The Future of Workplace Communication
Henn Ruukel, CEO of Fleep highlights the importance of communicating effectively at work and reflects on what the business communication has in store for the future
Effective, effortless communication is essential in the modern workplace. However, many business communication methods currently on the market are inefficient, noisy and outdated, threatening productivity. The right communication platform can help eliminate distraction when implemented properly, while the wrong one can create barriers and hinder efficiency.
Despite advances in communication technology and the growth of IM culture, email still dominates the space, making communication clunky and difficult to digest. The future of work communication is evolving quickly and email alone just can’t keep up. Reasons for this include:
- The growth of remote working, a trend supported by increased connectivity worldwide through accessible Internet and cloud services. Remote working makes the physical location of a workplace less important than the online space where its conversations exist.
- More work and valued creativity happening through cross-team collaboration than through individual efforts.
- Expected industry adaptation and agility from software management to construction and manufacturing requiring teams to be ready for instant communication.
Right now, most businesses are using at least one communication platform in addition to email, demonstrating that email remains an engrained part of business communication. Its permanence has created a certain online messaging etiquette that desperately needs to evolve to keep up with the kinds of messages and two-way communication required in today’s enterprise.
Distraction-Free Communication
The knowledge that companies can’t eliminate email but need alternative methods to communicate has led to the creation of new communication platforms that aim to solve two major problems in the traditional user experience of email:
- Email is a very crowded space with a multitude of spam and unwanted solicitations; one has little to no control over who crowds the inbox.
- Email by its nature is message-centric and does not naturally have support for ‘conversation’; there is little control in the flow of an email exchange. You can’t leave the conversation, change the conversation, or immediately add to the conversation efficiently. We have an overload of messages, grouped together in a format that’s difficult to digest.
Workplace communication tools should optimize for two things: de-fragmentation and focus. Optimizing for de-fragmentation means looking for ways to avoid fragmented conversation. Communication around one project can be disjointed and split between email, an internal chat service and a task management service. Instead of experiencing fragmented conversation, users should be able to transition each work conversation and method of communication into only one, succinct thread, making participation seamless and simplifying readability.
Work communication methods should also ensure users maintain focus, rather than distract employees. Communication platforms can encourage focus by eliminating online chat indicators. These indicators can create the false assumption that if someone is ‘online,’ then they aren’t busy and should be eager to respond to incoming messages. Instead, it’s better to use ‘seen by’ indicators which show you when your message is actually read, indicating that you now have the user’s attention.
The Future of Communications
We are living at the verge of a shift in business communication—a shift driven by the reasons mentioned above and enabled by advances in technology. Smartphones, broadband internet and cloud services are changing the way we communicate with each other.
With this shift we will continue to see new integrations within platforms, including video calls, text messaging, and instant messaging. Today’s workforce must adapt to align new communication expectations and culture around these channels.
Something has happened to ‘chat culture’. When mobile phones first appeared, we saw a period of overuse and misuse. Now, the culture around mobile phone use and the norms around calling others has matured. This is happening to ‘chat culture’ from expectation management to how fast we should expect a response from those we are communicating with. Overall, I think our messaging culture has evolved from email culture by becoming much shorter and direct, mainly to save readers time and attention.
The challenge remains in aligning new messaging expectations and traditional email to create an improved business communication culture. We must be constantly working to improve this convergence and reduce unnecessary noise to enhance productivity in the workplace. Mindful innovation and continuous progression has helped us create optimized work communication methods, but it is up to businesses to utilize these tools and use them to their advantage.
