Communication in the workplace

statistics 2023
Workplace communication statistics show that 86% of employees and executives
cite the lack of effective collaboration and communication as the main causes of
workplace failures.
On the other hand, teams who communicate effectively may increase their
productivity by as much as 25%.
These are some interesting workplace communication statistics — but they don’t
show the whole picture. With that in mind, we’ve decided to compile all the
communication statistics you could need to get a better grasp on how effective
workplace communication can help businesses thrive.


Statistics on why effective communication is important in the
workplace
Proper communication can benefit businesses in many ways.
Namely, effective team communication positively affects employees in terms of:
 Productivity,
 Engagement,
 Retention, and
 Trust.
So, what are the statistics on the importance of communication in the workplace?
Let’s find out!
Benefit #1: Effective communication increases productivity
Arguably, one of the most important benefits of effective communication in the
workplace is that it positively affects employee productivity.
We learned as much from the Connected Culture Report published in 2020, which
surveyed over 4,000 knowledge workers from 4 countries about their levels of
productivity, wellness, and connection with their teams.
Of those surveyed, 8.6% reported feeling more productive due to the shift
to remote work as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, a majority of
those employees, or 71%, to be exact, claimed to feel more connected to their
colleagues.
So, employees who regularly communicate with one another are more productive.
That much was evident in an older McKinsey report, which showed that well-
connected teams see a productivity increase of 20–25%.
A newer study from the McKinsey Institute about the future of remote
work suggests something similar. Namely, employees who feel included in more
detailed workplace communication are almost 5 times more likely to report
increased productivity.
The most recent information we have on this subject comes from a report The
State of Business Communication in 2023 conducted by the Harris Poll on behalf
of Grammarly. That study shows that 72% of business leaders believe
that effective communication has increased their team’s productivity, and
52% of knowledge workers agree.
Additionally, 60% of the 251 business leaders surveyed agreed that effective
communication increased employee confidence. Meanwhile, 56% of the 1,001
surveyed knowledge workers claimed that it increased work satisfaction as well.
Benefit #2: Effective communication improves engagement
According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2023 Report, disengaged
employees cost the world an unbelievable $8.8 trillion in lost productivity.
Still, Gallup’s data has shown some improvement, with employee engagement
numbers going from 20% in 2020 to 21% in 2021 and 23% in 2022. In the interest
of continuous improvement, Gallup has outlined how improving workplace
communication will improve employee engagement.
Namely, it all comes down to employee and employer expectations.
Firstly, there’s the issue of leadership not communicating the company’s
internal values and business strategy with employees. That problem was also
highlighted in some of the studies we’ll discuss later on.
Secondly, younger workers, particularly those who work in remote or hybrid
settings, tend to feel more disengaged than older, more established employees.
Therefore, companies should take care to open those channels of
communication before those employees start looking for work elsewhere.
Lastly, Gallup’s analysis indicates that managers need to be more informed
about their team members’ ongoing work-life challenges. One way to achieve
that would be to have meaningful, one-on-one conversations with every employee
about their goals, achievements, and well-being every week.
After all, according to one of Gallup’s previous studies, engaged employees
are 17% more productive than their peers.
Then again, according to Time, Talent, Energy: Overcome Organizational Drag
and Unleash Your Team’s Productive Power by Michael C. Mankins and Eric
Garton, that number could be a bit low. Through their consulting firm, Bain &
Company, Mankins and Garton have found that engaged employees are 44%
more productive than those who describe themselves as satisfied.
Luckily, consistent and transparent communication plays a vital role in creating an
engaged workforce.

🎓 Pumble Pro Tip

If you’re interested in learning more facts about employee engagement, read:

 Employee engagement statistics you need to know in 2023
Benefit #3: Effective communication increases retention
The Great Resignation is real, at least according to Microsoft’s 2022 Work Trend
Index.
As many as 43% of employees are somewhat or extremely likely to consider
changing jobs in 2023. That number is even more inflated for Gen Z workers,
58% of whom are considering a job change.
Gallup’s newest report confirms this, claiming that:
 59% of workers are quiet quitting in 2023, while
 23% of workers believe that they are thriving at work, and
 18% of workers are loud quitting, aka directly impeding their company’s
goals.
This continues the wave of resignations we saw in 2021 (when more than 4.3
million people quit their jobs in December alone) and 2022, which saw 50 million
workers quit their jobs.
According to SHRM (the Society for Human Resource Management), 40% of US
workers were looking for a new job in 2021.
This year, Gallup estimates that the number is closer to 51%.
But, would effective team communication prevent this trend from escalating?
Well, according to a 2004 survey of 50,000 employees across 59 global
organizations, employees who are engaged are 87% less likely to leave
their organization.
Another report from the same period showed that, while 66% of highly engaged
employees had no plans to leave their companies, only 12% of disengaged
employees could claim the same.
Therefore, increasing engagement through effective communication practices
should also increase employee retention.
In fact, the Achievers Workforce Institute 2023 Employee Engagement and
Retention report shows that, of the surveyed employees, 79% would be more
likely to stay at a job where they feel supported, cared for, and valued, than a
job where they don’t feel valued but are paid 30% more.
And, to create a culture of support, employers must foster effective
communication and connection with their employees.
Benefit #4: Effective communication facilitates trust
According to a report on trust in the workplace issued by the Workforce Institute
at UKG, 74% of employees would prefer to work for a trustworthy employer.
So, what can managers and employers do to establish that kind of connection with
their employees? If your guess was about improving communication — you’re
onto something!
As many as 63% of the business leaders and employees surveyed believed that
trust must be earned, rather than expected. That belief was the most widespread in
India, where 90% of survey participants agreed with the statement, and the least
present in Mexico, where only 37% of professionals felt the same.
According to the Workforce Institute at UKG, low trust in the workplace
impacts employee performance. Their report showed that:
 22% of survey participants reported not making referrals due to a lack of
trust in their company,
 24% left a company because they didn’t feel trusted by their employer, and
 68% felt that low trust was detrimental to their daily effort and
productivity.
So, how could an organization build trust between employees and employers?
In addition to being a good (54%) and dependable (48%) worker overall, an
employee would also need to be honest (36%) and practice active listening (28%)
to be seen as trustworthy by their manager.
Conversely, employees value managers who are dependable (52%) and honest
(34%) the most, as well as capable of delivering helpful feedback (25%).
Ultimately, the lack of open and honest communication that facilitates trust tends
to hurt employee morale — at least according to a third of employees who
responded to one Accountemps survey.

