Data security concerns, slow intranets and unintuitive, non-responsive collaboration technology are ranked as the biggest communication barriers to staff productivity. When asked about the biggest changes required to make employees communicate better across the workplace, a more open culture and easier access to a wider variety of communication tools are cited as the most favoured routes.
When questioned about the most sought after capabilities from a communications portal or intranet – a single point of interaction to instantly communicate - is most popular. Other desirable functions include systems that are as easy to use as Microsoft Powerpoint and can swiftly update content. Types of devices currently used in the workplace appear evenly split between IOS phone / tablets and Windows devices.
Although, 65% of those surveyed believe that their current internal communication systems adequately protect data sharing – so don’t present a GDPR compliance risk – over 35% expressed security concerns – and are currently reviewing the impact of GDPR on their intranet. When questioned about ownership of internal communication tools, it’s still a core IT departmental responsibility – but there’s an indicated shift in ownership to internal communications and marketing departments too.
Andy Ward, managing director at bluesource said, “It’s clear that improving employee communication and collaboration is a major challenge for organisations. To get their jobs done well, communication systems must be more intuitive, easy to use and responsive to make staff more efficient and collaborative - across the digital workplace.”