What Slack’s ‘State of Work Survey’ means for the modern business

Slack, one of the business world’s leading group working tools, has recently completed its survey of the working world today. It offers one of the most in-depth looks into the varied industries of the modern economy out there. One result in particular stood out as requiring attention.

Asking 17,000 workers between 16 and 64 about their experiences, they found an astonishing gap between workers who understood the company mission and strategy and those who did not.

What should you be wary of?

To put it simply, the workers that understood the strategy their company was working towards were almost four times as likely to feel aligned with the company’s policy, and far more likely to understand the impact their work had on the company’s goals. What this meant, effectively, was that companies that failed to talk to their employees about their aims and goals were losing a huge amount of focus and energy from their workforces.

The survey finds that communicating with your workers and reiterating what their goal is once a month will do the job of keeping them focused and aware of why they are doing the job they are doing. This is especially important because it is easy for people within a larger system to lose sight of their ultimate goal. This can lead to heightened stress, and greater pressure on mental health services, inside and outside the workplace as people feel powerless or useless, even while they are doing valuable work.

What does this mean for your communication strategy?

This all means that your business’ communication strategy is therefore far more important than you may have thought it. The ability to make clear policy decisions at the top is still essential. However, if the strategy decided at the top of your business cannot be communicated down the hierarchy in clear, relevant parts which give everyone a clear idea of what they will do, then your workers will be far more disengaged.

This will make it harder to reach targets and make the whole mechanism of business run slower and less efficiently. This can cut into your company’s ability to meet targets set and erode profits across the board.

The survey finds that communicating with your workers and reiterating what their goal is once a month will do the job of keeping them focused and aware of why they are doing the job they are doing. This is especially important because it is easy for people within a larger system to lose sight of their ultimate goal.

Luckily there is an effective way to communicate across your whole business with ease. Platforms such as Unified Communications by Gamma can be used to ensure the company’s goals and all relevant information are communicated clearly to everybody, with every individual having the option of a one-to-one session going over the strategy every month with their manager. These strategies, therefore, both reduce the cost of communications infrastructure, and let you keep your staff more engaged and aware of what they are working towards, boosting their productivity.