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Goodbye, Email. Hello, IM?
A new survey finds that more than half of CIOs believe instant messaging will overtake email in popularity in the next five years. Should HR start addressing the change-over now in employee handbooks?
Is email going the way of the dodo bird? A new survey of more than 1,400 chief information officers at organizations around the country says extinction may soon be calling for the once-revolutionary mode of communication. More than half (54 percent) believe real-time workplace communications tools -- such as instant messaging, Sharepoint and Yammer -- will be "much" or "somewhat" more popular than email in the next five years, according to the survey by Robert Half Technology. "Although email remains an important communication tool, the increased use of real-time technologies affects the IT environment," says John Reed, executive director of the Menlo Park, Calif.-based firm. "The way people communicate is changing, and it's important for HR professionals to adapt so employees receive information in the formats that most resonate with them." Reed says HR professionals first need to train employees on how to use the right medium for the message. "Instant-messaging tools, for example, are useful for quick volleys of information, but they're not the right format for conveying a lot of details," he says. Alan King, president and chief operating officer of Raleigh, N.C.-based Workplace Options Inc., says predictions are difficult to make without a crystal ball, "but, yes, it's easy to believe that the primary way we communicate within workplace settings might not be email [in five years]." He says the concurrent trends of increasing technology and more flexible-work options are driving the move away from email. "Communication technologies are evolving to be quicker and more efficient, and real-time connections between employees are getting more and more important," he says. "Technology is going to be more integrated into every way we interact in the workplace moving forward -- from orientations to trainings to daily team communications." Another factor influencing the move is demographic, King says. "Part of the explanation for this shift is the growing influence of younger generations," he says. "A national 2011 poll we conducted ... showed 75 percent of workers ages 18 to 29 thought workplace training would be more valuable if [it was] available through mobile technology, like smart phones." King adds that only 40 percent of respondents in the 30-to-45-year-old age group -- only 26 percent of those ages 46 to 65 -- felt the same way. "As this younger generation begins to take on more responsibility and more prominence in the workplace," he says, "it's very likely that a shift toward more communications technology will follow." Robert Half's Reed says it would be helpful for HR to include guidelines in employee handbooks on ways to communicate effectively in different formats. "[I]t can be helpful to provide general guidance on using new tools, especially those with a social element, such as Yammer," he says. "You might remind people, for example, not to convey sensitive information in these formats and to be respectful of others' views. "The etiquette behind newer communication tools isn't always obvious," he says, "so it can be useful to share best practices." To that end, Robert Half recently published a guide, Business Etiquette: The New Rules in a Digital Age, that addresses etiquette issues for professionals when using sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter. "Some of the same ideas apply when communicating internally," he says. And one expert says HR leaders should not be hesitant to update policies on the use of new communications tools. "HR departments are always re-writing their handbooks to stay current," says Donald Mazzella, chief operating officer at Information Strategies Inc., a Ridgefield Park, N.J.-based consultancy. He says that, while there is "no question" that instant messaging is driving to be the preferred way to communicate within an organization, it's unclear whether it will ever totally surpass the popularity of email. "Remember," he says, "it has taken 10 years for emails to be the norm." Mazzella says HR leaders, however, should note in employee handbooks that instant messaging should be viewed the same way as email -- only in a briefer form that is more prone to user error. He adds that advances in technology will lead nascent communications applications, such as desktop video programs, to become the "preferred vehicle" for workplace communication in the future because it gives the user more context, i.e., being able to see a person's body language when they are speaking. While such advances are still years away, Workplace Options' King says, HR leaders won't need to completely scrap their current rules on electronic communications; they simply need to be "adapted." "It is going to take some trial and error," he says, "but forward-thinking companies interested in keeping their workforce engaged and satisfied in the not-so-distant future are already experimenting with social media in the workplace and establishing guidelines that will help integrate the use of these technologies to become better, more attractive organizations." King declines to name some of the guidelines that are being tested out by such forward-thinking organizations, saying instead that such changes "will depend on industry and specific situations." "Overall," he concludes, "companies will have to revisit their employee-communications policies and make sure they are helping -- not hurting -- employees' ability to do good work." October 17, 2011 Copyright 2011© LRP Publications |
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© Copyright 2012 LRP Publications. All rights reserved.
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