Imagine a typical Monday morning at the office. You have a couple of projects that need to be completed before deadline and several meetings to attend. You use your task management software to keep track of all your projects, and you check your email for daily updates. You also check your phone for any messages from your seniors. While keeping tabs on all the different applications for your daily tasks may be your normal routine, using many different forms of communication within your team alone can affect productivity and cause workplace fragmentation.
A fragmented workplace is one where employees use several sources to communicate among themselves.
There are a multitude of communication applications and platforms available today, so it's no wonder that different teams in the same organization often employ different apps to communicate. This can eventually cause a breakdown in communication where employees will not know what information to find where, which leads to reduced productivity and efficiency.
According to a study by Mckinsey Global Institute, an average employee spends close to 20 percent of their work time searching for and gathering information each week. They lose even more time when they need to communicate with people from other teams who may be employing a totally different tool to conduct their internal communication.
Another survey on workplace communication found that, among over 1,400 knowledge workers surveyed, 53 percent of respondents said "missing information" was their biggest cause of stress at work.
These findings make it clear that an organization works best with a unified communication system in place.
Unified Communication
When we say a unified communication system, we often think of a simple, common messaging platform for everyone to use to carry out daily communication. Unfortunately, there are many such messaging platforms to choose from, and this variety is causing fragmentation of information in the first place. There are platforms for project-management, incident-management, instant messaging, and of course, traditional email, and it gets hard to keep track of all the information flowing through these different channels.
What fragmented workplaces need is a common platform that integrates all the necessary workplace tools so a team member doesn't have to switch between apps or search through different formats of communication to gather information. The solution here is one collaboration tool that works with all your apps.
Some of the key benefits to having a unified communication platform are:
No need for multiple platforms to collaborate
The purpose of having a unified communication platform is to centralize and streamline all the different information to ensure your team doesn't waste time switching between apps and consolidating information.
Reduce time wasted in searching for information
Several hours a day can be wasted in searching for information, but with a centralized platform, you can avoid the wasted time and spend it on actually doing something productive.
Lesser chance of miscommunication
With a unified communication platform that integrates all your apps and stores all your data in one place, the scope for misinterpretation or missing information will now be highly reduced.
Imagine using project management software to track and update your projects, but you also use a separate collaboration app to discuss the project with your team, while also using emails to communicate with your supervisor. That's several different apps to keep switching between for one project, so imagine how chaotic it would be with a bunch of projects to work on. With a unified communications service like Zoho Cliq, you can integrate all the different apps your team uses into one platform, discuss tasks with your team, get status updates from bots, your virtual assistants, and also update your project's status, all with one app. Now, you can be sure your whole team stays in the loop and no information gets missed.
Plan more effectively
Having all the necessary data at your fingertips enables you and your team to plan effectively and make better decisions.
Access to all data
A survey conducted by the Eastern Management Group shows that business enterprises who switched to unified communications have been 52% more productive. This solution increases transparency and ensures everyone has access to all the information they need, so they're always in the loop.
To conclude, in today's modern workplace, collaboration tools are available in plenty and it's easy to get lost in the chaos. This is why a centralized, unified communication platform is essential to ensure effective team communication and to also help build a well-functioning workplace.
Comments