Outdated Communications Risk Alienating Young Workers
Outdated Communications Risk Alienating Young Workers by Robbie Pleasant
Times change, and so do employees; every year a new batch of graduates join the workforce, and while they keep getting younger, business practices seem to stay the same. Even in today’s seemingly ever-connected world, many businesses still miss out on all the potential of live communication technologies, and are alienating their young employees as a result.
First and foremost, we need to look at the use of video in the office. Video allows for a more natural remote communication experience, providing another person’s face to see, voice to hear, and body language to read. It’s more effective than just voice calls, email, or text messages, and virtually every computer is already equipped with some level of video and voice equipment.
Yet its uses in the office seem limited, in spite of its ubiquity. Research from BlueJeans Network has found that barely over a quarter of employers are proactively encouraging the use of video for office communications. In fact, only about 14 percent of employers were ranked by their employees as good at providing communications tools that are similar to those that employees use on a daily basis.
That sort of disconnect seems counter-intuitive. If employees are used to using one form of communication, and it works for them, why make them learn another to use in their business environment? People work better and faster with the tools they’re familiar and comfortable with, and methods such as video collaboration have already proven to be effective both inside and outside of an office environment.
Going further into the research, it’s clear that employees understand the power of video, and would like to see it utilized more in the office. Around 72 percent of respondents think that live video can change the way they communicate at work, while 69 percent also feel that using more video conversations would lead to higher employee retention. In fact, slightly more than half of respondents said that they would rather work for a company that embraces live video.
The benefit of video communications is clear, and employees know it. Well over half of the respondents explained that seeing people rather than just hearing them is a huge benefit, and even more view video as a way of saving time normally spent in lengthy meetings, in addition to being a good way of reducing email traffic. 82 percent of respondents feel that live video can play a big role in their organization for collaboration, training, and even troubleshooting. Video has become a part of employees personal lives, and yet they’re rarely encouraged to use it in the workplace.
So why are businesses so slow to adopt video? Cost is often an issue, but video communications are becoming more widespread and more affordable. Most people already have video chat apps in their phones, and free solutions like Skype and Google Hangouts are widely available. Some employers seem to be dismissive of video’s power, but the benefits of video have been long since made clear.
Regardless of the why, the new and incoming generation of workers have grown up with video, and they know its purpose. Worldwide, over half of all respondents feel their organizations need to improve their video communications tools to attract new and younger employees, and nearly as many themselves would rather work for a company with investments in high quality video collaboration. Young employees are already expecting to see live video as a common and implemented communications tool, and to deny them that would to be deny your company efficiency and excellent communications.
Video calling is no longer a thing of science fiction, or of dreams for the far-off future. It is the technology of today, and should be utilized as such. Those who remain in the past will fall behind, as the workers of tomorrow pass them up.