Companies Still Relying Too Much on ‘Old School’ Communications

The world is going mobile fast and it is not going to slow down. For organizations to keep up, they need to embrace the way their customers and employees communicate. This is specifically true when working with Millennials entering the workplace.

Millennials are the first generation to grow up with technology being so engrained in their lives. They are more used to sharing and receiving information digitally and through mobile devices than previous generations. As a result, they are always connected.

The business world has come a long way by embracing mobile technology such as mobile applications, access and bring your own device. However, many organizations are still relying too much on dated methods when it comes to communicating with their own employees and not keeping pace with technology trends preferred by Millennials and even Generation Xers to a degree, according to a survey of more than 200 U.S. based workers by theEMPLOYEEapp.

Job satisfaction is directly linked to how an organization communicates with its workers. To lure and retain top talent, companies must embrace mobile and more digital communications strategies.

Specifically, 62 percent of survey respondents said communication methods directly impacts job satisfaction. What’s more, frequency matters. Going for long periods of time without hearing from company leaders alienates employees. In fact, 68 percent of employees said communication frequency directly impacts job satisfaction and almost 50 percent said they feel “out of the loop,” according to the survey.

Part of the problem is the way organizations are, or are not, communicating with their employees. To no surprise, 89 percent of survey respondents said companies communicate through email; however, 30 percent said they actually ignore their employer’s emails. In-person communications is still high, with 80 percent saying their organization communicates that way and 50 percent said they use the telephone.

This shows that while frequency is needed to keep employees informed, too many company-wide emails have the adverse effect. Instead, department managers should be assigned to reach out to their groups more to make communications more intimate and specific.

Overall, 33 percent of employees said they want even more communications from their employers, according to the study.

This can come in many shapes and forms—through social media, internal portals, webcasts and even text messaging. The critical thing for companies to understand is that in today’s “always on” world they have to constantly change how they communicate to their employees. To reach the next generation of workers and consumers, this means embracing more mobile and digital-friendly avenues and less traditional ones.