PowerPoint Presentation

Business Communication Practices at. Young Living Malaysia.

To provide an overview of business communication practices in the company..

2. 1. Interview is done with an employee working in Young Living Malaysia – Ms. Dashmin Kaur A set of interview questions is given to her consists of 17 questions.

Background Information. Young Living is a multi-level marketing (MLM) company based in Lehi, Utah, United States of America (USA). The company was founded by the late Donald Gary Young in 1993 with its main products are essential oils. D. Gary Young interest in essential oils grew as he met a French lavender distiller at a conference in California which later on, he travelled to France to learn distillation. D. Gary Young developed more farmland in Utah and Idaho, he began cultivating lavender, peppermint, melissa, clary sage, and many other herbs. At the same time, the company also developed the ground-breaking Young Living standard, which preserves the integrity and potency of natural essential oils. Then, D. Gary Young opened his first international farm in Ecuador. From there on, the brand Young Living has grown to become the world leader in essential oils and wellness solutions..

Business Model. Young Living employs a multi-level marketing model, recruiting thousands of independent distributors who can sell directly to customers and earn commissions on sales to distributors recruited into a hierarchical network called downlines. The distributors can make a profit from direct sales of Young Living products, but they can also earn from commissions through sales made people who the distributors recruit. The more downlines a member has, the bigger commission amount the member will receive..

PRODUCTS. Young Living sells essential oils and other related products that range from household items, nutritional and wellness products, personal care items and even products for pets..

ORGANIZATIO NAL CHART. General Manager IT Human Resources Finance Sales & Marketing Head of Department Employees Operation Manager Employees Member Services Head of Department Manager Assistant Manager Team Leaders Employees Learning and Development Manager Employees.

YOUNG LIVING MALAYSIA. Young Living has officially launched its Malaysian office in October 2014. Its grand opening was part of the two-day GO Malaysia event, which included distinguished speakers and the release of an exclusive essential oil blend specially formulated by Young Living Founder and CEO D. Gary Young Inspiring and soothing, the event exclusive Matahari Essential Oil Blend combines the exotic aromas of Xiang Mao, Patchouli, Cinnamon Bark, Geranium, Ocotea, Ginger, Nutmeg, Jasmine, and Lavender essential oils. Members are also able to make their purchase at the EC apart from ordering it online via members` platform called Virtual Office (VO). If members already make purchase via VO, they can choose to make their order collection at the EC..

ANALYSIS. Organizational Communication Written Communication Oral COmmunication Communication Technology.

Young Living Malaysia has been practicing bilingual in their business communication setting. Two main languages that are used in their business and daily operation are English dan Bahasa Malaysia (BM). However, the primary language used in formal business setting is English while BM acts as communication language among employees. Employees in Young Living Malaysia consist of people from different ethnic groups. Some of the employees are using their own ethnic languages to communicate with people from same ethnic group. There is no restriction in communicating using ethnic languages as long as it is not used in formal and business context where people from different ethnic groups present as well..

FLOW OF COMMUNICATION. There are two types of communication`s flow in Young Living Malaysia which are horizontal and vertical communication..

FLOW OF COMMUNICATION. Vertical communication is a communication process in which information or messages flows between or among the superiors, supervisors, leaders, or manager to subordinates, employees or team members of different levels of an organizational structure in the downward or upward direction. Downward direction in vertical communication involves the dissemination of information or orders from the upper level to subordinates. In Young Living, downward communication happens frequently as management level communicate with the employees all the time, mostly to relay information. Once team leaders got information on the new SOP, they will then relay it to their subordinates in below level, the employees. Another example of downward communication is performance review done between superiors and subordinates. While upward direction is when the information flows from the employees or subordinates to the management team..

In Young Living Malaysia, memorandums are given out at the end of the month to employees in certain departments. This memorandum or memo is to inform these employees of the new products and promotions that will be held in the following month On the front page of the memo, it is stated the involvement of each of the departments is related to what matters. Since it is regarding newly launched products and promotions that are going to be promoted for the following month, the memo will be given out at the last week of the month. This written communication is done every month as Young Living Malaysia always has different products and promotions throughout the year. Thus, a memo needed to be given each time..

The reason is employees can understand better looking at the hard copy compared to a soft copy. Besides, it will be much easier for copies of SOPs to be ready on the table where employees can reach out to them at any point of time needed. Compared to soft copy received via email, it might take some time for employees to find it as they need specific keywords typed in the search bar or else the documents would not be found. Meaning that, until new SOPs are established employees have easy access to SOPs which are within their hands reaching. These SOPs are given out every time Young Living Malaysia is making changes to existing SOPs or even updating some details in them..

