Ineffective Communications Waste Millions a Year
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Ineffective Communications Waste Millions a Year
Technology enables many modes of communication, but when they are not used appropriately for the task at hand, it results in inefficiency and wasted money. -
How Employees Spend Time Communicating (in Minutes)
Reading and replying to emails: 80, Face-to-face meetings: 71, Calls from desk phone: 49, Calls from mobile: 46, Conference calls, including web conferencing: 42, Online collaboration; document and screen sharing: 39 -
Telephones Versus Email
Phone calls remain the dominant task, with about 95 minutes spent on desk and mobile phone calls. Emails come in second, taking up 80 minutes of employees' time. -
Measuring Efficiency
Respondents were asked to rate their efficiency in reading and replying to emails, responding to mobile calls and calls on their desk phone, face-to-face meetings, online collaboration, and chat, text and instant messaging. The average rating for each mode was 79% efficiency. -
Reasons for Inefficiencies
This inefficiency may be due to a failure to use the right communication tool for the task at hand. For example, email is often used for chat, but it's better for documenting conversations among multiple participants. -
Impact on Employees
Employees spend 6.03 hours a day on communications and collaboration tasks (68.6% of their time). They lose 1.26 hours due to inefficiencies (20.9%). -
Impact on Companies
Time lost due to inefficiencies is an average of $11,000 per employee. -
Incompatible Communications Tools
Companies often have a combination of incompatible communications tools and applications. As a result, productivity decreases and teamwork breaks down.
A new study on workplace productivity and communications technology finds that today's workers communicate inefficiently, and that ends up wasting money for their employers. The study, "2017 Workplace Productivity and Communications Technology," also found that workers spend three hours daily communicating during phone calls and face-to-face meetings. The yearly impact and productivity losses are costing companies an average of $11,000 per employee. "This study underscores the alarming cost of poor communications and collaboration, and how companies of all sizes are artificially constrained by the very tools that were intended to improve their ability to be productive," said Bob Agnes, executive vice president and president of the Enterprise Division of Mitel, an enterprise and mobile communications company. The study was commissioned by Mitel and conducted by Webtorials, which analyzed responses from 906 business professionals, who are mainly from the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Germany.