Digital communication loses its message
In 2009, employees are likely to communicate digitally with each other in more ways, and in greater volumes, than ever before. But a greater quantity and variety of communications, digital or otherwise, may not mean a better kind of communication. Indeed, digital communications applications, most notably email, may obscure as much as they inform during 200919.
When email was first launched, it offered a fast, immediate, and relatively low-cost alternative compared with mail, faxes and internal memoranda. The success of instant messaging was founded on its greater immediacy and lesser formality, relative to email. The growth of services like text messaging, has been driven by similar benefits.
However, the value of email has eroded as inbound volumes have continued to increase, boosted by spam20,and as employees continue to send and copy too many messages, to too many people, too often 21. During 2009, on average office workers are expected to check their inboxes more than 50 times22 and send more than 160 messages daily23, in all dedicating up to two hours each day to email24.
The value of digital communications in working hours may be further depleted by social networks, which offer myriad ways of sending and receiving messages between thousands of individuals at a time. The impact of social networks has been measured at billions of dollars in lost productivity25 26.
For some, 2009 will be the year in which their volume of emails sent, received and saved, finally falls. In some respects this will be a response to internal mandate: it has been estimated that every employee creates 20 megabytes, every day27. Heavier users may find their inboxes forcibly emptied by IT departments, to control costs.
In a few cases, users may resort to 'email bankruptcy', that is deleting everything in their inboxes and starting over.
Bottom line
For businesses, digital communication is a productivity tool. In many businesses, the efficiency of digital communications has been increasingly blunted by overuse. Companies need to make digital communication between workers, as well with customers and suppliers, useful again.
Excessive use of digital communication, especially email, is an entirely human problem. Organizations need to help users regain discipline in their use of communications tools. Users should be encouraged to focus on the quality, not quantity, of digital communications. Enterprises could even offer employees the option of switching off28. Workers should not feel the need to be connected and responding at all times. Companies could consider discouraging email for one day a week29.
Empowering employees to stem the flow of messages, albeit temporarily, could have a considerable impact on productivity by allowing each worker to focus on the task at hand. In some cases, rationing the quantity of messages sent per day could train workers to be more selective in their use of digital messaging.
Companies should also consider the direct financial benefit of less digital communication. Simply persuading employees not to make indiscriminate use of the 'reply-all' function could save time and money. In a typical 1,000 person organization, it could cut the daily email count by several thousand, saving 285 person-hours per day and potentially recapture $1,800 per year per employee in wasted labor costs30.
It is in the interests of telecommunications and technology companies to advise organizations on how to preserve the power of digital communications. A phone call to a single individual may be the most efficient and effective response to a group email. A short text message could replace a lengthy phone call.
Social networking companies should consider their potential impact on the workplace. A growing trend to ban access to their networks from office computers demonstrates the threat seen by employers31. However, many companies are keen to take advantage of some of the perceived benefits of online networking to promote co-operation and teamwork32. Social networks may find that the best approach is to offer 'white-label' solutions to corporations33.
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