When Young Living Malaysia recently has introduced Cyren , an internal platform (where all information and excel reports are shared in the platform) a briefing presentation was held among employees It lasted more than an hour since there was a lot of information that needed to be conveyed as it is a new application. This presentation briefing can be considered as training to use a new internal application. Thus, a presentation was provided in the training ..

The reason for morning huddles being done is to promote engagement between all employee members before they start working. Most of the time, the Learning and Development ( LnD ) team will conduct a short game where everyone must join. It can be seen as a refresher for memos given on newly launched products and upcoming month`s promotions. Clarification will be given by the LnD team and if more time is needed, they would extend the morning huddle a little bit more. The morning huddles are important as they provide a chance to ask questions about new projects, plans, products, promotions and SOP..

Evaluations are done from time to time, usually once or twice a month, in which team leads or managers will evaluate the job performance of the employees. For instance, in coaching session in the Member Services department commonly known as customer service department, the team lead will bring in the employee involved in small room discussion. Later, the team lead will provide feedback on what is lacking and what should have been said instead. The team lead will provide insight on how to improve the customer handling process to ensure the employee can manage customers better in future. In other words, a coaching session is a session where team leads identify employees` weaknesses, give an assessment, and provide insight and plan on developing the employees` skills..

COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY. EMAIL LnD department will send an email to everyone to inform about upcoming training session that has to be joined by either all or few employees in the office MICROSOFT TEAMS Basically any internal communication that requires immediate response, MT is used ZOOM MEETINGS In post COVID-19 time, where work from home becomes a new business norm, online and virtual meetings are held more than ever. The email will enclose details on the training content, participants that would be involved, time and place it is going to be held. Apart from that, an invitation email also will be sent out from Human Resources (HR) department to inform employees about upcoming meetings or townhalls which must be attended by all employee members. On the day of the event, as per se townhall, reminder will be sent out in email application to everyone that has accepted the invitation. At the same time, HR department will be sending internal memos to all employees via email to inform information related to human resource practices The usage of MT promotes efficiency as employees do not have to physically go over to their colleagues` work desk merely to enquire on certain matter. Since, everyone must make their status available whenever they are at their work desk, MT can be a very powerful communication tool. Realizing that, Young Living Malaysia uses MT as primary internal communication tool where every quick updates or reminders will be posted here. As per seen in Appendix, there are few group chats which are used to convey any updates and information daily. This is to ensure the information is successfully shared as few different tools and platforms are used. In Young Living Malaysia, the practice of conducting briefing or meetings that need to be attended by everyone in the organization online has become a normal practice. Thus, to make sure that not only those 20% who still work from home are able to join the meeting virtually, it is also to guarantee that social distance is practiced during pandemic time. Therefore, Young Living Malaysia still conduct these meetings and briefings virtually by using Zoom application that require full attendance from all the employees..

INTERVIEW ANALYSIS. Ms. Dashmin Kaur Ms. Dashmin agreed that Young Living Malaysia provides adequate communication channel to pass the information and updates to their employees At the same time, Ms. Dashmin also felt verbal communication practiced in the organization is good, either with the superior or within colleagues Nevertheless, the communication transfer bet ween employees and management team is consider good as misunderstanding is less likely to happen The reason is, in verbal communication misunde rstanding and misinterpretation is bound to happen regard less as different people can interpret messages differentl y.

COMMUNICATION IN ORGANIZATION. Young Living Malaysia practices bilingual in the organization by using both English for formal business context and Bahasa Malaysia (BM) in informal context such as interaction among colleagues. This can be considered as a good practice, as the company does not focus on one language that is used formally to be used for daily informal interaction. Considering BM is the official language of Malaysia it is fair and unbiased for everyone to use BM as informal communication language with each other. The flow of communication in Young Living Malaysia involved three directions: horizontal, downward and upward. By having these different directions, Young Living Malaysia promotes open and good communication flows within the organization. By having all these, Young Living Malaysia can ensure effective communication in the organization..

ORAL COMMUNICATION. COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY. Email communication is one way to communicate important and formal messages across the organization. Especially involving employees from different departments as it is also the fastest way to relay the messages. Although email means less personalization as information and updates are shared virtually instead of interacting in person, it can save a lot of times as there is no need for representative for a particular department to visit each department to relay the information. Thus, communication process using email is delayed as the messages did not go received by the employees on time. As a result, many employees tend to miss out important information and updates as they did not read emails that they received. Compared to Microsoft Teams (MT) where messages are less formal and short, employees tend to read the messages right away when they have new message notification. This is because, group chat has to be created in which team members can be added to the group and received any messages sent to the group..

RECOMMENDATIONS. Standardization of Communication Channel Ensuring employees are using same channels for certain updates Organizing Huddles on Office Hour Not taking extra time from employees Open-Door Policy Adapting suitable open door policy to ensure productivity is not interrupted.

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