🎓 Pumble Pro Tip

If you’re looking for some tried and true tips for establishing trust in the
workplace, you’ll find them here:
 Building trust in virtual teams
Statistics on the cost of poor communication at the workplace
We all know that miscommunication tends to have serious repercussions for a
business. But are there any communication statistics that corroborate those
claims? What are the statistics of communication issues in the workplace?
Well, according to the State of Business Communication 2023 report, business
leaders have noted 3 consequences of poor communication at work:
 43% of them claim that poor communication decreases productivity,
 42% of the surveyed leaders claimed that missed deadlines and extended
timelines are the worst consequences of miscommunication, and
 38% of business leaders have noticed the financial impact of poor
communication.
On top of that, Project.co’s Communication Statistics 2023 report highlighted that
the costs of poor business communication include:
 Wasted time (according to 68% of survey respondents),
  Missed messages (53%),
 Burnout, stress, and fatigue (42%),
 Lost files (35%),
 Bad customer experience (30%),
 Lost customers to competitors (12%), and
 Lost employees (10%).
Going forward, we’re going to look at workplace communication statistics that
showcase the consequences of poor communication strategies in 3 major areas:
 Burnout and (subsequent) decreased productivity,
 Professional failures, and
 Financial consequences for corporations.
Let’s jump in!
Consequence #1: Poor communication leads to employee burnout and decreased
productivity
According to the Grammarly-sponsored report The State of Business
Communication in 2023, poor communication can increase stress and employee
attrition — aka burnout.
This survey of knowledge workers showed that:
 50% have admitted that it has increased their overall stress levels,
 34% have claimed that poor communication has decreased their job
satisfaction,
 30% have said that miscommunication has lowered their professional
confidence, and
 22% of them have considered looking for a new job due to poor
communication.
A 2019 report from the Workforce Institute at Kronos on Gen Z employee
experience found that 48% of Gen Zers believe that stress would impact their
work performance. On top of that, another 43% of Gen Z survey respondents
said that seeing visibly unhappy employees would make them lose interest in
joining a company.
So, losing potential employees isn’t the only downside of having employees who
are unhappy with their jobs. From an employer standpoint, it’s important to
acknowledge that stressed-out employees are also less productive.
According to the results of ComPsych’s StressPulse survey from 2019, as many
as 61% of employees across the US are dealing with high levels of stress,
causing:
 41% of survey respondents to lose 15–30 minutes of productivity per day,
and
 37% of the surveyed to lose as much as an hour every day.
The same report cited people issues as the second leading cause of workplace
stress, with 36% of respondents claiming that this was their greatest stressor, right
after workload (39%).
This tells us that communication is a significant factor when it comes to stress
management in the workplace.

🎓 Pumble Pro Tip

If you struggle to set work-life boundaries or manage your stress levels at work,
you might find these articles useful:
 How to set work-life boundaries
 How to say you’re not feeling well professionally
Consequence #2: Poor communication leads to professional failures
Of course, the most obvious problems that may arise due to poor communication
have to do with professional failures. Namely, ineffective communication can lead
people to misunderstand the scope of their professional responsibilities, which
can, in turn, lead to failed projects and missed deadlines.
Most of the surveyed participants of the Grammarly-sponsored report on the state
of business communication in 2023 agreed that their ability to work was
strongly contingent on how well their collaborators could express their needs,
with:
 93% of business leaders, and
 80% of knowledge workers agreeing with that statement.
Another poll conducted by leadership development and training company Fierce,
Inc., which surveyed over 1,400 employees, corporate executives, and educators,
showed that 86% of them believe ineffective communication is the underlying
reason for workplace failures.
Meanwhile, a study by the Economist Intelligence Unit further illustrates how
poor workplace communication can hurt the success of a workplace. Namely,
ineffective communication can lead to:
 Failure to complete projects — according to 44% of the survey participants,
 Low employee morale — in 31% of the cases,
 Missed performance goals — in 25% of the cases, and
 Lost sales — in 18% of the cases.
Arguably, the most significant consequence of poor workplace communication
that was highlighted in the Economist’s report was the fact that 52% of survey
respondents associated it with added stress. But, since we’ve already discussed
that point, we’ll proceed to our final point — the financial toll of
miscommunication.
Consequence #3: Poor communication takes a financial toll on businesses
According to David Grossman’s report on the cost of poor communication, which
included 400 large companies and 100,000 employees, the cost of communication
barriers that arise in the workplace stands at $62.4 million per year, per company.
Then again, a more recent report from Axios HQ, which surveyed 540 business
leaders and over a thousand employees, places the cost of ineffective
communication closer to $2 trillion annually in the US alone.
On an individual level, the report shows that poor communication is costing
companies over $15,000 per employee.
Meanwhile, the Grammarly-sponsored The State of Business Communication
2023 report shows that 1 in 5 business leaders claim to have experienced a loss of
credibility due to poor communication. Moreover:
 68% of business leaders who lost deals due to miscommunication claim that
it has cost them $10k or more, and
 13% of them estimate that lost deals have cost them $50k or more.
For what it’s worth, Project.co’s report confirmed that among customers who
moved to a competitor in 2023, 68% report having done so due to poor business
communication skills.
Going back to the report from Axios HQ, we should note that perceptions on the
clarity and relevance of essential communications varied between leadership
and employees, with:
 78% of leaders claiming that essential communications at their organization
are clear and engaging, and
 77% of leaders stating that this communication is also helpful and relevant,
whereas only
  51% of employees agreed that essential communications in their organization
were clear and engaging, and only
 46% of employees agreed that this communication was helpful and
relevant.
In other words, until leadership and employees get on the same page as to what
constitutes effective communication, companies will keep losing money due to
poor communication strategies.
Statistics on the most used languages in business communication
Verbal and written communication are arguably the most important types of
communication in the workplace — and beyond.
With an increasing number of companies going global, that brings us to the issue
of finding a language that can be spoken by an international team.
After all, when all teammates have the same mother tongue, the question of an
appropriate business language for team communication is not a challenge.
But, when working in a multicultural team, we have to choose a language in
which all teammates feel comfortable communicating.
Business languages for international teams
As reported by the Harvard Business School, one 2018 survey showed 89% of
employees serve on at least one global team. Moreover, 62% of corporate
employees have colleagues from 3 or more cultures.
Therefore, knowing at least 1 international business language is becoming a
necessity.
Back in 2018, Alexika compiled a list of the 10 most valuable business
languages of the world, based on the percentage of world Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) and Gross Domestic Product in $US billions.
In 2023, the list is slightly different, based on an analysis of the GDP of various
languages between the years of 2019 and 2021, according to the UN.
Additionally, the table below contains the number of people who speak these
languages worldwide, as reported by Ethnologue.

