5 ways to promote authentic communication in the workplace

While technology gets louder and continues seeping into every corner of our lives, the human need for connection and authenticity is only growing. People want to find meaning — in work and in life. How can you leverage communications to build a sense of trust and authenticity in the workplace? How can you support your people, from leaders to individual contributors, and show them what it looks like to be authentic at work? How do we embrace authenticity to create real connection — to one another, to the company, and to our day-to-day work? 

We’ll answer these questions and more. But first, let’s look at what authenticity in the workplace really looks like, why it matters, and how you can bring it to life within your organization.

The importance of authenticity in the workplace

“Just be yourself!” “Bring your whole self to work.” 

As employee experience and internal comms professionals, we love phrases like these. We mean them. But if we’re being honest, they’re easier said than done.

Because when someone enters into a new job or steps into a new role, the drive to succeed often overtakes the desire to be fully themselves. They want to fit in. To be taken seriously. And in those moments, authenticity can take a back seat to curating a desirable first impression.

When we dig deeper into what it really means to be authentic, it’s not just about your personal preferences. It’s not limited to bonding over a love for Golden Retrievers, rooting for the 49ers, or seeking out a fellow gardening enthusiast.

It’s about feeling safe enough to challenge an idea in a meeting. Or speaking up when something doesn’t feel quite right. Or admitting you’re stuck without fearing judgment.

The truth is — conformity is a safer bet for most folks. Safer not to speak up than to disagree. Safer to perform than to fully participate.

When people feel like they have to filter themselves or perform to fit in, trust erodes. Creativity shrinks. Real employee connection takes a back seat to self-protection. And over time, that undermines not just culture, but performance.

That’s why authentic communication in the workplace matters. It’s not about encouraging oversharing or asking people to bare their souls. It’s about creating an environment where people can trust that what they say will be heard, valued, and respected. Where clarity, empathy, and honesty are the norm, not the exception.

And that takes intention. Let’s get a little more nitty gritty with what authenticity in the workplace really means.

What does authentic communication look like?

At its core, to be authentic means to be genuine, original, and true. It’s not performative or unnecessarily polished. When I looked up definitions, one word appeared more than most: real.

That’s what we’re after. No corporate speak. No carefully crafted and propped-up persona. Real humans connecting with other real humans with honesty and empathy.

Authentic communication is about seeing the people on the receiving end of your communications as humans first, not just employees.

Authentic communication means:

• Sharing information transparently, no sugar-coating or spinning
• Listening actively, not just for feedback, but for understanding
• Creating space where people feel safe to voice ideas and concerns
• Owning mistakes and modeling humility

In the context of authenticity in the workplace, this style of communication builds trust because it brings trust. And trust drives everything: employee engagement, retention, innovation, and performance.

As internal communicators, we have an important part to play. We can’t force authenticity on our leaders, but we can coach them, model it ourselves, and build communications that reinforce it.

We crave meaning and belonging within the workplace now more than ever. With so much of our life curated by technology, it’s comforting to have real and authentic experiences at work. It’s no longer just nice to have. It’s business critical.

5 ways to promote authentic communication in the workplace

We’ve covered why authentic communication matters and what it looks like in practice. Now let’s get tactical. These five strategies will help you build the kind of workplace where people feel safe to speak up, ask questions, and connect with each other in meaningful ways.

1. It starts with leaders

Trust flows from the top. Most leaders think they’re doing a great job of being clear in their communications, plans, and expectations. But they often miss the mark, creating confusion, and feeding into the cycle because most employees won’t dare to question a leader, forever keeping to the status quo.

How do we help close the gap? We coach our leaders: 

• Build talking points that sound human and conversational
• Teach them to weave in real personal stories
• Ask them to show up — to comment, reply, like, and recognize
• Help them find ways to listen better

Leadership trust is a loop: communicate → listen → act → communicate again. When employees see their leaders as transparent, approachable, consistent, and present, authenticity in the workplace becomes the norm, and trust comes easily.

2. Managers are your most critical channel

Survey after survey shows that employees trust their direct managers more than any other source of company information. And that’s not nothing.

These are the people employees turn to daily for direction, clarity, and insight. But not every people manager is a natural communicator. Many believe being a leader means projecting confidence at all costs, even when they don’t have all the answers. Shockingly, that empty assurance doesn’t foster authentic communication and openness across teams.

Managers need tools and a trusted partner to communicate with clarity and confidence. 

And that’s where internal comms comes in:

• Communicate early and often with your managers, even if you don’t have the full picture yet. Keeping them in the loop helps them feel empowered to lead their team and builds another layer of trust.
• Provide manager toolkits, FAQs, and talking points for key moments, from business goals to organizational changes. Having a crutch to navigate the tough questions will help them feel more confident and comfortable.
• Create opportunities for your managers to connect with one another so they have a forum to ask questions and learn together. Make sure it’s a safe space where everyone can learn from both failures and successes without judgment.

Confident communicators build confident teams. Give your managers what they need to lead with clarity, not just carry the message.

3. Communicate with clarity — and make it a conversation

More messages across more channels does not equal more trust. Better messages intentionally delivered through the right channels at the right time is key. Trust erodes when messages feel performative, transactional, or disconnected from real employee experiences.

