A new study exploring the communication preferences of nondesktop, remote, and office workers in the U.S. has just been released by EmployeeChannel, Inc. It reveals some startling new findings. The report, entitled What Every Employee Wants from their HR Team, demonstrates that the three employee groups seem to share a common perspective about how human resources could improve their respective work experiences.

Some of the most surprising highlights of the report point to deficiencies in communications from HR:

• Just 16 percent of respondents across the segments reported feeling “connected and engaged.”
• Nearly 50 percent of employees were neutral, disagreed, or strongly disagreed that HR’s communication efforts made them feel informed or engaged.
• 75 percent of employees indicated that HR communicates with them never, rarely, or only sometimes.
• All three employee segments ranked “communicates frequently and effectively with employees” as one of the top two behaviors that creates a positive work experience.
• All three segments ranked open communication to all employees as one of the top two HR initiatives they wished for, behind positive recognition.

Only 16 percent of employees feel connected and engaged.

We’ve written frequently about the importance of employee engagement as it relates to both performance and retention. Many sources have reported that approximately 30 percent of employees in the U.S. feel engaged. The 16 percent in this survey was particularly alarming, not only because it represents only half of the expected number (which itself would be disappointing), but because office workers in this study felt even less engaged than remote workers.

Office, nondesktop, and remote workers all agree that the problem begins with the perceived frequency of communication from HR.

If only 25 percent of employees feel happy with the frequency of communications from HR, the fix is simple. Communicate more often, and with a noticeable increase in interactions each week. Getting the forms of communication right is just as important as the frequency, but employees’ channel preferences may surprise you. Sixteen percent wanted messages through company email, less than 12 percent wanted in-person meetings, and just 5 percent wanted phone calls.

So what was the report’s conclusion about employees’ communication channel preferences?

The report includes several important recommendations:

1. HR should consolidate communications on a single platform for employer-to-employee communication that mitigates the challenges of limited-to-no digital access, different locations/time zones, and lack of face time. From our perspective, this could be an intranet, application, or enterprise software, requiring employees to log in daily.
2. HR must establish a common set of standards for communication, consistent across all segments.
3. HR teams must implement a communication strategy that promotes engagement.

The report concludes with a summary of recommendations, which include HR providing employees with “information relevant to their professional and personal lives.” For many HR professionals, the idea of disseminating information not related to employees’ jobs, company, or industry may seem anathema, but this may be an ideal way to increase frequency.

The bottom line: Just as you do with family, when all else fails, talk about the weather.