Communication Statistics 2020

Communication is fundamentally important to business success – and yet it’s something that so many people tell us they struggle with. To get a better understanding of how people feel about communication in their workplace, we surveyed 238 respondents in late 2019. We asked them about communication, productivity, software and more.

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Section 1: Productivity at work
In this section, we examine the communication channels used by businesses to manage projects, and how – positively or negatively – these channels impact on productivity at work.
Section 3: Task & project management
In this section, we take a look at how people manage their projects and individual task lists. We also examine how they feel about their own levels of communication, organisation and productivity at work.
Section 2: The importance of communication
We know communication is important; but why? In this section, we explore how communication affects business reputation, customer experience and bottom-line revenue.
Section 4: Email vs online tools
In the fourth and final section, we directly compare the experiences and feelings of those who primarily use email, against those who use dedicated online tools to manage tasks, communication and project progress.

01

Productivity at work

65% of businesses primarily use email to communicate with their clients, as opposed to online tools (16%) phone calls (9%) and face-to-face (5%).

39% of businesses primarily use email for communication between co-workers, compared to online tools (28%) face-to-face (23%) and phone calls (2%).
65% of people have lost a file in their own inbox or on a personal hard drive.
34% of people map out their daily tasks using Paper ‘To-Do’ Lists, as opposed to an online tool (22%), online calendar (18%), project management system (17%) and other (9%).
61% of people feel they waste time in meetings.
74% of people often lose files that have been shared with others.

63% of people have missed a message or important piece of information that went into a colleague’s inbox while that colleague was away or absent.

02

The importance of communication

74% of people have stopped dealing with a company and moved to a competitor due to feeling the company was disorganised.

92% of people have had to repeat a piece of information to two or more people within an organisation.

85% of people find it annoying to have to repeat information when working with other businesses.

96% of people think the businesses they deal with could improve when it comes to communication and project management.

03

Task & project management

47% of people say they find it difficult to get an exact overview of where projects are up to. This drops to 29% of people who use an online project management system to manage their projects.

Less than 14% of people rate their business’ project management efficiency as excellent.

Even though 89% of people believe that effective communication is extremely important, 8 out of 10 people rate their own business’ communication as either average or poor.

Only 17% of people believe that their business is extremely well organised, with 8% believing their organisation is poor.

Only 14% of people rate their business’ project management efficiency as excellent, with 15% believing their organisation is poor.

34% of people plan their daily work out using paper to-do lists, compared to online tools (22%) private calendars (18%) or a project management system (17%).

04

Email vs online tools

39% of people who manage projects by email also map out their daily tasks using paper to-do lists, opposed to 17% of people who use an online project management tool.

22% of businesses that primarily communicate with their clients using an online tool rate their project efficiency as “Excellent” vs 12% of businesses that primarily communicate with their clients via email.

37% of businesses that primarily communicate with their clients using an online tool rate their project communication as “Excellent” vs 14% of businesses that primarily communicate with their clients via email.

71% of people who manage their daily tasks using an online project management system feel it’s easy to get an exact overview of where projects are up to in their workflow vs 52% of people who manage their daily tasks using paper to-do lists.

25% of businesses that primarily communicate with their clients using an online tool rate their project organization as “Excellent” vs 15% of businesses that primarily communicate with their clients via email.

Just 3% of businesses that use an online project management tool rate their efficiency levels as poor – as opposed to 17% of businesses which primarily use email.

When people use an online tool to manage their projects, they’re twice as likely to rate their levels of efficiency, communication and organisation as ‘excellent.’