Recent survey: Companies can’t even reach out to their own employees

The results come from a representative survey commissioned by Munipolis, a Czech company that operates some of the largest smart communication networks and is present in several countries across the region. The study of internal communication produced striking findings.
It turns out that 62% of companies consider effective internal communication between management and employees to be one of the defining elements of corporate life. By contrast, only 11% are confident their employees are fully satisfied with communication, and 32% either cannot assess this or ignore the problem, explained Erik Czinger, Country Manager for Munipolis in Hungary.

According to the research, only 16% of respondents can reliably reach their employees in real time and at scale. Just 25% can reach employees reach employees when they are off-site, and only 10% can guarantee mass outreach after working hours.

The expert added: of course, the goal is not to burden colleagues with messages outside working hours, but many updates may arise that can affect the next day’s work (meetings, unexpected events, changes, etc.), and immediate notification is in everyone’s interest. It also emerged that at a quarter of companies it can take several days to reach all employees, while nearly three-quarters (73%) still need several hours to do so.
Some 43% of companies cannot determine whether their messages have been read; even where they can, only a little more than one third of employees (37%) read them.

The survey also examined the share of companies using different platforms. The figure after each platform shows the percentage of respondents who reported using that channel:
Emails 97%, meetings 94%, company noticeboard 81%, intranet 58%, company magazine 46%, social networks 41%, SMS 32%, Microsoft Teams 21%, Slack 6%, smartphone apps 4%.

As shown, reach remains very low and largely uncontrolled, despite many companies deploying multiple parallel platforms to deliver messages. This is all the more striking given that the study clearly indicates employees who receive regular and timely updates about what is happening in the company are 64% more satisfied, regardless of other factors. Conversely, the lack or insufficiency of such updates ranks among the top four reasons for changing jobs.

Direct and respectful communication increases loyalty more than fivefold among employees over 45, parents with children, and manual workers. Open, two-way communication with leadership accounts for around 27%—nearly one third—of overall employee satisfaction. Only the level of rewards/recognition and the team climate rank higher. At the same time, communication is the area that can be improved quickly and effectively, Czinger emphasized, whereas the other two are significantly more complex.