Deskless not Voiceless:

Communication Works
An investigation into the way
workers communicate.
Contents

Foreword Chapter 1: Chapter 2:

Communication Silence is stifling
breakdown
03 06
04

Chapter 3: Workplace
Employees with a Our community
voice feel valued

07 08
Foreword
The way we work has changed.
Today’s working environment is almost unrecognisable
from the office of the twentieth century. Cubicles and
filing cabinets have been replaced by open-plan spaces
and standing desks. Gone are the typing pool and the
switchboard: instead we have video conferences and remote
workers.
But it’s about more than just the furniture. In the last decade,
technology has re-written the principles underlying our
working lives and connected the previously unconnected
workforce. Those on the front-line and not confined to their
desk are an untapped source of insight and knowledge.
But, for many businesses, there’s one aspect of working life
that remains stuck in the past: communication.
This is what we discovered when we interviewed more than
2,000 senior business decision makers, and 2,000 front-line
workers, in companies with more than 100 employees.
They told us about the reality of communicating in the modern workplace.
And we have a long way to go:
• There’s a major disconnect between those based at the Headquarters
(HQ) and employees on the frontline
• This disconnect is preventing valuable ideas from rising through the
business, limiting innovation and stopping key talent being recognised
• And the lack of communication means many employees don’t feel
listened to or valued, with a risk of quitting lingering close by
Connecting the entire business and ensuring everyone has a voice is an
essential part of a happy, successful organisation.
Workers need effective ways to spread information, ideas and best
practices in order to perform their best and enjoy work. Unfortunately,
many workplaces are not living up to this ideal.
By the end of this report, you will learn all about the communication crisis
– and how to tackle it in your business.
Your employees may be deskless, but
should not be voiceless.
#DesklessNotVoiceless
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Chapter 1:
Communication breakdown
Workplace communication is a complex art. It This might explain the worrying trend for employees to feel
can come in many forms and needs to flow in all disconnected from everyone outside their immediate team. While
directions to be effective. 86% of employees feel connected to their direct co-workers, only
14% feel connected to their business HQ. Meanwhile, just 3% feel
For example, employees need to send information connected to their C-Suite.
outwards and upwards just as much as they
receive guidance and updates from above. However, these figures improve when a workplace makes use of
tools that facilitate communication and collaboration, like messaging
But this isn’t the reality for most employees. Our platforms, document sharing and video conferencing software. With
survey uncovered a major communications failure these kind of tools, a quarter (25%) of employees feel connected to
between frontline workers and business leaders. their HQ and the amount that feel connected to the C-Suite more
than doubles.
It’s not that leaders are unaware of the value of
communication. The vast majority have the best Collaboration tools also help workers feel that their organisation
intentions: 74% say they stay connected with values community. When asked if their company encourages
frontline workers through informal conversations connectedness, the majority of employees (56%) with collaboration
and meetings. tools said yes, whereas only a minority (43%) of those without said
the same.
This face-to-face interaction is vital, and
helps leaders establish relationships with their
workforce. But a leader is only one individual.
They’ll never have time to see everyone, and
often this means they miss out on hearing from
the quieter, more self-effacing employees, or fool
themselves into thinking they’re more available
than they are.
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This is unsurprising, since collaboration tools have a huge impact
across all aspects of the workplace. They don’t just enable
workers to have more conversations: they also change the things
employees are able to say.
Currently, the vast majority of frontline workers find themselves stuck
as passive recipients of information, rather than active participants in
a mutual exchange. Only 22% of employees say their ideas make up a
substantial portion of conversation with their bosses.
Worse still, 17% told us they never speak with their head office – a
figure which falls to 8% in workplaces that use collaboration tools.
Meanwhile, 52% of managers believe that their employees’ new
ideas are the main topic for conversations with frontline staff.
There’s clearly a disconnect between what managers think is
happening and what’s really going on – and ultimately, it means
that employees’ ideas aren’t being heard.
This is problematic on an individual level, as it can suffocate
talented staff members. But it’s dangerous for company culture as
a whole, since it limits cohesion and damages the sense of shared
vision.
As it stands, 70% of employees claim to understand their
company’s goals and how their work supports them. While
it’s not a bad figure, it is disappointing that 30% of the
workforce does not recognise the part they have to play in their
organisation’s success. Ultimately, that means these employees
aren’t reaching their full potential.
The communication breakdown between managers and
frontline workers is troubling, but it’s not a crisis situation.
Collaboration tools can help re-open lines of communication,
and democratise conversations between leaders and staff.
The benefits that collaboration tools can bring are well recognised, with
95% of business leaders recognising the value of collaboration tools.
Despite the benefits, only 56% of those surveyed have rolled out these
tools across their entire business. If we’re going to see an end to the
communication breakdown in the near future, this has to change.
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Chapter 2:
Silence is stifling
Innovation is the lifeblood of business.
But innovation only comes about in an
environment where new ideas are welcomed
and allowed to thrive. Unfortunately, many
enterprises are experiencing the opposite:
communications failure is stopping valuable
ideas from rising through the business.
Only 45% of frontline workers share their
ideas with senior team members. Again, this
contrasts sharply with managers’ perspective:
90% confidently report that their frontline
workers feel empowered to share business
ideas with them.
And, in a continuation of the trend we saw
earlier, those employees without access to
collaboration tools were 12% less likely to feel
empowered to share ideas internally at work.
When ideas aren’t shared, they can’t be used,
and this is a serious loss for the organisation
and the people working in it. While 25% of
employees have had an idea but never told
anyone, a further 38% have shared their idea –
only for it to be ignored.
In fact, currently only 41% of employees feel
an idea they’ve shared is being acted upon. This
inaction makes staff feel that their ideas aren’t
valued – which only drives further silence.
The curious thing is that the majority of
employees recognise that ideas are a big part
of their job. 88% of workers agree everyone
has a responsibility (including them) to come
up with new ideas for the business. However,
only a third (34%) think this happens in reality.
Similarly, 98% of business leaders agree that
ideas should come from everyone, although
just 62% report seeing it happen.
It’s well established that employees who are
forthcoming with ideas often do better in
their careers. 88% of business leaders agree
that when people devise new ideas for the
business they progress faster. However, only
55% of employees shared that view – perhaps
indicating that there needs to be better
communication between managers and
employees on the subject of key performance
indicators (KPIs).
So what’s stopping employees from making
their ideas heard? When it comes down to it, it
seems the biggest blocker of ideas is the way
they are delivered. For more than 1 in 4 cases
(28%) ideas were stifled because they were
communicated poorly.
The second largest problem is failure to follow
ideas through (19%), which most likely occurs
when work is busy and the team’s time isn’t
properly managed. It’s easy for an email to get
lost and hard to follow up on it without a real-
time conversation with the recipient.
Finally, it’s important to note that inspiration
can strike at any time, not just during work
hours. 46% of employees believe they have
their best ideas outside of work. Businesses
should provide a platform for workers to
capture and share these valuable ideas
whenever they arise.
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Chapter 3:
Employees with a voice feel valued
The most successful businesses are the ones that employees
want to be part of. But nothing stymies employee engagement
faster than a lack of communication.
When employees believe they are voiceless – as 54% say they are
– they tend to lose motivation and enthusiasm for the business.
It’s even more demoralising when 83% of managers confidently
claim they give all employees a voice within their business!
After all, it’s hard to feel invested if an organisation seems to make
all its decisions without you (especially when those decisions
affect you directly). That’s why almost a quarter (21%) say that
not being listened to is sufficient grounds to consider quitting
their job entirely.
Closing this gap won’t be easy. Workers need a space where they
can share their experiences – good or bad – with one another, and
with those senior to them. The right collaboration platform can do
this, acting as a noticeboard for news, a forum for discussion, and
an area for information to be saved and passed on.
One thing is for sure: a large proportion of today’s employees
feel undervalued and disconnected from their management. This
must change, and business leaders need to empower their people
to have open and democratic conversations, so they can learn
from them.

