Professional communication in the workplace and conference call meetings. How to speak professionally in the workplace. CEL 2105 Spoken communication or interaction for the workplace Exercise.

Professional Communication in the Workplace

Professional communication in the workplace means effective and formal interaction among employees in the workplace or organization. Effective communication in the workplace can be spoken, written, visual, and mediated interaction. The author has presented some samples and examples of professional communication in the workplace. This content is very important to know how to speak professionally in the workplace.

Conference Call Meeting 

A conference call meeting refers to an online or physically meeting where many people or employees participate in achieving an interdependent goal. The conference call is a meeting conducted and participated by professional people. Usually, an organization or company organizes a conference call meeting to discuss issues related to the respective industry. The employee utilizes online meeting platforms to conduct the virtual meeting if they are unable to meet physically.

How to Speak Professionally in Conference Call

1) Figure The Type Of Meeting

• To know the purpose
• E.g.: Brainstorming, Decision Making, Idea-Sharing

2) Who Should Attend?

• Who should you invite?

3) Create a Clear Agenda

• What should be discussed?
• Time Limit

4) Prepare Yourself

• Practice presentation
• Prepare materials
• Prepare tools (check them to avoid technical errors)

Language Expressions For Conference Call Meeting

Pre Meeting Conference Call

1) Setting The Meeting

“I’m scheduling a meeting on …. (Day/date/time). Can you attend?”

“I’d like to set a meeting on the ….. (Day/date/time).”

“I’m inviting you to attend a meeting .. (Day/date/time).”

“I plan to have a meeting on the…. (Day/date/time).”

2) Confirming a  Meeting

I’m calling to confirm your attendance at the meeting.

“Could you please confirm that you can attend the meeting on the?”

“Will you be available for the coming meeting on the?”

I’m calling to remind you about the meeting on the… Are you still attending the meeting?

3) Postponing a Meeting

How to postpone a meeting professionally?

“I’m afraid I cannot make it to the meeting this Friday. Could we postpone the meeting to next Friday?”

“[Someone’s name] is presently in London. It is best that we postpone our weekly meeting to a later date.”

“Since [someone’s name] is busy with the launch of our  latest product, I suggest that we postpone our scheduled meeting in a week’s time.”

“Something urgent has come up so I’m unable to attend our meeting this evening. Would you mind postponing it to the 4th of March?”

4) Beginning a Conference Call Meeting

“Are we all on?

“Can I ask that we all state our names, please?”

“I’m here. It’s [your name] in [your city].”

“Can everybody hear me? If we’re all here, let’s start the meeting.”

Conference Call Meeting

5) Introducing Oneself

“Welcome everybody, my name is [your name] and I am the designer for GPLZ Video.”

“Hi, I’m [your name] and I’m the designer for GPLZ Video.”

“Good morning/afternoon/evening ladies and gentlemen, I’m [your name].”

“Hi everyone, I’m [your name]. I’m going to keep this brief, as I know you’re all busy people. I’m going to make this quick for you….”

6) Stating The Purpose Of Conference Call

“Today I’m here to talk to you about….”

“I’m delighted to be here today to tell you about….”

“Firstly I’ll talk about…” or “I’ll start with some general information on….”

“Then I will look at…” or “then we’ll go over….”

“The reason why we are having this meeting is to discuss…”

“Today I would like to outline our plans for….”

7) Giving Apologies For Someone Who Is Absent

“I’m afraid that [ absentee’s name] can’t be with us today. He /She is …..”

“Unfortunately [absentee’s name] will not be with us today because he/she ”

“It seems that (name) is not present today.”

“(Name) appears to be absent.”

Professional communication in the workplace

During The Conference Call Meeting

8) Clarifying Things During a Conference Call

“Could you speak more slowly, please?”

“Could you repeat that, please?”

“Would you mind spelling that for me, please?”

“Could you explain that in another way, please?”

“I’m afraid I didn’t get that.”

9) Taking a Break From Conversation

“I need to leave for ten minutes. Is that okay with everyone?”

“Hold on, I’ve got another call waiting, I’ll be right back.”

“Can I suggest that we take a five-minute break here?”

“Let’s take a short break and come back in 10 minutes.”

10) Returning After a Break

“[Your name] here. I’m back on the line again.”

“[Your name] just coming back in here, thanks, everyone.”

“Is everybody here? Let’s continue where we left off.”

“Now that everybody is here, let’s resume our meeting.”

11) Accidentally Speaking Over Somebody And Asking Them To Continue Speaking

• “Sorry, I interrupted you. You were saying…?”
• “Please go on….”
• “After you…”
• “I’m sorry. Please carry on.”

12) Signal Phrases For When You Have a Question

• “Am I to understand that….”
•  “Sorry, but just to clarify….”
• “So, what we’re saying is….”
• “Do you mean to say that…..”

13) Agreeing With People

• “That’s an excellent point [person’s name], I totally agree with you on that.”
• “Okay, I think we are all on the same page here….”
• “Yes, I get what you’re saying….”
• “I can’t agree with you more.”

Professional communication in the workplace

14) Disagreeing With People

•  “I’m sorry but I think you may have that slightly wrong….”
• “From our perspective, it’s a little different. Let me explain.”
• “Well, yes and no—can I tell you how we see it?”

15) Negotiating Successfully

“I understand that we can’t do that, but can we discuss some other alternatives?”

“I hear what you’re saying, but our bottom line is very clear on this one.”

“This is the deal-breaker for us, we can’t budge.” (Budge means move, change or give up.)

“Maybe it would be better to ….”

16) Ending a Conference Call Meeting

“Well, that brings us to the end of the meeting, thanks so much for listening.”

“It was a real pleasure being here today. Goodbye, and thank you.”

“Well, that’s it from me. Thanks a lot.”

“That’s it for today, see you…..”

17) Planning For Future Meeting

“Are you free to talk again next week?”

“When can we talk about this again?”

“How does 2:30 p.m. Thursday sound?”

“Does Thursday at 2:30 p.m. suit you?”

“Thursday at 2:30 p.m. then, that would be fine.”

“Okay, I look forward to seeing you then.”

“Thursday at 2.30 p.m. Looking forward to it, see you then.”

“Thursday at 2.30 p.m., bye for now.”

“I’d like to set up a meeting with you at your earliest convenience. When are you free?”

“Are you free to talk again next week?”

Professional communication in the workplace

Activity 2- Role Play The Following Situation-Conference Call.

Task

• Form a group of 3 members.
• Assign the role of (Sales Manager, Sale Executives 1 & Sale Executives 2).
• In your group, discuss and write out the dialogue for the conference call in the space given.
• Use the language expression learned previously or any appropriate expression.
• Role-play the dialogue.

Situation

• You are the sales manager of DHL.
• You want to arrange a meeting regarding last year’s poor sales performance.
• For example, you decide to make a conference call to two other sales. executives in Singapore to set up the meeting.
• You are required to discuss the following in the conference call.