Ineffective comms lead to lower productivity for 50% of employees.

With work from home increasing to 58% of the workforce (92 million workers), digital communication has become a focal point of workplace communication and productivity. The survey also found that 28% of all respondents report using a voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) phone system. While half of the respondents we surveyed worked in a hybrid environment, 27% worked remotely and 20% on-site.

Key Takeaways

• Workers are spending an average of 20 hours a week using digital communication tools.
• Forty-five percent of workers feel more connected to their team as a result of using digital communication.
• Digital communication makes 58% of workers feel like they need to be available more often.
• Sixty percent of workers feel increased burnout as a result of communicating digitally.
• Nearly half of workers report their productivity being affected by ineffective communication.
• Forty-two percent of workers experience stress trying to form responses that convey the right tone of voice.

Communication tools used in the workplace in 2023

The days of the phone call may not be behind us, despite how many other communication platforms there are today. Workers are finding that the more effective communication platforms range in the type of communication they provide, whether that be instant messaging, video calls or VoIP systems. Google Meet and Zoom ranked highest for video calls, being used by 40% and 46% of respondents, respectively.

Remote and hybrid workers are using VoIP systems to communicate more often than in-office workers. VoIP systems were used by over a quarter of total respondents, with 37% of remote workers using them, 23% of on-site workers and 24% of hybrid workers.

The most effective communication tools for in-office, hybrid and remote workers

The most effective communication tool varied between on-site, remote and hybrid workers. For on-site workers, the mobile phone was the most effective method of communication for 38% of respondents, followed by landline (22%) and Zoom (21%). For people working remotely, Zoom was the most effective method for 22% of respondents, as well as Google Chat (also 22%). Hybrid workers followed a similar trend: 31% ranked Zoom as the most effective and 23% ranked Google Meet as the most effective.

How Covid-19 continues to affect work communication

Most people turn to tools beyond the standard phone to communicate at work, with 14% of respondents using VoIP when they didn’t prior to the pandemic. Over 20% of them are remote workers. It may seem obvious that more people began using Zoom (24% of respondents), but mobile phones also saw a spike in use by 20% after March 1, 2020.

Over 40% of workers feel more connected to their team since Covid-19

While Covid-19 changed the way offices and teams communicate, it didn’t necessarily lead to workers feeling less connected across the board. A total of 45% of workers who took the survey actually felt more connected to their team after Covid-19 (43% of on-site, 52% remote and 46% hybrid workers).

Some workers did feel less connected (25%). Remote workers were the most likely to report feeling less connected (34%) while the numbers were lower for on-site workers (27%) and hybrid workers (20%). There were also those who experienced no change. Of these respondents, on-site workers were the most likely to report no change (28%).

The majority of workers use digital communication tools for up to 20 hours a week

Many workers spend all day in front of a screen. The highest percentage of respondents (16%) said they spend 21 to 25 hours per week on digital communication platforms. That’s around five hours per day on average.

Fifteen percent spent 16 to 20 hours, 14% spent 11 to 15 hours and 12% spent six to 10 hours. There was a sharp decrease when the numbers reached 31 to 35 hours: only 5% said they spent this much time on digital communication tools. Digital communication tools took up the use of more than a 40-hour workweek for 2% of respondents.

Digital communication tools are affecting work-life balance

With so many digital communication tools available, more workers are feeling pressure to stay connected to their coworkers outside of normal working hours. Nearly 25% of workers said that they always feel pressured to stay connected to their peers, while 35% said they often feel pressure. On the other end—those who felt free from pressure—the numbers were much smaller. Seven percent said they rarely felt pressure while 10% said they never do.

Digital communication increased burnout for 60% of workers

Whether working from home, on-site or both, digital communication has a high chance of increasing feelings of burnout. Our survey showed that 60% of respondents said that digital communication increased feelings of burnout. Nearly 70% of remote workers said they experienced burnout from digital communication. Hybrid and on-site workers were less likely to experience burnout as a result of digital communication: 56% and 49% respectively.

How ineffective communication affects the work environment

Only 11% of workers report that ineffective communication does not have any effect on them. For the rest of the respondents, poor communication greatly affected workers in many areas. Most notably, it impacted productivity for 49% of respondents. Nearly 50% of respondents reported that ineffective communication impacted job satisfaction while 42% said it affected stress levels.