% of Number of
GDP in
Language world worldwide
$US millions
GDP speakers

1. English 23.94 27 1.456+ billion

2. Chinese 16.54 18 1.35+ billion

 % of Number of
GDP in
Language world worldwide
$US millions
GDP speakers

3. Spanish 6.99 8 559+ million

4. Japanese 5.01 6 123+ million

5. German 4.91 5 133+ million

6. French 3.44 4 309+ million

7. Arabic 2.43 3 372+ million

8. Italian 2.18 2 67+ million

9. Portugese 1.95 2 263+ million

 % of Number of
GDP in
Language world worldwide
$US millions
GDP speakers

10. Korean 1.86 2 609+ million

Even though Russian and Hindi have dropped below the top 10, they remain
crucial languages in the professional world, along with Dutch, Turkish, and
Malay-Indonesian languages, which make up the top 15 business languages in
2023.
Specific countries have other business languages they currently focus on, or plan
to focus on in the future — as an example, let’s look at the US and the UK.

🎓 Pumble Pro Tip

If you need more information on cross-cultural communication, check out this

article:
 How to perfect cross-cultural communication at the workplace
Business languages in the US
Official statistics show 78.5% of the US population speak English as their mother
tongue. Perhaps surprisingly, English is not the official language in the US, as the
United States has no official language. It is, however, the de facto national
language.
According to the 2019 population census, many Americans also speak:
 Spanish,
 Chinese,
 Tagalog,
 Vietnamese, and
 Arabic — among other languages.
Furthermore, American students — the future of the US workforce — tend to
favor Spanish when selecting a foreign language to learn.
According to American Councils for International Education, more than 10.6
million K-12 students were enrolled in a foreign language program during the
2014–2015 school year. The top 5 foreign languages in K-12 public
schools were:
 Spanish — with a share of over 69.21%,
 French — with a share of 12.12%,
 German — with a share of 3.11%,
 Chinese — with a share of 2.13%, and
 Latin — with a share of 1.98%.
As for colleges and universities, we have information provided by the Modern
Language Association of America. Their report compiled foreign language
enrollments at 2-year institutions in the summer and fall of 2016, based on the
enrollment choices of just over 67 thousand students in the summer season and
288 thousand students in the fall season.
Since enrollment rates were higher in the fall, the following statistics will reflect
foreign language enrollments during that season. With that in mind, the top 5
foreign languages for college and university students (in the category of fall
2016 season language enrollments) are:
 Spanish — with a share of 57.66%,
 American Sign Language — with a share of 16.28%,
 French — with a share of 8.72%,
 Japanese — with a share of 5.07%, and
 German — with a share of 2.72%.
Business languages in the UK
According to the data from the census from 2021, 91.1% of the UK
population speak English as their mother tongue. Unsurprisingly, the official
language is also English.
Still, other than English (and Welsh, in Wales) the population survey also showed
that people in the UK also speak:
  Polish — 1.1% of the population,
 Romanian — 0.8% of the population,
 Punjabi — 0.5% of the population, and
 Urdu — 0.5% of the population.
As for foreign language studies, a 2022 brief noted that most schools offer French,
German, and Spanish classes — though the government doesn’t promote the
teaching of languages in any particular way. As a result, only 32% of 15–30-year-
olds in the UK report knowing 2 or more languages, compared to 80% of the
population in EU member states.
Notably, this brief also mentioned the British Council’s report on the Languages
for the Future, which showed that this demographic of the UK’s population did
have some knowledge of other languages, namely:
 French,
 German,
 Spanish,
  Italian, and
 Hindi.
However, its main focus was on the languages the UK as a prime English-
speaking country should adopt due to a variety of reasons, including:
 Economic factors — with the #1 factor being Current UK exports,
 Non-market factors — with the #1 factor being Diplomatic and security
priorities, and
 Balancing factors — with the #1 factor being Levels of English proficiency
in other countries.
Essentially, the document listed 10 of the most important international business
languages that are not English:
1. Spanish,
2. Mandarin,
3. French,
4. Arabic,
 5. German,
6. Italian,
7. Dutch,
8. Portuguese,
9. Japanese, and
10. Russian.
In other words, these are the languages the UK population will need to learn to
excel in increasingly multicultural and multilingual workplaces.
Statistics on nonverbal communication in the workplace
Now, written and verbal communication are only two pieces of the larger puzzle
that constitutes human communication.
With that in mind, we wanted to turn our attention to another piece that’s just as
significant — nonverbal communication.
As the name suggests, this form of communication is about all the messages we
can send without using actual words.
A 2013 paper, Nonverbal communication in the workplace, noted how different
components of nonverbal communication might show up in the workplace,
including:
 Appearance — in our choice of business attire,
 Movement — in the gestures a keynote speaker might use to project
confidence,
  Facial expressions — the furrowing of a manager’s brow when showing
disapproval,
 Vocal qualities — the pitch, volume, and inflection of someone delivering a
presentation,
 Spatial positioning — the physical distance hinting at people’s attitudes
toward one another,
 Physical touch — such as the firmness of someone’s handshake, and
 Time — namely, the speed with which someone responds to a message, as an
example.
Going forward, we’re going to talk about the significance of this form of
communication as it relates to the modern workplace through nonverbal
communication statistics.
93% of communication is nonverbal?! The Mehrabian Myth
When the subject of nonverbal communication comes up, people often claim
that 93% of all communication is nonverbal.
The number has been mentioned in scientific papers on the subject of nonverbal
communication in the workplace, with one author saying that “nonverbal
communication accounts for 93% of the impact of any given message.”
Additionally, the statistic has been used to highlight the importance of projecting
confidence during business presentations. However, the research it stemmed from
was never meant to be applied to that context.
As impressive as this would-be factoid sounds, it is a misconception that has been
debunked so many times, it even has a name — the Mehrabian Myth.
Named after psychologist Albert Mehrabian, the Mehrabian Myth resulted from a
misinterpretation of Mehrabian’s 1967 research paper concerning the decoding of
inconsistent messages.
In the study, Mehrabian and his coauthor, Morton Wiener, posited that, when
faced with inconsistent messaging (for example, when someone says something
that may not be entirely truthful), people usually look for the speaker’s:
 Body language (and facial expression) — at a rate of 55%, and
 Tone of voice — at an instance of 38%.
In other words, only 7% of the meaning the audience absorbs in instances of
inconsistent messaging comes from the actual words the speaker used to convey
their message.
So, that’s where the infamous 93% statistic comes from. Ultimately, it shouldn’t
be used outside of the context it originated from.
Instead, we should look for studies that specifically deal with nonverbal
communication in the workplace. But, do we have enough of those to reach a
consensus?
Statistics on nonverbal communication in the workplace
Unfortunately, there’s not much up-to-date research on the subject of nonverbal
communication in the workplace. That omission was even mentioned in
the Journal of Management in 2016, in a paper that suggested an agenda for
further research in the field.
Sadly, the more recent studies on the subject are still somewhat lacking.
Take, for example, a 2020 study on the impact of nonverbal signals in business
communication.
Researchers surveyed 150 people (an admittedly small sample size) and found
that:
 85% of them believed eye contact plays a vital role in business
communication,
 70% said that facial expressions (like smiling) impact business
communication, though only
 55% claimed to be able to accurately guess the emotions behind certain
facial expressions.
Interestingly, only 25% of the respondents agreed with the prompt that physical
appearance influences business communication.
However, the main takeaways of the study was that our professional exchanges
are affected by factors pertaining to nonverbal communication, such as:
  A lack of knowledge of adaptive facial signals (according to 75% of
respondents),
 Employers not understanding the potential of nonverbal signals (70%)
 A lack of soft skills training (65%),
 Cultural differences (55%), and
 A lack of interpersonal communication (40%).
As we can see, most of the survey participants found a lack of interpersonal
communication to have the least impact on nonverbal communication in the
workplace. However, we should remember the limitations of this study when
looking at this data.
Barriers to nonverbal communication in the workplace
Previously, we mentioned a report issued by the Economist, which deals with
communication barriers in the modern workplace.
The most frequently cited cause of professional miscommunication, which was
corroborated by 42% of respondents, was different communication styles, which
can be generational as well as functional differences in communication
preferences.
The report also has a section on the impact of remote work and virtual
communication on miscommunication in the workplace — even though it was
published in 2018, before a certain global event forced a large section of the
workforce to go remote.
Since going remote would have presented a barrier in terms of nonverbal
communication, we wanted to see what percentage of workers found
communication more difficult after the switch.
Though 54% of the survey respondents claimed that remote work had no impact
on their business communication, there were also:
 21% who claimed that remote work made communication somewhat
difficult and 6% who found it very difficult, and
 12% who said that it made communication easier or much easier (7%).
Then again, many of the nonverbal communication statistics we have mentioned
come from studies that were conducted before the onset of a global pandemic that
has since changed the way we communicate with the people we work with.
So, in the next section, we’re going to take a look at the impact the COVID-19
pandemic has had on the world of business communication.

