decision making process within an organization.

The acquisition of visual communications skills comes from a variety of places. According to Brumberger (2007), on-the-job training, self-teaching, and the occasional seminar or professional workshop, in addition to formal education all combines to one’s visual communication toolbox. Some employees are able to bring with them from formal education backgrounds a solid understanding of how to use visual aids, but the majority learns specific company preferences through on-the-job training and self-teaching. Visual communication abilities have, without question, become central to the work of practicing professionals in all areas of business (Brumberger, 2007). This may also be part of a formal education process where students in higher-level learning study these visual communication skills for ongoing career success in the future. An argument made for today’s worker would be to include visual communication as part of any training or seminar offered in the workplace setting. Regardless of where the expertise is learned, the need for good visual communication is imperative.

Visual communication is important to workplace practice and has impacted the role of the professional beyond the domain of the verbal word alone (Brumberger, 2007). In fact, inside the realm of the business world, multimedia enhances an idea and helps to capture the attention of an audience. To drive home a new concept or even make sure the boss is paying attention to your presentation, visual aids keep interest on the communicator and the subject matter. Therefore, employees must learn somewhere to develop these types of abilities to further enhance their skillset. When Brumberger (2007) conducted their research, respondents “overwhelmingly expressed the perspective that instruction in visual communication should be an integral part of professional communication curricula” within an organization. That means employers need to keep communications skills a top priority for employees to learn and grow.

The value of visual communication is one component of evaluating overall communication behavior at work. Employers expect employees to be effective communicators and rate employees for their communicative performances (Keyton et al., 2013). This means that employees are constantly being evaluated by how they communicate within the workplace, as well as the quality of work being produced and/or performed. Many employers look to determine an employee’s competence based on their communication effectiveness. From this perspective, Keyton et al. (2013) has noted that “communication competence” is composed of four main areas: message production, message processing, interaction coordination, and social perception. All of these areas fit in to the visual communication component of an effective worker.

In order to be the most successful communicator possible, the use of visual supports to aid in delivering messages is critical. No matter what channel is being used; a visual aid reinforces verbal communication and drives home the context of communications. Visual communication has the ability to provide clarity to verbal and non-verbal statements regardless of the level of the audience. Messages are received faster when a visual is used when attempting to get a point across. This means a presenter can save time be utilizing visual communications that makes sense for the workplace. When using a graphic to represent data, a common or shared frame of reference can be created to generate the experience intended by the communicator. The evidence is overwhelming and supports the need that employees need to have a basic level of image-based communication to be prosperous.

References

Brumberger, E. (2007). Visual Communication in the Workplace: A Survey of Practice. Technical Communication Quarterly, 16(4), 369-395. doi:10.1080/10572250701380725

Keyton, J., Caputo, J. M., Ford, E. A., Fu, R., Leibowitz, S. A., Liu, T., & ... Wu, C. (2013). Investigating Verbal Workplace Communication Behaviors. Journal Of Business Communication, 50(2), 152-169. doi:10.1177/0021943612474990