The Role of Communication Skills in the Promotion of Human Resource productivity in Iran: A cross-sectional Study

Organization survival is dependent on communications and managers spend a main portion of their time to establish communications. The identification, improvement and development of communication skills serve as the essential components of successful organizations. The present study aimed to investigate the role of communication skills in human resource productivity in north Iran. Method The study employed a cross-sectional design and was conducted in six deputies supervised by the Alborz University of Medical Sciences, in 2019. The statistical population included all 302 employees were selected as the sample population according to Cochran's formula. Using two researcher-made questionnaires of communication skills and human resource productivity, we assessed the role of communication skills in human resource productivity. Data were analyzed by implementing descriptive statistics including mean and standard deviation (SD), and analytical statistics such as Kolmogorov‐Smirnov, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, T-test and multivariate regression tests using SPSS 21 and P ≤ 0.05. According to research findings, there were significant relationships between communication skills including verbal skills, listening skills and effectiveness skills with human resource productivity P ≤ 0.05. There was a significant relationship between age group, gender, level of education and travel home-university distance with communication skills and resource productivity of employees P ≤ 0.05. This study examines the role of communication skills in the promotion of human resource productivity who work in the administrative section of the University of Medical Sciences in Iran. Findings suggest that health planners and authorities may need to examine factors that contribute to the promotion of the communication skills for increase human resource productivity of employees and improved performance of health organizations.


Introduction
Skills are capabilities that are obtained by people via learning and education [8]. They are actually the different dimensions of people capabilities that should be effectively manifested in practice [9].
Communication skills are a key success factor in every organization that lead to specific organizational performances so that adopting them in different organizational positions and situations leads to the achievement of organizational targets [9,10]. This study aims to answer this question that "what is the role of communication skills in the productivity of the employees of University of Medical Sciences in Iran?" and "can we use it as a fit measure in universities, considering the importance of these variables?"

Respondent characteristics and setting
The statistical population of the study included all 302 personnel who work in the six administrative deputies at Alborz University of Medical Sciences including health (n = 92), treatment (n = 79), logistic (n = 39), food and medicine (n = 32), student cultural (n = 28), and educational (n = 32).The appropriate sample size was selected from all the above staff as the statistical population estimated using Cochran's formula: Data were kept confidentially by putting no name or other personal information in the questionnaires.
Questionnaires were handed out by research assistants and distributed to the participants in the Office environment and participants filled the questionnaire during their daily work hours.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria
The inclusion criteria were all the personnel worked in the office environment. Exclusion criteria included lack of consent for participation in the study and incomplete questionnaires.

Data collection
For data collection, research team initially developed tree questionnaire after an extensive review of the relevant literature to achieve good content validity. We developed the tree questionnaire in Farsi to reconcile study issues and concepts culturally and linguistically for Persian-speaking study participants. The first questionnaire included questions about demographic characteristics of employees including sex, age, education level, job experience, position, travel home-university distance. The second questionnaire contained 18 questions to investigate communication skills of employees including verbal dimension (items 1 to 6), listening dimension (items 7 to 12) and effectiveness dimension (items 13 to 18). The third questionnaire contained 14 questions to investigate human resource productivity. Two questionnaire of communication skills and human resource productivity were scored using Likert five-point scale (completely agree = 5, agree = 4, no idea = 3, disagree = 2 and completely disagree = 1).
The communication skills and human resource productivity questionnaires were validated using the viewpoints of ten faculty members at the Alborz University of Medical Sciences to resolve ambiguities indicating an acceptable content and face validity of the test. To assess the reliability of the scales in this research, a reliability test was conducted by Cronbach's alpha method among 30 subjects yielding and Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.95 for communication skills and 0.83 for human resource productivity, showing good reliability of the questionnaires.

Data analyses
To analyze data, descriptive tests including frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation and analytical tests including the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test were conducted to indicate that the data were sampled from a population with a normal distribution. The correlation between demographic data and communication skills and human resource productivity was examined by the Pearson correlation coefficient, and one-way ANOVA and t-test. The multivariate regression was used to determine the effects of variables were assessed using the SPSS 21 software. There was a significant difference at the level of p < .05.
Regarding the travel time from home to university, 32.6%, 42% and 25.4% of the cases was travelling the distance in less than half an hour, 0.5-1 hour and > 1hour, shows in Table 1. The dimensions have the highest correlation with human resource productivity, respectively shows in Table 2. The regression implementation stages of communication skills with standard and non-standard coefficients, standard deviation, and t-test with their significance levels, show in Table 3. Therefore, it can be stated that there is a significant linear relationship between communication skills and human resource productivity. T-test for regression coefficient also shows the significance of this coefficient (sig = 0.000). In other words, communication skills has a positive significant effect on human resource productivity as indicated by the positive sign of B-factor, shows in Table 3. to human resource productivity, shows in Table 4. Multiple regression models showed that increased verbal skill, listening skill and effectiveness skill increased human resource productivity. Among all factors influencing human resource productivity based on β coefficient, effectiveness skill the most impact on human resource productivity, shows in Table 5.

Discussion
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of communication skills on human resource productivity. Based on the results of demographic variables, communication skills have higher influence on female employees of the studied university because the number of females is higher in the population. Majority of communication skills affected the productivity of employees aged 30-40.
Moreover, employees with B.S. degree obtained more benefits from this study. The participation of the specialists of the studied university in this study was high and the effect of communication skills on their productivity was higher. Finally, the employees who travel home-university distance in 0.5-1 hour showed more productivity.
The results of this study indicated that there is a significant relationship between communication skills and human resource productivity. This agrees with the results studies of Raina [11], Abas et al This study showed a significant relationship between verbal skills and human resource productivity.
This agrees with the results of studies Noe [14]and Kiani [15]. In other words, verbal skills play a role in promoting the productivity of the employees of the studied university so that the employees believe that the existence of effective verbal skills will promote human resource productivity. It is suggested that managers should state ideas in the framework of general words in order to strengthen verbal and speaking skills of their employees through education.
This study obtained a significant relationship between listening skills and human resource productivity. This agrees with the results studies of [16][17][18]. In other words, listening skills play a role in promoting the productivity of the employees of the studied university so that the employees believe that the existence of effective listening skills will promote HR productivity. It is suggested that employees should listen to the words of their clients more accurately in order to establish an effective listening and comprehend their whole words.
This study obtained a significant relationship between effectiveness skills and human resource productivity. This agrees with the results of studies Najafi [19] and Delery [20]. In other words, effectiveness skills play a role in promoting the productivity of the employees of the studied university so that the employees believe that the existence of effective effectiveness skills will promote human resource productivity. Therefore, employees can speak with clients in a manner that could enable them to get an accurate feedback of their words (19).

Limitation
Potential limitations of the present study were a lack of cooperation of the participants and not responding to the questions truly due to fear of revealing information. These limitations were partially overcome by communicating to the participants properly and explaining that their participation is optional, their responses will be kept confidential, and they can fill it without writing their names on it.