Statistics on workplace communication during COVID-19 times

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a sizable impact on the global workplace.
The number of people working from home skyrocketed, while proper training
and the right digital solutions became essential components in facilitating
remote team communication and collaboration.
Naturally, new and modified communication models emerged in line with the
shift to new work models.
Employees wanted information about the pandemic
During the peaks of the COVID-19 outbreak, employees wanted to find and share
vital information about the pandemic. However, the explosion of data on social
media made it challenging to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant
information on one hand, and real and fake news on the other hand.
According to the Edelman Trust Barometer 2020, 74% of people worldwide were
worried there was a lot of false information circulating about the virus.
Moreover, 45% found it difficult to find reliable and trustworthy information
about the virus and its effects.
Many employees wanted answers about proper business conduct during these
trying times from their employers.
Perceptyx reports that when employees were extremely content with
communications about the company’s response to coronavirus, a
whopping 96% of them trusted their employers put employee safety first.
However, when such communication was poor, only 30% believed this.
For a different perspective on these statistics, we can turn to Gallup, which
tracked whether employees feel as if their company cares about their well-being.
According to the outlet, this perception was on the rise throughout the pandemic,
from 29% of people strongly agreeing that their organization cares about their
well-being in 2019, to 49% agreeing with that statement in May 2020.
However, that percentage then started its downward trend until it got to below
pre-pandemic numbers, at 25% in 2023. Perhaps the plummeting percentage can
be attributed to companies’ lack of communication strategy in the post-pandemic
era. Alternatively, perhaps those communication strategies have remained the
same — even if workers now require a more personalized approach.

