Cut the corporate speak: how straight talk improves employee engagement
Let’s align cross-functionally to optimize engagement and drive scalable impact.
If that sentence made your eyes glaze over, congrats. You’re still human.
Corporate jargon has taken over workplace communication — and it’s quietly killing employee engagement. You see it in emails, leadership presentations and those perfectly polished intranet posts that could have been written by a robot (and some of them probably were).
When leaders whip out the scripts and tired clichés, employees stop listening. And when they stop listening, engagement tanks, no matter how many “alignment sessions” you schedule.
The cost of corporate jargon
ROI. Paradigm shift. Cross-departmental happiness optimization. Corporate jargon doesn’t just sound bad. It has real costs within an organization.
It kills connection. People can’t relate to a voice that feels fake. When your messages sound more like press releases than conversations, you’re essentially giving them permission to tune out.
It’s confusing. Vague phrases like “streamline efficiencies” or “optimize outcomes” mean everything and nothing. If people have to decode your message before acting on it, you’ve already lost valuable time and attention. It’s tough enough to rally a group toward a common goal when they aren’t confused, so don’t make it even harder.
It weakens trust. The truth doesn’t need to be dressed up or watered down. People will assume you’re hiding something if you bury simple messages in a novel. And once trust is gone, you don’t have much else.
Think about it this way: If your message isn’t clear to an average person who doesn’t work at your organization, it needs another look.
By the numbers: Ineffective communication in the workplace costs companies between $10,000 and $55,000 per employee per year, according to Axios’ 2024 State of Internal Communications report¹ — and much of that loss comes from low engagement and misalignment.
How honest communication looks at work
Honest communication doesn’t mean being harsh or unfiltered. It means speaking like a human being who respects other human beings — and if you respect someone, you give it to them straight.
Instead of “We’re facing opportunities for improvement,” say “We missed the mark, and here’s how we’re fixing it.”
Instead of “We’re right-sizing the organization,” say “We’re reducing headcount, and here’s why.”
Instead of “We value transparent communication,” stop saying it and start doing it.
Employees don’t expect perfection, but they do expect honesty. Straight talk builds trust because it shows that leaders care more about clarity than control. And that’s what drives real engagement.
Corporate storytime: I once saw a leadership team roll out a return-to-office mandate and promise they’d take feedback seriously. Then they shared a PDF with FAQs, except it was an older version with all their comments still in the margins. Suddenly, everyone could see what some leaders really thought: “Let’s not give in.” “We can’t make everyone happy.” Plus, a bunch of made-up data based on gut feelings. One screenshot later, the entire department had the full story. They replaced the PDF within minutes — but the damage to trust was already done.
Why straight talk drives employee engagement
When employees understand what’s being said, they can finally focus on what’s being done.
Clear, honest communication creates psychological safety — a sense that people can handle the truth and speak it in return. It’s the difference between a culture where employees nod silently in meetings and one where they raise their hands with ideas that move the business forward.
Research consistently shows that employee engagement and trust in leadership improve when people feel they’re getting the full story. In other words, candor is a strategy, not a risk.
Straight talk doesn’t just sound better. It works better.
By the numbers: 55% of employees said effective communication increased their confidence at work, and 58% said it increased their job satisfaction, according to Grammarly’s State of Business Communication report.²
Humanizing your communication: practical tips
If you’re wondering whether your workplace communication has veered into “corporate robot” territory, here’s how to bring it back down to earth:
Audit your language. Pull your last few all-staff emails or slide decks. Highlight every buzzword, vague phrase or acronym no one outside your team would understand. Oh, and leave the corporate clichés at the door.
Cut the fluff. Got paragraphs on paragraphs? Stop right there. If it isn’t “need to know,” let it go.
Consider your message hierarchy. You may not be a journalist, but you still can’t bury the lead. Your most important takeaway should be a headline, not a footnote.
Paint a picture. Words are powerful, but not when there are too many of them. Balance things out with charts, images, videos or even a GIF to lighten the mood. Even bullets and occasional bolding/italics can make a big difference. And before you hit “send,” ask yourself if it hits like a marketing campaign.
Say it out loud. If you wouldn’t say it that way in a conversation, don’t write it that way in an email.
Robot you: “Let’s circle back offline to discuss potential strategic pivots regarding Q4 deliverables.”
You you: “Can we meet later this week to talk about next quarter’s priorities?”
Encourage leaders to speak in their own voice. Employees connect with authenticity, not rehearsed talking points — and they can tell when higher-ups are talking through management.
Ask for feedback. Create a culture where people can say, “That didn’t make sense” without fear. If your team can’t question communication, they’ll quietly stop engaging with it. Here’s a free guide that shows you how to get high-quality feedback and implement it with confidence.
Internal communication: make it or break it
Corporate speak might feel like the “safe” choice, but it’s slowly starving your culture of authenticity, and your people can feel it. Plus, poor communication is one of the top mistakes that derails change initiatives.
So stop talking like a corporate robot and start saying what you mean. Honest communication earns trust, and trust is the ultimate employee engagement strategy that no initiative can fake.
Sources
¹Axios, “2024 State of Internal Communications Report.” https://www.axioshq.com/hubfs/Marketing%20Research%20and%20Tools/2024%20State%20of%20Internal%20Communications.pdf
²Grammarly Business, “The State of Business Communication.” https://www.grammarly.com/business/Grammarly_The_State_Of_Business_Communication.pdf
