• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, March 17, 2022

Companies have ramped up their internal email use, so much so that inboxes are being overwhelmed, according to The Evolving Workforce & HR’s Identity Crisis. a study from Time is Ltd., conducted by Ascend2. 

Of the firms polled, 84% have seen an increase in email use as a collaboration tool, compared to video communication (83%), instant messaging (80%) and file sharing (77%). More emails are sent during meetings than ever before, the study notes.  

Clearly, this clutter distracts employees, and may keep them from noticing or responding to critical emails or B2B marketing communications.  As the study urges: “Get email under control.”

Of course, email is hardly the only impediment to meeting productivity.  Other challenges include:

• Duration of meetings — 48% 
• Timing of meetings — 48% 
• Amount of meetings — 47% 
• Focus of meetings — 47% 
• Lack of agenda — 34% 
• Number of attendees — 29%

And this occurs as companies face challenges both attracting and retaining employees. Among them:

• Providing adequate guidance for career progression — 59%
• Improving employee experience — 49%
• Digital transformation — 43% 
• Finding talent — 41%
• Onboarding — 40% 
• Managing remote vs. on-site working — 28%

Indeed, 76% of businesses are experience more year-over-year turnover, 68% have a turnover rate above 10% and 61% believe retention rates for those hired during the pandemic will be lower than those who joined before. 

Just as the customer experience is important, so is the employee experience. The respondents say it is: 

• Extremely important — 68% 
• Somewhat important — 26%
• Somewhat unimportant — 5%
• Extremely unimportant — 1% 

Despite that, only 41% say that recruitment and onboarding will be top objectives for improving the employee experience in the year ahead. Companies see these challenges as their greatest, although some have improved:

• Technology used for collaboration — 53% mid-pandemic, vs. 49% early pandemic
• Meeting culture — 41% mid pandemic, vs. 36% early pandemic. 
• Employee/leadership relationship — 36% mid-pandemic vs. 38% early pandemic 
• Digital communication — 35% mid-pandemic vs. 37% early pandemic 
• Workload disbursement — 33% mid pandemic vs. 31% early pandemic. 
• Team size — 32% mid pandemic vs. 38% early pandemic
• Shift to digital workplace — 20% mid-pandemic vs. 26% early pandemic

Ascend2 surveyed 255 HR leaders.