Poor communication is affecting trust for 45% of workers

For over 40% of workers, poor communication reduces trust both in leadership and in their team. Remote workers were more affected, with 54% reporting poor communication impacts trust in leadership and 52% reporting it impacts trust in the team. For on-site workers, poor communication did not impact trust to the same extent, though it still had a big impact: 43% reported trust in leadership was impacted and 38% said trust in their team was affected.

Job satisfaction relies on effective communication for the majority of workers

Respondents reported that effective communication impacted several areas of work. Forty-two percent said it impacted cross-functional collaboration. Job satisfaction is another big area that is affected by communication: 48% said they were impacted. Nearly half of the respondents said their productivity was impacted.

Digital communication tools are increasing stress in the workplace

For 46% of respondents, seeing messages ignored for long periods of time led to stress in the workplace. The notification that their manager is typing a message caused stress for 45% of respondents. Many other aspects of digital communication led to stress as well: crafting digital responses with the right tone of voice (42%), deciphering the tone behind digital messages (38%), last-minute video calls from leadership (36%) and turning off your camera when on video calls (35%).

Most workers prefer email to other digital communication options

When it comes to preferred methods of communication, many workers prefer old-fashioned tools. Email is the most popular tool, with 18% of total respondents marking it as their preference (25% of remote workers and 10% of on-site workers). Video calls were the next popular choice (17%) followed by direct messages (16%). For on-site workers, in-person conversations were by far the most preferred method of communication, with 34% of respondents saying it’s their preference.

• Preferences were the same across gender, though varied considerably when it came to video calls: 22% of male respondents preferred video while 12% of females preferred video.
• Age played a role in preference of communication methods: 40% of respondents between 59 and 77 preferred in-person conversation while that was only true for 17% of people ages 18 to 26 and 16% of people ages 27 to 42.

How workers are using digital communication to connect

For many workers, digital communication is an essential part of their day, but they differ in the methods of communication they use. More than half (56%) of respondents use video for their communication and 55% use audio. Personalized greetings are less common (44%). Emojis and GIFs are still relatively common forms of communication: 42% and 34% respectively.

• Female respondents preferred personalized greetings more than male respondents: 47% compared with 40%.
• Male respondents preferred audio more than female respondents: 63% compared with 50%. Video followed a similar pattern: 61% (male) versus 53% (female).
• Respondents of ages 43 to 58 had the highest preference for GIFs: 42% compared with 31% of respondents between the ages of 18 and 26.
• Respondents between 18 and 26 years old were the most likely to prefer video (69%). Preference for video declined with age: 60% of respondents between the ages of 27 and 42, 50% of people between 43 and 58 years old and only 23% of people surveyed between the ages of 59 and 77.

How many people still work from home in each state?

Forbes Advisor found the total number of people working from home in each state in 2023. The survey found that the percentage of remote workers varied by state. Between 20% and 24.2% of people work from home in the 11 states with the largest work-from-home workforce.

• Washington has the highest percentage of people who work from home at 24.2% of the workforce working at home, followed by Maryland (24%) and Colorado (23.7%).
• Massachusetts was the next state with the highest percentage of people working from home (23.7%), followed by Oregon (22.7%), Virginia (22.3%) and New Jersey (22.1%).
• Mississippi has the smallest workforce of people who work from home. Of the 1.2 million workers, only 6.3% (76,556) of people work from home.

Conclusion

While much has changed in the world of digital communication since Covid-19, there have also been constants. Email and phone are still two of the most preferred methods of communication, despite the numerous options and tools available. VoIP systems are increasing in popularity as well, with 28% of all respondents using them. Workers are spending an average of 20 hours per week on digital communication platforms—that’s half the 40-hour workweek.

Looking ahead, it will be important for teams and small businesses to establish productive systems of digital communication, especially given that over half of the people we surveyed reported that digital communication leads to increased burnout.

If a company or team establishes a healthy culture around digital communication, it can potentially lead to better job satisfaction, increased productivity and higher trust in a company’s leadership and the team.

Methodology

Forbes Advisor commissioned a survey of 1,000 employed Americans who work in an office setting by market research company OnePoll, in accordance with the Market Research Society’s code of conduct. The margin of error is +/- 3.1 points with 95% confidence. The OnePoll research team is a member of the MRS and has corporate membership with the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR).

Source: GWFM Research & Study