🎓 Pumble Pro Tip

If you’re not sure how you might go about sharing information in a remote or
hybrid workplace, read this guide:
 How to share information effectively in a remote setting
Remote work communication seemed like a challenge
Work-from-home communication initially worried remote-first workers who were
used to interacting with their teams in person. However, the importance and
severity of this once-prominent remote work challenge seem to be decreasing,
even compared to pre-COVID times.
According to Buffer’s State of Remote Work report from 2018, collaboration
and/or communication used to represent one of the biggest struggles of working
from home. Back then, 21% of respondents highlighted remote collaborating
and/or communicating as a crucial remote work challenge.
However, people seem to be getting better at working around these obstacles.
According to Buffer’s 2022 State of Remote Work report, 17% of remote
workers had difficulties with collaboration and communication in 2021, as
opposed to 2020 when 20% of people had the same difficulties.
Still, other challenges emerged in the meantime.
The same report stated that the top two challenges remote workers face are:
 Not being able to disconnect from work, and
  Struggling with feelings of loneliness.
Even then, the largest portion of the survey participants, or 31% to be exact,
claimed to not experience any struggles while working remotely.
This year, Buffer’s new report showed that most people have made their peace
with remote work, though:
 15% of the survey respondents are still lonely (as opposed to 24% the
previous year),
 14% take issue with working across time zones (as opposed to 21%),
 11% of survey participants have difficulties with unplugging from
work and staying motivated (as opposed to 25% and 21% in 2022).
Only 8% of survey participants reported having difficulties with
collaboration and communication, which is a drop from 17% the previous year.
Now, the most significant share of respondents (21%) claim that the biggest issue
they’re experiencing is the fact that they don’t have a reason to leave their
homes.
Asynchronous communication gained in popularity
Dubbed a solution to time zone issues, asynchronous communication is a way to
get the work done without being stuck in meetings your whole workday. Rather
than having to communicate in real-time, tools like email, text-based chat, and
online document collaboration allow workers to communicate and collaborate at
their own pace.
Not surprisingly, asynchronous communication offered a convenient way out
from the mess COVID-19 brought about.
Thanks to business communication platforms such as Pumble, this way of
communication proved to be effective — so the findings published in a previously
mentioned Buffer’s State of remote work 2022 are not surprising. Namely, when
asked whether they want async-first policies in the future, more than half of the
surveyed (52%) said “Yes”. Considering that more and more countries are
passing teleworking legislation, chances are asynchronous communication will
only continue to win the favor of the workforce.
According to The State of Business Communication 2023 report sponsored by
Grammarly, communicating with coworkers now takes up 72% of the work
week, which represents a 2-hour increase in comparison to the previous year.
There’s been a:
 37% increase in text messaging,
 21% increase in email communications, and even a
 16% increase in text-based chat communication.
The same report revealed that 78% of the knowledge workers surveyed said
that asynchronous communication is beneficial because it increases
productivity (42%) and fosters a sense of inclusion (34%). On top of that, 52%
of the knowledge workers (57%, if we only looked at Millennial and Gen Z
respondents) reported asynchronous communication makes their job more
flexible.
Proper training helped improve remote communication
For people who are working from home for the first time, training seems to be the
key that unlocks success.
Some areas where proper training brings better results are:
  Productivity,
 Time management,
 Work-life balance, and
 Communication.
Namely, a survey by TalentLMS that covered 1,000 respondents shows that
remote employees tend to rate themselves with high-performance scores (4 or 5)
more frequently if they’ve had training.
In concrete numbers, this amounts to 65% of employees who’ve had
communication training, compared to 52% of those who didn’t.
Digital solutions had the power to make or break a work-from-home arrangement
According to a Gartner snap poll focused on making remote work successful
during the pandemic, 54% of HR leaders cite poor technology and/or remote
work infrastructure as the primary barrier to effective remote work.
Forbes reports that the biggest obstacle for 35% of people was weak Internet. It
prevented people from using their online solutions and performing their work.
Despite the occasional Internet issues, one Workplace Insight study has found that
85% of employers believe their employees have the technology, tools, and
resources they need for productive remote work during an extended period.
One World Economic Forum survey shows that employees mostly agree with
this — at least in China. Out of 2,000 respondents, about 1,100 (55%) believe
their employers provided them with the necessary technology, tools, and resources
to work remotely.

🎓 Pumble Pro Tip

Does your team have all the tools they need to work remotely? Are you sure?
Check out this article to find out:
 Top 21 tools for remote work in 2023
Remote work has positively impacted productivity
Several studies show employees are more productive when working from home,
compared to office-based employees.
Even though remote work has left 85% of leaders wondering whether their
employees are being productive, the numbers show that:
 Office-based workers only work between 36–39% of their work days,
 Workers with flexible schedules are reporting 29% higher productivity, and
 Home-based employees were, on average, 47% more productive in 2020,
despite having to work during the pandemic lockdowns.
There is even more good news for people worried about the impact of working
from home on employee productivity. Namely, the previously-mentioned
Workplace Insight study has found that only 15% of companies from Great
Britain and Western Europe say working from home has had a clear negative
effect on employee productivity.
Insights from a study by Great Place to Work, which encompassed over 800,000
employees at Fortune 500 companies, also showed that productivity had improved
while working from home.
For a more concrete example, we can take a 2020 survey that focused on UK
marketing organizations and the work-life balance of their employees during the
coronavirus pandemic — the study found the following:
 73% of respondents believed they were more efficient when working from
home.
 For better or for worse, 68% believed they worked more hours while working
from home.
Working from home is becoming the new normal
One of the most striking impacts of COVID-19 on businesses was the increase in
the number of people working remotely.
According to a Gallup report How Coronavirus Will Change the ‘Next Normal’
Workplace, the US alone saw a jump from 31% to 62% of people working
remotely. And, this increase happened in just 3 weeks.
One study by Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom shows that 42% of the US
workforce was working remotely in 2020.
Interestingly, according to WFH Research, the gap between the workers’ desired
amount of WFH days and their employers’ plans for remote work has closed from
about 1.5 days to 0.5 days since late 2020.
Moreover, a Gartner survey covering company leaders’ outlooks on the future of
remote work showed that:
 82% of leaders plan to allow their employees to work remotely at least part-
time, and
 47% of them plan to allow their employees to work remotely full-time.
The employees share this positive sentiment towards remote work.
One GitLab report that looked into employee attitudes on remote work (albeit,
right before the onset of the pandemic, as the survey was conducted in February
2020) showed that 86% of them viewed remote work as the “future of work.”
Moreover, a whopping 90% would recommend a remote work arrangement to a
friend.
Employees are now satisfied with their remote communication arrangements
According to The State of Business Communication 2023 report by
Grammarly, working remotely has led employees and employers alike to strive
to be better communicators, with:
 90% of business leaders agreeing that remote work increases their need to be
a better communicator, and
 82% of the surveyed knowledge workers claiming the same.
The previously-mentioned GitLab report about the employee attitude toward
remote work shows that employees who work remotely are generally satisfied
with such an arrangement:
 A large majority is satisfied with remote work possibilities, with 87% of
employees declaring they are “satisfied with tools and processes that enable
remote team communication.” This likely prompted 84% of employees to
declare they can accomplish all of their tasks remotely.
 A large majority is satisfied with remote team leadership, with 86% of
employees declaring their leadership teams provide “agency and autonomy
 while working remotely”. Moreover, 84% of employees declared their
leadership “understands what it takes to operate remotely”.
A Gallup report even shows that as many as 54% of US workers would now leave
their current job positions to pursue positions in companies that allow working
from home.
Moreover, Global Workplace Analytics shows that over 33% of employees would
take a pay cut for the option to work from home.

