{"id":1215,"date":"2023-01-25T20:21:01","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T20:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.twentytwo.digital\/ukbodytalk\/less-confident-in-communicating\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T17:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T16:30:08","slug":"less-confident-in-communicating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.twentytwo.digital\/ukbodytalk\/resources\/blogs\/less-confident-in-communicating\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Shows We’re Less Confident in Communicating since the Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Since the pandemic, small- to medium-sized business employees have experienced the biggest drop in confidence levels.<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>“<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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Research Shows We’re Less Confident in Communicating since the Pandemic<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

From a <\/span>communication<\/span><\/a> standpoint, a Body Talk survey has found that our confidence levels have taken a real knock since the pandemic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Our research shows that there\u2019s been a 46% <\/span>increase <\/span><\/i>in the number of people who say they lack confidence when communicating at work since the Covid-19 crisis began.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Body Talk survey<\/b><\/h3>\n

In January 2023, Body Talk worked with market research consultants Censuswide to survey more than 2000 employees across the UK to find out how the pandemic affected people\u2019s communication skills.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the purposes of the survey, \u2018communication\u2019 refers to everything from meetings to presentations, emails, and one-to-one conversations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now that most businesses have established their post-pandemic \u2018normal\u2019, we wanted to discover just how confident people feel regarding business communication.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We’re less confident in communicating<\/h3>\n

Our research found that confidence levels across all ages, genders and sectors have dropped since the pandemic began. <\/span>Whilst just over 10% of people described themselves as \u2018not confident\u2019 before the pandemic, this figure has almost doubled since.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to our survey, women feel less confident than men when giving meetings or presentations, with one-fifth of all female respondents saying that they don\u2019t feel very confident or have no confidence at all. The figure for men is lower, with 13% reporting a lack of confidence in the workplace.<\/span><\/p>\n

Younger employees are the least confident, with more than 20% of 16-24 year olds responding that they find communicating at work difficult. These results are backed up by a <\/span>recent report<\/span><\/a> by the Prince\u2019s Trust, which found that young people are generally experiencing a crisis of confidence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s harder for smaller businesses<\/h3>\n

Since the pandemic, employees in small to medium-sized businesses have experienced the biggest drop in confidence levels.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, before the pandemic, just 6% of employees in businesses with 50-99 employees said that they lacked confidence when communicating at work, but since the pandemic, this number has risen to 14%. Similarly, SMEs with 100-249 employees saw a 68% increase in people who said they didn\u2019t feel confident in meetings or presentations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How well are your leaders communicating?<\/h3>\n

Our survey also explored how well employees think their <\/span>leadership teams<\/span><\/a> are communicating now compared to pre-pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before the pandemic, 88% of respondents felt that the leaders in their company communicated well in meetings, but post-pandemic has also seen this number fall to 82%. That\u2019s still a high number, but business leaders should think about what has caused this number to fall.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some industries have seen more of a decline than others. For example, more than a quarter of respondents who work in HR now say that their leaders are bad at communicating messages, a number which increased from just 14% before the pandemic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, one in five people working in sales, media or marketing said their team leaders\u2019 communication skills were \u2018bad\u2019 or \u2018very bad\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What this data can tell us<\/h3>\n

The good news is that, on the whole, confidence in communication is still high.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the research clearly shows that confidence is steadily being eroded as doubt or hesitation surrounding our skills and abilities is starting to creep in.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is perhaps unsurprising when you consider the number of changes that teams have had to face: remote working, social distancing and the widespread rollout of video conferencing technology have all meant that many of us are now working in a hybrid environment which would have seemed like something from a sci-fi movie 20 years ago.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Change – especially when it comes to the use of technology – can be unsettling, but there are several ways that you can help boost your team’s confidence in communicating well in 2023.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Three steps to improving communication in your company<\/h3>\n

Improving people\u2019s confidence in communication can reap benefits across businesses, from having happier employees to giving clearer, more persuasive messages that are more engaging.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you want to improve the confidence levels of people within your team, here are three things that you can do:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n