Authentic communication is clear, human, and two-way. It respects employees’ time and attention. It invites their voices and input into building for the future. It signals that leaders aren’t hiding behind polished statements or lofty business goals. They’re here to listen, learn, and respond.

IC can step in to support by:

• Ruthlessly prioritizing what matters. Not every update needs to be front and center on the homepage of your intranet. When everything is important, nothing is important. Use discretion and give your stakeholders alternatives.
• Designing opportunities for two-way dialogue. Leverage five-question pulse surveys to get quick insights. Drop in a sentiment check at the bottom of an intranet page or ask for comments. Host “Ask Me Anything” sessions or make Q&A sessions a regular part of your town halls.
• Close the loop visibly. Asking the questions is great, but it’s not enough to build trust and authenticity. Show employees how you’re acting on their input: “Here’s what we heard, and here’s what we’re doing about it.”

4. Create psychological safety by modeling vulnerability

We can talk about authenticity and transparency all day, but none of that will ever naturally manifest without vulnerability. In the workplace, this looks like creating a culture where employees feel it’s a safe space to be imperfect. 

Here’s the thing: Vulnerability doesn’t come naturally. We all want to show up to work in a way that showcases our strengths, and we naturally want to hide our mistakes or avoid challenging a colleague in order to avoid conflict.

Psychological safety means making space where people can speak up, ask questions, and share ideas without fear of judgment or retaliation. As internal communicators, we can team up with leaders and managers to model and encourage the kind of vulnerability that makes authentic communication possible.

Here’s how we can help make that happen:

• Encourage leaders to share their learning moments. Instead of highlighting only wins and successes, have leaders talk about what they’re figuring out, admit where they’ve had to change course, and share lessons learned.
• Make uncertainty okay. Leaders should feel comfortable saying, “I don’t know, but I’ll find out,” instead of deflecting or giving nonanswers. It creates space for problem-solving.
• Celebrate curiosity over perfection. Questions aren’t a sign of incompetence — they’re signs of engagement and thoughtful care. Encourage managers to ask team members in group or one-on-one meetings if they have questions or need to problem-solve. 
• Create safe spaces for real talk. Build structured opportunities for honest conversation, “lessons learned” after a big project, skip-level meetings focused on feedback, or anonymous team pulse checks.

The goal isn’t to make everyone comfortable with discomfort overnight. It’s to gradually shift the culture so that being human — making mistakes, embracing uncertainty, learning out loud — becomes the norm rather than the exception.

5. Consistency over time builds trust — or breaks it

Trust isn’t built in one town hall or during a series of tough org change communications. It’s built by consistently showing up over and over again and building up a leader who is humble enough to lead with honesty in times of obscurity.

Internal communications must:

• Establish your leadership voice and stick to it. Meandering from an overly corporate tone one week to a friendly, informal one the next breeds uncertainty. Define your organizational voice and stick to it.
• Ensure communication cascades actually connect. Communications don’t stop when the all-company email goes out. If you’re not sure if the messages are landing or if there’s a breakdown somewhere, start asking around. Leverage your relationships to uncover gaps.
• Hold up the mirror — respectfully. If leaders say “transparency matters” but skip the Q&A, it’s your job to create awareness and help solve the problem. Partner with them to identify which two-way communication channels work best for them. Coach them so that authenticity isn’t a flash in the pan but an integral part of your culture.

Consistency builds credibility. Credibility builds culture.

Authenticity in the workplace takes time — but the payoff is real

The leaders who master authentic communication don’t do so overnight. They practice it in small moments, in difficult conversations, and in the spaces between the big announcements. As internal communicators, we have the opportunity to be the architects of this shift. We can coach leaders to communicate with clarity instead of corporate speak. We can create channels for real dialogue instead of one-way broadcasting. We can model the vulnerability that makes authentic connection possible.

I’d love to tell you that if you check all the boxes, you’ll master the art of authenticity. But the beauty of authentic communication is that it’s human. Mistakes will happen. Vulnerable moments will feel uncomfortable, especially for leaders learning to be more open.

It won’t be a flawless journey, but it’ll be a worthwhile one that builds a team where people feel safe, confident, and connected. Where they’ll sprint toward shared goals, rally around the mission, and trust in the work you’re doing together. 

Because when authenticity becomes the norm rather than the exception, everything else — engagement, retention, performance — follows.

And that kind of authenticity? That’s a thing of beauty.

How Simpplr helps you create authentic communication

Creating authentic communication requires the right tools and strategy. Simpplr’s AI-powered employee experience platform gives internal communicators everything they need to foster genuine connections across their organization.

Make every message count. The platform helps you cut through the noise so important communications don’t get lost. When employees aren’t overwhelmed by information, they’re more likely to engage authentically with what matters.

Enable two-way dialogue. Built-in employee feedback tools, pulse surveys, and comment features turn one-way announcements into real conversations. Leaders can hear directly from their teams and respond in real time.

Empower managers to communicate confidently. Manager toolkits and communication templates give your frontline leaders the resources they need to have authentic conversations with their teams, even when they don’t have all the answers.

Measure what matters. Sentiment analysis and engagement analytics show you how your communications are landing so you can adjust your approach and build trust over time.

When your platform supports authentic communication instead of just broadcasting messages, genuine connection becomes possible at scale.

Ready to find out how Simpplr can help improve your employee experience? Request a demo today.