🎓 Pumble Pro Tip

To learn how best to communicate with teammates while working remotely,

check out our detailed guide (+ infographic) about the subject:
 How to improve team communication when working from home.
Email exchanges within organizations became more siloed
Thanks to a global study of 360 billion emails between workers at thousands of
organizations in 2019 and 2020 — done by Harvard Business School Professor
Tiona Zuzul — we learned that one of the side effects of remote work is the fact
that organizations around the world became more siloed.
However, these silos are characterized by a not-so-stable membership — although
the communication within these groups intensifies, group members come and go.
Moreover, this study only shows how email exchanges have changed during the
pandemic.
Namely, it didn’t take into account the fact that the majority of professional
communication that was exchanged during that time took place on different
platforms, such as instant messaging tools and other virtual communication tools.
Statistics on how people prefer to communicate at the workplace
Workplace communication preferences depend on whether you are a manager or a
regular employee.
However, the expectations of managers and employees do align, when it comes to
what they want to gain from communication in the workplace.
Managers dislike giving feedback
One Interact survey that involved 2,058 US adults found that 69% of
managers simply feel uncomfortable when communicating with employees face-
to-face.
This percentage is partly because 37% of those managers feel uncomfortable
giving direct feedback in business communication situations. This is especially
true if the feedback they need to deliver is negative.
Perhaps as a result of this reluctance to provide feedback, a small percentage of
only 18% of employees have their communication skills evaluated within
their performance reviews.
Moreover, one Gallup estimate shows that only 50% of employees know what
their managers expect from them. The issue may lie in the fact that only 14.5% of
managers feel confident in their feedback-giving skills (according to a 2019
survey). Then again, that is something that can be improved through a collective
shift from thinking of feedback in terms of commentary on completed projects
to considering the feedforward aspect of the exchange — how future actions can
be improved.
Fortunately, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. According to State of the
Sector 2023, 38% of the surveyed said that managers communicate and engage
with their employees more since the COVID-19 pandemic started.
Employees like receiving feedback
Despite managers’ reluctance to provide it, constructive feedback is a crucial
prerequisite for an employee’s success — as explained by employees themselves.
The Harvard Business Review cites that 72% of employees feel their performance
would improve if their managers were to provide corrective — sometimes also
dubbed as “negative” — feedback.
Aside from its effect on productivity and performance, an employer’s feedback
has a calming effect on employees. Namely, according to Achievers’
report Empowering Employee Wellbeing in the New World of Work, employees
who reported that their employer gave them feedback were 17% less likely to be
stressed.
So, employees seem happy to take on feedback of any kind — and they’re just as
happy to share their own with the company in an act of upward communication.
According to the Achievers Workforce Institute’s newest report on employee
engagement and retention, people who say their employer takes meaningful action
based on their feedback are 37% less likely to look for other jobs in 2023.
Ultimately, feedback sessions can decrease employee stress and increase both
engagement and retention.
Yet, the problem of approachability remains. According to the latest report from
Gallup, 41% of workers agree that changing workplace culture was the key to
alleviating the trend of “quiet quitting.” Notably, many of the survey participants
said that they would like managers to be more approachable to allow more
open communication.
So, it’s high time reluctant managers started providing employee feedback
regularly.

🎓 Pumble Pro Tip

If you feel as though receiving feedback would help you advance professionally,
you can always ask for it directly. This guide should help:
 How to ask your manager for feedback
Employees like to be recognized
According to the previously mentioned Achievers’ report on empowering
employee well-being, direct recognition from a manager is the best way for
employees to feel valued.
However, the numbers are discouraging — 41% of the Belonging at Work 2021
Culture Report survey participants did not feel valued at work.
This is an untapped opportunity for employers, given the fact that 90% of
employees say recognition motivates them to work harder.
Additionally, the most recent report on employee engagement and retention from
Achievers Workforce Institute shows that 45% of employees would feel more
connected to the people they work with if they were meaningfully
recognized for their work. Only 7% of employees who are never recognized at
work report feeling a strong connection with their peers and colleagues, as
opposed to:
 13% of those who are recognized annually,
 18% of those who are recognized quarterly,
 30% of those who are recognized monthly, and
  53% of those who are recognized weekly.
Another study by Vantage Circle cites employee recognition as the top non-
monetary incentivization process. According to this study, 60% of
respondents prefer employee rewards and recognition to improve job
performance.
Ultimately, the key to ending this Great Resignation (or Great Attrition) might just
be in the findings presented in a McKinsey study — employees want interaction,
not just transactions. More specifically, the top 3 reasons for quitting cited by
the employees were connected to the fact that they didn’t feel:
 Valued by their companies (54%),
 Valued by their managers (52%), and
 A sense of belonging at work (51%).
Employees want access to business-related information — but, businesses don’t
always provide it
A report by Trade Press Services shows that as many as 85% of employees claim
they are most motivated when regularly updated about company news and
information. The same Trade Press Services report also revealed that as many as
74% of employees believe they are missing out on important news and
information in their companies.
According to the Communications Report 2023 by Axios HQ, the problem seems
to be in the fact that almost 50% of leaders reported that one of the greatest
challenges they face in sharing essential information is understanding what’s
important to employees and stakeholders.
On that note, the same report went on to note that most leaders believe the most
pressing updates are on:
1. Culture and values,
2. Personnel updates such as new hires or departures,
3. People operations such as benefits or DEI initiatives,
4. Business updates on projects, products, and clients,
5. Organizational goals such as new initiatives and plans, and
6. Operational changes regarding process and policy updates.
Meanwhile, employees prioritize updates on operational changes, followed by
organizational goals, and people operations — with news on the company’s
culture and values as well as general business updates being low on the list of
priorities.
Clearly, these priorities are misaligned. That may be why 66% of leaders
believe they’re aligned with employees — while only 44% of employees feel the
same.
Ultimately, these types of communication blunders are the result of companies
lacking effective internal communication (IC) processes. According to one
Workforce report, 60% of companies don’t have a long-term strategy in that
regard, though they are looking to change that.

