Texting, Social Media, Email, Phone Calls, Twitter, Video Conferences, Face-to-Face Meetings: How Do You Work?
According to a new global study conducted by Plantronics (NYSE: PLT) and
released at the GigaOm Mobilize conference, today’s busy professional is
increasingly adept at harnessing new and traditional communication
methods to be successful in the modern workplace. The “How We Work:
Communication Trends of Business Professionals” study surveyed more
than 1,800 employees in six countries about their communication habits
and preferences. The findings reveal that professionals are
communicating more today than ever before and are very smart about which
tools to use for given situations. The full study can be downloaded
today at www.plantronics.com/howwework.
Mixing New and Traditional Communications
The How We Work study includes questions related to both
traditional communication methods such as email, in-person meetings and
one-to-one phone calls, and more recent options like SMS, social media
and video conferencing. The study found that personal communication
methods, like SMS and social networking, are emerging in the enterprise
for work-related topics, and that professionals are heavily reliant on
email and phone communications for collaboration. In fact, usage of
nearly every form of communication has increased over the past five
years.
The findings show that professionals rely on more traditional forms of
communication to drive results. 83 percent of professionals say email is
“critical” to their overall success and productivity, and 81 percent
said the same for phone calls. Email and phone ranked the highest above
all other forms of communication with audio conferences third at 61%.
Sending or receiving IM rated as critical for only 38 percent of
respondents while social media ranked last at 19 percent.
Adapting Communication for Critical Situations
Today’s enterprise workers are instinctively choosing tools that make
the most sense for a given situation, whether it is a status update or
collaborative event such as a brainstorming session. The more critical
collaboration is to success and productivity, the more people prefer
in-person and video-driven meetings over text-based communication. For
example, although email usage has increased significantly over the past
five years and is regarded as the most important tool for business
success, it’s not preferred at all for mission critical decisions and
only 3 percent of respondents prefer it for complex or technical
discussions.
“How We Work shows that, given the demands of work today,
professionals are essentially creating communication tool belts that
allow them to pick the right tool at the right time,” said Clay
Hausmann, vice president of Corporate Marketing at Plantronics. “Video,
voice and text-based communications all have a role, as does social
media, and one isn’t growing at the expense of another. The pace of
innovation around new communication technologies is astounding, and yet
it is the end user who ultimately decides which technology will play a
key role in their business communication and for what purpose.”
The Impact of Globally Distributed Teams
The How We Work study reinforces the changing dynamics of today’s
workforce, where 24×7 communications reign and distributed teams,
flexible working and telecommuting are on the rise. According to the
study, 90 percent of enterprise employees spend some time working
off-site and, consequently, 62 percent frequently attend remote
meetings. The goal: Collaboration and collective knowledge sharing.
Enterprise goals have evolved from automation to innovation, where
team-driven ideas, insights and empathy are the underpinnings for future
growth. In fact, 91 percent of today’s professionals are heavily
involved in brainstorming and ideation meetings at work.
How Do You Work?
Plantronics wants to know how you work. Please visit our Facebook
page and take the How You Work poll, or visit the Plantronics Unified
Communications Blog and join the conversation.
How We Work Methodology
Plantronics surveyed 1,800 enterprise employees in the US, UK, Germany,
China, India and Australia. All work in medium or large size companies
(100+ employees) and identified themselves as knowledge workers (people
whose work centers on developing/working primarily with ideas and
information) who use a variety of communications technologies to stay in
touch with colleagues, partners and clients. The research was conducted
in May and June of 2010.
The presentation, graphs, info art, and audio clips from enterprise
professionals discussing their communication preferences and usage can
be accessed at www.plantronics.com/howwework.
