A study recently conducted by uSamp Research on behalf of a cloud phone technology provider looked into the trends that are influencing workplace communication and how the evolution of tools is changing the landscape of business communication. For the study, the researchers surveyed 508 workers at the manager, director and vice president levels at businesses in United States. Here is a brief on the various inferences made from the study:
In-Person Communication No Longer In Vogue : What do professionals at the workplace prefer – meeting colleagues in person and getting stuff done, or do they prefer the various communication channels? The uSamp study shows that a stunning 95% of the respondents chose workplace communications over in-person meetings. Of this, 48% of the respondents preferred emails while 20% preferred calling over mobile phones. Desk phones were preferred by another 10% while 8% each preferred texting colleagues or scheduling web meetings.
Real-Time Communication Is In : Over the past decade, unified communications technology has made it possible for non real-time communication platforms to be accessed on a real-time basis. Companies like AllStream allow users to broadcast messages via multiple channels right from the IP based business phones to PC notifications, text messages and email simultaneously. The availability of such features has made people favor real-time communications over non real-time alternatives. 82% of respondents from the study preferred receiving text messages over voicemails. As a matter of fact, 36% of the surveyed participants confided to have deleted voicemails without listening to them.
Internal Communication Is Critical : Close to 44% of the respondents believe that the business communication tools available today are geared at communications outside the workplace and need similar communication tools for intra-office communications. With remote working on the rise, respondents believe tools that enable better communication with co-workers is paramount to an efficient and productive workplace. These respondents also felt Skype as a medium to communicate with fellow workers was not optimal.
Multi-Tasking Of Devices : Even till a decade back, every worker had an assigned computer that was their only medium to engage in the workplace. However, that has changed drastically and nearly 85% of the participants in the study revealed that they used more than one device at work. This includes the use of a workplace computer, a smartphone and another workstation that they accessed while working from home. 32% of the respondents used three or more devices for work related activities.
Other significant take-aways from the study:
- 97% of respondents believe that their communications impact their daily tasks
- 32% believe they will need new business communication tools for remote working in 2015
- 21% want their communication tools to enable them to have more time off