🎓 Pumble Pro Tip

To learn how to create a successful internal communication plan for your team,
check out this guide:
 Internal communication planning (+ templates)
Employers are looking for employees with great communication skills
The effects of great communication skills are undeniable — 73% of employers
want employees with strong written communication skills, as found by the
National Association of Colleges and Employers.
The Association of American Colleges and Universities cites additional
communication skills employers look for in prospective hires. As many as 93% of
employers expect a demonstrated capacity to:
 Think critically,
 Communicate clearly, and
 Solve complex problems.
Interestingly, possessing the right communication skills may be even more
important for a workplace than possessing the right experience.
Namely, the GMAC Corporate Recruiters Survey from 2022 shows that corporate
recruiters feel confident about hiring business school graduates, although they
lack experience. The most cited reasons for their confidence were the graduates’
purported:
 Strong communication skills (cited by 73% of respondents),
 Versatile skill set (cited by 68% of respondents), and
 Ability to think strategically (cited by 66% of respondents).
However, it’s not just the employees that need to possess these skills. Companies
whose leaders possess effective communication skills have a 47% higher return to
shareholders during a 5-year period.
Everyone wants to be heard
Another point people have strong feelings about in business communication is
active listening.
Namely, people who feel heard by co-workers and superiors report feeling 4.6
times more empowered to perform their best work. The percentage of people who
felt like they aren’t heard or like they don’t belong in their company, and still
claimed to feel empowered to perform their best work, was at 16% and 14%,
respectively.
Ultimately, that just goes to show that neglecting employees’ needs to be heard
and recognized can lead to poor performance results.
Additionally, according to the State of Business Communications 2023 report, this
type of ineffective communication can be a barrier to inclusion, as 69% of
surveyed workers report having felt stress due to unclear communication in the
past year.
The report in question also offered some interesting breakdowns for that statistic,
saying that neurodivergent employees reported higher rates (75%) of feeling this
way than neurotypical ones (64%). Additionally, the study also offered a
generational breakdown of this number, which we’ll discuss later on.
In any case, there is a silver lining here. Namely, experts have recognized the
need for corporations to implement listening training since the 1980s, at least
according to a 2004 overview of research about listening in a business
context published in the International Journal of Listening.
Better still, corporations seem to have responded well, at least if we take the
number of employee development providers that also provide listening training
into consideration.
People like using collaboration tools
According to Project.co’s latest communication report, even though email is still
the most prevalent tool used to communicate with clients (at a rate of
62%) and coworkers (31%) alike, online messaging tools like Pumble are right
behind, with:
 11% of people using them in external communication with clients (followed
by 11% of communication that went on over project management tools),
 30% of people using them in internal communication (with project
management tools following behind at a rate of 15%).
The presence of project management tools on this list is hardly surprising. After
all, workplace communication and collaboration are interwoven concepts. The
purpose of effective communication in the workplace is to improve collaboration.
And, as one Queens University of Charlotte infographic noted, 75% of employers
view collaboration and teamwork as important aspects of a successful business.
This percentage is well-justified — the Institute for Corporate Productivity and
Babson’s College Professor Rob Cross surveyed 1,100 American companies to
find that companies who promote collaborative work are 5 times more likely to
report a high performance.
With that in mind, it comes as no surprise that, according to a recent Microsoft
survey of 2,700 employees and 1,800 business leaders, 85% of employees cite
collaboration tools as one of the most critical areas of focus. As it stands:
 72% wish the tools they used were compatible with one another, enabling
them to seamlessly work across those platforms,
 64% state that the tools they’re using aren’t integrated with their
organization’s processes, and
 59% of employees believe that the collaboration tools they are currently
using are not aligned with their teams’ preferred method of work.
In all, 86% of surveyed workers stated that they would prefer to use tools that
make information more accessible across the organization.
Different generations prefer different types of workplace communication
The question of whether your team consists of members of Generation Z,
Millennials, Generation X, and/or Baby Boomers, also has an impact on
communication preferences in the workplace.
After all, the way different generations communicate differs, as evidenced by the
communication statistics presented in the State of Business Communications
2023 report. When asked to express whether unclear communication had left
them feeling anxious or stressed in the past year:
 75% of Millennials agreed,
 72% of Gen Z followed suit, as well as
 67% of Gen X, and
 56% of Baby Boomers.
Does this have anything to do with the way different generations communicate
with each other? Let’s find out.
How Generation Z likes to communicate in the workplace
Generation Z or Zoomers — i.e. the generation of people born from 1997 onwards
— consists of digital natives.
But, their preference for online communication at home (with a share of 65%)
does not fully translate to the workplace.
Namely, while at work, members of Generation Z choose face-to-face
communication, if available. To that end, Gen Z employees were also the most
likely to report that their personal connections have suffered in the hybrid
workplace, at a rate of 59%, according to Grammarly’s The State of Business
Communication 2023 report.
The same report also stated that, while 30% of all workers reported that they
experienced a lack of confidence due to poor communication — Gen Z survey
respondents were the most likely to feel that way, at a rate of 42%.
They were also the least likely of all generations to report feeling that their
organization’s communication was effective, at a rate of 57%.
As digital natives, Zoomers are aware of the distracting effect of mobile phones,
as well as the limits of digital communication. Maybe that is why more than 50%
of Gen Zers consider face-to-face communication to be the most effective.
Unfortunately, according to the annual Communication Statistics reports from
Project.co, face-to-face communication between coworkers seems to be
decreasing. There was an 11% drop between 2021, when 23% of communication
between coworkers took place in person, and 2022, when only 12% of
communication was face-to-face. This year’s report showed no improvement in
these numbers, as only 7% of all workplace communication was exchanged in
person.
Fortunately, Gen Zers have other means of communication at their disposal —
such as chat tools, which are reportedly used by 92% of Gen Z employees.
How Millennials like to communicate in the workplace
Millennials — i.e. the generation of people born between 1981 and 1996 who
happens to be the most prevalent generation in the US labor force — are
sometimes considered to be digital natives as well.
In line with that, they often choose to avoid answering phone calls, because 75%
of them have deemed phone calls “time-consuming.”
The same 8×8 report that showed Gen Z’s preference for face-to-face
communication also showed that millennials tend to prioritize tools that will
save them time (at a rate of almost 60%) as opposed to ones that are the most
effective (at a rate of 43%).
Even so, Grammarly’s 2023 report showed that 48% of Millennials also felt that
their personal connections had suffered in the hybrid workplace. The Millennial
survey respondents of the same report were the second most likely generation to
feel that their company’s communication was effective, at a rate of 68%.
However, unlike members of Generation Z, they also tend to avoid face-to-face
communication. Instead, they choose:
 Internal communication software, in 55% of the cases;
  Email, in 28% of the cases.
Since they are team-oriented and like to collaborate, they embrace mobile
technology that facilitates collaboration and they embrace cloud-based
technology.
How Generation X likes to communicate in the workplace
Generation X — i.e. the generation of people born between 1965 and 1980 — was
the first to have contact with digital technology and communication solutions,
such as emails, in the workplace.
In line with that, they enjoy the ease and convenience of sending and receiving
brief messages, as opposed to lengthy ones.
Although they are not considered digital natives, Generation X employees are
comfortable with using technology at work.
As a matter of fact, according to research by DDI, more than half of them (54%)
are digitally savvy.
Even so, The State of Business Communication 2023 revealed that, even
though 66% of Gen Xers feel that their organization’s overall communication
is effective:
 57% of them wished their company used better tools, and
 40% reported experiencing written miscommunications weekly.
So, if you’ve ever wondered what percentage of communication is
miscommunication — you’ll find that the numbers differ from generation to
generation.
How Baby Boomers like to communicate in the workplace
Baby Boomers — i.e. the generation of people born between 1946 and 1965 —
grew up during the telephone era.
However, various reports show that Baby Boomers highlight face-to-face
interactions as their primary method of workplace communication.
Emails are also a favorite communication channel — as many as 93% of Baby
Boomers use email on an everyday basis.
Additionally, studies also show that almost half of the surveyed employees from
the Baby Boom generation (46%) are using video conferencing tools at the
workplace.
So, Baby Boomers have adopted digital technology, including smartphones and
social media.
Overall, they seem to experience the least misunderstandings and
communication issues in the workplace, at least according to Grammarly’s 2023
report, which showed that 69% of them felt that their organization’s
communication was effective.
In fact, only 56% of Boomers can think of examples from the past year when
unclear communication in the workplace left them feeling anxious (as opposed to
75% of Millennials and 72% of Gen Zers). Additionally, only:
 40% of Boomers feel the need for better support tools (as opposed to 65% of
Millennials),
 30% of them experienced written miscommunications weekly (as opposed to
60% of Gen Zers and Millennials), and
  28% of them reported that their personal connections had suffered in the
hybrid workplace (as opposed to 59% of Gen Zers).
Overall, it seems that Baby Boomers are quite comfortable in the modern
workplace, to the point that many of them find it easy to embrace new work
models. Namely, according to the results of a recent study, Baby Boomers are
15% more likely to apply to remote work positions than other generations.
Statistics on the communication devices people use at the
workplace
CMSWire reports that 85% of employees use more than one communication
device to communicate at work — as many as 32% use 3 or more devices because
they value flexibility.
When it comes to the actual device use, people tend to communicate via:
 Computers — in 44% of cases,
 Smartphones — 36%,
 Tablets — 16%, and
 Desktop phones — 5%.
When asked about voicemails, 82% of people said that they would prefer text
messages — which are easier to scan for the right information.
More recently, the Communication Statistics 2023 report showed that internal
communications are usually exchanged via:
 Emails — 31% of the time,
 Online chat tools (like Pumble) — 30% of the time,
 Project management tools — 15% of the time,
 Other — 10% of the time,
 Face-to-face interactions — 7% of the time, and
 Phone calls — 7% of the time.
Meanwhile, when contacting clients, people tend to communicate through:
 Email — 62% of the time,
 Online chat tools — 11% of the time,
 Project management tools — 11% of the time,
 Phones — 9% of the time,
  Other — 5% of the time, and
 Face-to-face interactions (such as meetings) — 3% of the time.
The fact that meetings were in last place on this list makes sense, since, according
to Project.co, 60% of people feel that they are a waste of time.
Additionally, the prevalence of emails in external communication makes sense
when we consider that online messaging tools are usually used for internal
communication only. However, some of those tools now feature guest
account options, which may increase their usage in communication with clients as
well as external collaborators.

