Importance of effective communication
For organizations, effective communication is critical for its employees to perform their duties and responsibilities efficiently. Free and uninterrupted business communication in a company results in higher employee engagement, better customer service and more profits. It has been shown that companies with connected employees are 25% more productive. To improve communication and be more productive, companies must have the right processes and tools in place.
Impact of poor communication
Poor communication can impact your workplace adversely. It has been estimated that communication barriers cost an average organization $62.4 million per year in lost productivity. Ineffective communication results in low morale, high stress, absenteeism and employee turnover. On the contrary, companies that invest in the right online tools improve their productivity by 47%.
Disconnected apps
In order to improve communication at the workplace, organizations end up deploying multiple apps, creating information silos. On average, every employee juggle between 4–6 apps to get their work done. Switching between these apps alone is costing companies one hour of productivity every day. Apart from this, too many conversations across multiple platforms dilute the message resulting in poor quality communication.
Instant messaging
The accessibility and immediate possibility to talk to anyone at any time have made IM an integral part of the workplace. According to one report, in 2019, the number of worldwide IM accounts total over 7 billion. This figure is expected to grow at an average annual rate of about 6% over the next four years. Chat is now the second-most important activity after email. Together, they account for 5.5 hours of each employee’s workday
Effective email system
When it comes to business communication, email is still the most widely used tool. On an average we read and compose at least 50–60 emails a day. One statistic points out that an average office worker spends 2.5 hours a day checking emails.
No doubt, emails will continue its supremacy even in the coming years. However, to make business communication more effective, emails should only be used when online chats are not possible.
Audio-video Tools
Visual communication facilitates effective collaboration between geographically dispersed workforce. Video conferencing supports telecommuting, which is growing by 103% every year. Organizations that are facilitating video conferencing and support telecommuting are witnessing an annual savings of $11,000 per person per year when workers work from home 50% of the time.
Cloud tools
In the era of telecommuting, cloud technology allows two or more people from remote locations to collaborate at the same time and get things done. Cloud-based communication apps and storage tools allow people to collaborate effectively without location constraints. Though companies were reluctant to include cloud tools into their portfolio, due to security reasons, they are now realizing the benefits and usage of cloud tools are doubling every year.
Telecommuting
The tools that can facilitate effective communication between employees who work-from-home are in great demand. Though the current Covid global pandemic is one of the reasons, long-term telecommuting helps employees maintain work-life balance.. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 23% of American workers did at least some work from their home in 2017. One of the most defining tech trends of the past decade was telecommuting, which expanded by almost 400%.
Companies that don’t provide telecommuting options may fail to attract the best and young talent. Telecommuting will become an indispensable part of the workplace.
Organized communications
A McKinsey Global Institute study found that high-skill knowledge workers spend 19% of their average workweek searching for and gathering information. With the right tools you don’t have to rely on your memory to remember what was discussed or what documents were shared in a previous conversation. You can simply scroll up to see your chat history, including the documents and feeds shared with your boss and co-workers. The online tool that you use should handle all your communications in one place, so multiple conversations on the same topic don’t happen in different tools creating information silos.
Communication overload
Employees are also under constant pressure to be online and respond to messages to show that they are working hard and impress their bosses. It is said that you can quit social media, but you cannot quit your online chat. No doubt, business communication appears to be hijacked by so-called productivity tools. Too many channels and messages result in information overload and stress.
The solution
The answer to most of the modern-day communication problem lies in a unified communication system that can not only reduce the noise but can also arrange all the conversations in a meaningful way, which can later be recalled at the click of a mouse. Clariti is one such tool that has been built on this premise.
