Companies have various options to communicate with their workforces in the digital era. With the popularity of collaboration tools (like Slack and Teams), as well as email and mobile devices, it may be confusing to understand which communication medium works best for your company. Among the smorgasbord of communication choices, there are asynchronous and synchronous communications.
Asynchronous communications are any type of communication where one person (or a chatbot) provides information intermittently. Often, there can be a time lag before the recipients review the information and provide a response. Asynchronous communications have grown in popularity among marketing and customer service organizations as a tool to contact customers and provide rapid responses.
The same is true of communications with employees.
Chatbots are increasingly being used in HR and IT because of their instant response capability. According to Management Matters, AI-based chatbots make HR departments more efficient by reducing repetitive and time-consuming activities and enabling employees to focus on more critical tasks. Additionally, asynchronous communications are essential for the work from anywhere workforce, in the office, at home, or the customer’s office, because they provide 24/7 support and answers. Management Matters reports that chatbots collect and analyze data from conversations, questions, and feedback received from employees. This informs HR, IT, and other functions what they are doing right and which areas they could improve on. Chatbots also enhance employee engagement and provide a high return on investment.
Synchronous communications typically occur over the phone, face-to-face, or in a meeting. The interaction occurs in real-time. There are certain instances in which synchronous communication is a more helpful form of communication. For instance, if you and your team want to brainstorm ideas for an upcoming campaign, it makes sense to do this in real-time – you can bounce ideas off one another and communicate concerns in the moment without fear of any misunderstanding. However, scheduling a meeting requires planning.
What is better synchronous or asynchronous communications? The answer will depend on the purpose of your communications, the demographic composition of your workforce, where they work, and the required speed of a response. Are you brainstorming, answering an employee question, sending out a reminder, or announcing a new business strategy?
Additionally, the demographic of your workforce is also a consideration, as communication medium preferences differ by generation.
Let’s look at generational preferences as reported by Talent Management and Pew Research. Beginning with Talent Management.
Millennials, born between 1981 and 1996, are the largest workforce segment, at 35%. They prefer texts over emails or phone calls.
Generation X, sometimes known as the “Latchkey Generation” is the next highest workforce segment at 33%. They were born before Millennials between 1965 and 1995. Caught between the two largest generations, Generation X has embraced communicating in whichever way is most efficient. They are comfortable with text, phone, or face-to-face meetings. They now account for most senior leadership roles globally.
Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, account for 25% of the workforce. They value face-to-face interaction and networking opportunities and above all, transparency.
Generation Z is the youngest generation and the largest on the planet at 30% of the global population, but currently only 5% of the workforce. They are truly digital natives and are very comfortable with all forms of digital communications and face-to-face.
According to Pew Research, Gen Z will expect that their employers have intelligent, easy-to-use digital technology. They expect answers to their work-related questions to be as fast and easy as ordering a product from Amazon or finding an instruction video on YouTube. If your onboarding process is onerous or they have to call and wait for an answer from an HR or IT team member or get a help desk ticket number for a service, they will probably leave your company for a more digitally savvy organization.
Except for Baby Boomers, the other three generations at work are comfortable with chats. Please see the chart from Talent Management below.
Suppose your organization has younger workers working in hybrid or remote work models, and you want to provide employees with information and reminders rapidly wherever they work. In that case, asynchronous communications can perform this function more quickly than requiring employees to visit an office or get a call center ticket. Chatbots also reduce operational costs, build employee engagement, improve worker productivity, and provide an excellent return on investment.
MeBeBot’s Push Messaging feature provides a quick method for sending targeted asynchronous messages to employees, at specific times and dates, to employees via collaboration tools like Slack and Teams. Our customers’ HR, IT, Facilities, or Internal Communications teams use Push Messaging to send out messages regarding return to workplace updates, company announcements, and reminders for due dates to various processes (like completing a security training for IT or submitting benefits enrollment forms).
Push Messaging in Teams
Push Messaging in Slack
Additionally, MeBeBot’s AI-driven chatbot and reliable Natural Language Processes provide our customers with fast and accurate answers to their employees’ questions. Our answer accuracy rate is over 90%, as rated by our customers’ employees. MeBeBot is also used to assist employees with IT system changes, updates to workplace changes, performance management processes and benefits open enrollment processes. Our Dashboard also informs our customers when new issues are arising in the organization so that actions can be taken immediately to address employees’ needs.
When a team needs a brainstorming session, we certainly recommend a face-to-face meeting or videoconferencing for geographically dispersed teams. However, when your organization needs to provide answers and reminders to your employees wherever they work, MeBeBot is your asynchronous communications solution. Besides, our customers report savings of $250k to $1M in the first six to 12 months of operations.
MeBeBot’s Intelligent Assistant seamlessly installs as an app in Teams, Slack, or web portals to provide employees with instant automated answers to global HR, IT, and Ops FAQS, real-time usage Dashboards, Push Messaging, and custom Pulse Surveys, generating instant employee feedback on of-the-moment questions. MeBeBot’s “one-stop bot” is trusted by leading organizations to elevate the employee experience so work can be more meaningful and valuable.
Visit our website at https://mebebot.com