🎓 Pumble Pro Tip

Even though emails account for the lion’s share of all business communication,
they’re not the ideal platform for those exchanges. Find out why here:
 Why email is perhaps not the best for remote communication
Statistics on employee and employer preferences of communication platforms
According to Grammarly’s recent report on the state of business communication,
business leaders tend to overestimate the importance of the mode and platform of
their organization’s communications with its employees.
In a ranking of the elements of communication survey respondents found
important, the study showed that:
 74% of business leaders emphasized the content of the message (as opposed
to 63% of knowledge workers), followed by
 66% of leaders highlighted the importance of the
communication platform (which was noted by only 36% of knowledge
workers),
 63% emphasized tone and empathy (aspects that ranked at 54% and 46% for
the knowledge workers), and
 60% highlighted the mode of communication (which was ranked second to
last among knowledge workers, at 38%).
In reality, employer and employee views on the efficacy of various methods of
information sharing seem relatively aligned. According to the Communications
Report 2023 by Axios HQ:
 49% of organizations use ad hoc emails as a means of internal
communication — which is reflected in the 40% of people who report
preferring that method,
 36% of organizations use meetings as their current method of communication
— and 33% of survey respondents report preferring meetings,
 25% of organizations used recurring newsletters — which were more
popular among workers, at 27%, and
 22% of organizations used Intranet — reflected by the 16% of respondents
who claimed to prefer that method.
Outside of these methods, the report also found that leaders shared essential
updates with employees through text and video messages, chat tools, and
podcasts.
🎓 Pumble Pro Tip

Newsletters seem to be the only method of communication employees would like

to see more of! To learn what it takes to create an effective, informative, and even
entertaining internal newsletter, check out this article:
 Best company newsletter ideas 2023

Wrapping up: Effective workplace communication is your key to

success
As workplaces shift from offices to online environments, efficient
communication is becoming more important than ever — increasing the need
for effective digital tools and proper training.
Great communication skills are sought after even in job candidates, even more so
than demonstrated experience.
Knowing business-relevant international languages is also gaining traction as a
bonus skill candidates can bring to the table, as remote work allows for the
creation of many international, multicultural teams.
Above all, the need for centralized information systems is evident — as is the
importance of providing regular feedback to employees.
Ultimately, improving workplace communication can help businesses increase
employee retention, productivity, and performance — which will naturally lead to
increased profit.