Dive Brief:

• Low employee engagement and job satisfaction is a nationwide epidemic that costs companies billions of dollars annually, and a recent survey found that communication directly impacts those two issues.
• The survey, Part II of the "2015 Mobile Trends in the Workplace" from theEMPLOYEEapp®, polled more than 200 U.S.-based workers. Employees said frequency of communications (68%) and methods used to communicate by their employer (62%) directly impact job satisfaction. 
• Also, 45% of the respondents indicated that their employer does not do a sufficient job communicating information to them, and 33% said they would like their employer to communicate more.

Dive Insight:

Jeff Corbin, founder and CEO of theEMPLOYEEapp, says communications is a critical component of overall engagement, yet many employers are not doing an adequate job in this regard.

In fact, the survey found that “old school” communications tools remain the primary method for internal communications: 89% of employers communicate via email; 80% communicate in person; and 50% use the telephone.  On the digital front, only 32% of employees said their employer communicates with them via a corporate Intranet; 24% by SMS/text messages; 10% via mobile applications and 8% with social collaboration tools. And 30% also report ignoring work-related emails.

“Half of the respondents to the survey identified themselves as part of the ‘Millennial’ or ‘Gen X’ generations," Corbin says, adding that those workers grew up with a cell phone in their hand. "They are accustomed to having instantaneous access to information, so communications solutions like mobile apps, social collaboration and messaging tools need be considered if a company is serious about engaging employees.”