On top of this, only 48% of employees think their head office

understands the role they perform and the value they bring to
the organisation. Interestingly, when employees have access
to collaboration tools, this important statistic rises to 63% – a
significant improvement.
Part of the problem is that leaders seem blind to these issues,
believing they are on top of them. 79% claim they have worked on
the frontline and can see the value it brings, and 71% claim they
have visited the frontline of their business in the last 12 months.
Yet our research shows that the perspectives of employees and
managers consistently diverge.
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Workplace:
Our Community
A severe lack of communication is a threat to any business. And with only 14% of How can business leaders change this?
employees feeling connected to their organisation’s HQ, the facts speak for themselves.
The answer lies in collaboration tools.
The right tool won’t just facilitate
Our research shows a serious communications failure between managers and deskless
communication, it will empower people to
workers. This is inhibiting innovation and creativity, and making employees feel communicate better.
dangerously undervalued.
Workplace does this by enabling employees
to express themselves in a way that’s natural
to them. You can send direct messages;
schedule a video call; record and send a short
video, or message using emojis. Have you
ever read an email from a co-worker that
comes across mean? With Workplace, this
miscommunication is a thing of the past.

Sharing company news is another important

part of communication at work. In a world
where employees are spread across a
variety of locations, and freelancers are
becoming an increasingly large part of the
workforce, business leaders must be able to
share news in an engaging and inclusive way.

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Workplace provides an open forum where people can receive updates, and crucially,
provide their input on them – no matter where they are in the world. Gone are
the days of closed-door progress meetings: now, everyone can be part of the
conversation about their company’s future.

And, of course, there’s the threat that bad communication presents to ideas
themselves. Workplace is a great example of what can be achieved when
collaboration and innovation are allowed to thrive.

In 2011, one enterprising engineer created a Facebook group that was only
accessible to other people inside the company. It quickly became apparent that this
was a natural and valuable way for employees to connect – and so, Workplace was
born. In a similar way, opening your company’s channels of communication will allow
fresh ideas to rise through the business.

After all, there’s nothing radically different in the way we connect to co-workers in
comparison to our friends. We’re all human beings, at work and at home, and we form
friendships in the office just as we do in the coffee shop or gym. A group of people at
work is a community like any other.

Building a more connected organisation starts when you put people at the heart
of your strategy. Workplace helps you do this, by empowering communities of
employees to share their thoughts and experiences.

This sense of community and connectedness is the foundation for business

success. And that’s because, even after all these years of workplace change, one
thing remains true: communication works.
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#DesklessNotVoiceless

workplace.com