New Survey Shows Workers Talking Shop Around the Clock
ATLANTA – The increasing popularity of hybrid working could be encouraging workers to be “always on”, according to new research from Moneypenny and VoiceNation, which shows that the majority of respondents (58%) are accepting work-related communications out of hours.
The Censuswide survey of more than 2,000 U.S. consumers showed that willingness to accept communications out of hours varies across the generations, with younger workers seeming more likely to work any time, as Gen Z and Millennials were less likely to accept communications at any time of day or night (14% and 15% respectively). Baby Boomers are most likely to pick up a work call or email 24/7 (31%).
The survey also examined the popularity of different forms of work communications, with emails being the top choice for 49% of those surveyed, followed by the phone 39%, text messaging 35%, instant messaging such as Teams or Slack 19%, then video conferencing such as Zoom 18%.
Work communication choices appear to vary across the generations, as emailing is the preferred choice for 56% of Baby Boomers and 54% of Gen X, while only 28% of Gen Z prefer this. In contrast, instant messaging was a more popular form of work communication for Gen Z (25%), while only 16% of Gen X and 13% of Baby Boomers prefer it.
It seems that Gen Z feel less at ease than other age groups in communicating for work, perhaps because of their lack of experience in the workplace compared to older generations: 52% of Gen Z admitted they feel less comfortable communicating for work than for personal reasons, compared with only 28% of Gen X and 21% of Baby Boomers who admitted this.
Despite their discomfort in communicating at work, 40% of Gen Z admitted they are less careful in communicating at work, while only 17% of Gen X and 7% of Baby Boomers were.
Richard Culberson CEO North America for Moneypenny and VoiceNation commented: “Businesses need to think carefully about the training they give their people in how to communicate in the workplace, adapting this for the different generations, recognizing their strengths and weaknesses in using different communication channels. Equally they need to think about the type of communications preferred by their customers. At Moneypenny and VoiceNation, we handle communications for a wide range of different businesses, from large financial organizations, law firms, retail businesses and estate agents to small businesses, tradesmen, and everything in between, and the mix of communication channels varies hugely, according to their needs.”
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About Moneypenny and VoiceNation
Moneypenny and VoiceNation are America’s leading virtual receptionist & phone answering providers offering 24/7 communication solutions.
Collectively, Moneypenny and VoiceNation employ over 1,000 people handling millions of calls, chats and bespoke tech solutions for thousands of businesses of all shapes and sizes from sole traders right up to multinational corporations.