News: Lack of training in e-communication

Information overload is a major challenge, and the situation is likely to grow worse, with few organisations providing communications training, according to recent research by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp)
Nearly 90 per cent of respondents to the Internal Communication (Taking the Pulse) survey use e-mail or electronic newsletters to spread internal communications, outstripping face-to-face communication (75 per cent), company intranets/wikis (66 per cent), telephone (54 per cent) and printed newsletters (51 per cent).
“The good news is that e-mail is an inexpensive and flexible medium, making it the best communication option in many ways,” said Jay Jamrog, i4cp’s senior VP of Research. “However, it’s also a ‘thin’ medium, which is easy to misinterpret and otherwise abuse. Its no wonder that information overload continues to plague a lot of organisations.”
When asked about the communications challenges they face, 57 per cent of respondents cited information overload; second only to the problem of cross-functional communication (60 per cent).
Furthermore, the demand for communications – at least in the HR field – is mushrooming, with 82 per cent of respondents saying the desire for HR communication has risen over the past two years.
Despite the challenges associated with e-mail, information overload, and the rising demand for communication, relatively few companies are devoting resources to teaching employees how to communicate better. Just 24 of the organisations taking part offer training on internal communications.
The communication style in many organisations leans toward a combination of top-down, upward, and horizontal (peer-to-peer), with 47 per cent reporting they do all three.
To view this survey and others in the i4cp archive, visit www.i4cp.com/i4cp/Surveys.aspx?Year=2008