By Alaina Talboy, Ph.D. (opens in new tab)
Image credit: iStock
The ability to communicate effectively with colleagues and supervisors is a critical component to doing your job. But the benefits of having quality communications with your team extend beyond that. Connecting with colleagues can lead to uplifting interactions, make daily work feel more collaborative, and align team members to a company’s broader initiatives.
Without the backdrop of a physical office where everyone is under the same roof, or at least on a communal campus, many employees and companies (opens in new tab) are having to reimagine how to talk, engage, and work with their colleagues. Luckily, there are many tools and platforms available for employers to deploy. But as the work-from-home guidance stretches into another month, are these tools carrying the same effectiveness and impact?
To learn more about these types of challenges, the Browser User Research team surveyed Information Workers (IWs) from across the United States to discover how they are adapting to this new era of remote work.
Times are changing but what exactly has changed?
Prior to becoming remote employees, the majority of surveyed IWs worked in dedicated office spaces with desks near their colleagues. Some worked at remote office sites, while a few were already working from home. Still, face-to-face interactions were a central component of how many worked with their teams and completed daily tasks. Simply put, communicating virtually is new to many people.
One of the main reasons collaboration feels different in a virtual workspace compared to the office is the loss of the informal chat. This once-common exchange where colleagues come together around their desks, the office water cooler, or down a hallway to discuss what they’re working on, is no longer possible. When IWs need a quick answer or just want to have informal, lightweight conversations, online tools feel like a poor replacement.
Instead, most IWs said they rely on emails and phone calls to reach their teammates for quick answers. A small number of the respondents said they have found no substitute to replicate this exchange. Instead of feeling like small breaks throughout the workday, these informal exchanges are now feeling more like additional work when communicating virtually. As a result, many IWs stopped having them altogether.
In looking for ways to replace these types of conversations, the Browser User Research team is considering the following:
- A virtual desk space: This desk would be a virtual space where fellow employees could stop by and ask questions and chat in a similar, informal context that was used in the real office.
The rise of digital meetings
This loss of informal communication has also contributed to the rise in meetings that IWs have to attend each week. More than half of the respondents indicated that they are attending more meetings post Covid-19 compared to before. Some of these meetings occur outside the typical 9-5 schedule. For many IWs, this contributes to the loss of work-life balance as they struggle to balance personal and professional obligations (opens in new tab).
The increase in meetings is not necessarily because of longer meetings. Instead, IWs are attending more frequent, shorter meetings lasting around 30 minutes each. With only 17 percent reporting the same number of meetings as they did when they were in the office, the majority of the IW workforce has seen an uptick in time spent in meetings since working from home. A common complaint is that a large portion of these meetings could be handled in messages or emails instead. Ultimately, all these meetings mean that there is less time for employees to do their actual work.
So, yes, the digital meeting fatigue is real.
Our recommendation is:
- Help IWs manage the number of meetings per week: Encourage them to use focus time to set boundaries around their schedule and notifications.
Too many platforms and notifications
The proliferation of overwhelming communications doesn’t end there. With the amount of tools and platforms available—like Teams, chat, emails, text messaging, and old-fashioned phone calls—IWs reported that routine communications have become more complicated. Some reported not knowing which platform to use, and for which duty.
For example, half of the office may use one communication platform for one meeting, while the other half uses another platform for a specific task. Knowing which tool to use, at which time, only adds to workers’ communication and collaboration frustrations.
Increasing the number of platforms also results in a larger influx of notifications throughout the day. Prior to Covid-19, our research indicated that IWs appreciated receiving notifications because it helped them stay in the know and allowed them to collaborate on various projects. However, now during work from home, most IWs see notifications as a burden. The constant bombardment of messages, indicators, and reminders makes workers feel like they are tied to their desks and computers.
From the survey, we also learned that IWs access many of these tools through their browser, which they use to help manage workflow and complete tasks throughout their workday. The browser creates a central location for workers to complete daily tasks ranging from tele-conferencing and emailing colleagues to managing calendars and entering data. Completing these duties inside the browser allows for easy collaboration with colleagues who want to view, edit, and share documents simultaneously.
As the work-from-home guidance continues, many IWs will be working remotely for months into the future, and having clear and reliable communication tools will be paramount to their long-term success. We hope to continue improving their browser experience, so they can not only effectively and efficiently do their jobs, but also remain connected to their teams and the company’s goals.
Is your team experiencing challenges with virtual communications? What are their pain points? Tweet me @statistress (opens in new tab) or @MicrosoftRI (opens in new tab) or share your thoughts on Facebook (opens in new tab) and join the conversation.
Prior to joining Microsoft, Alaina Talboy was a doctoral researcher with expertise in reasoning, judgment & decision making, experimental design & analysis, and mixed methodologies. Her favorite line of research was discovering how to present complicated statistics in an easy-to-digest manner to inform personal decision making. Dr. Talboy made the jump to industry and joined CIR in 2019, where she uses her expertise to help stakeholders make sense of complicated data to improve the overall experience of her customers. Dr. Talboy conducts research in the Enterprise and Security space for the Edge browser, bringing together best practices in research and data analysis, rigorous attention to detail, and compelling storytelling to help drive customer experience to a higher level.