Research Studies

Price Tag for Small Firms That Don't Fix Inefficient Communication: $5,000 Per Employee, Per Year

No author cited
Siemens Enterprise Communications, January 2009

Available online (executive summary)

According to a global study sponsored by Siemens Enterprise Communications, 70 percent of employees of small and midsized businesses believe that they spend 17.5 hours each week addressing the pain points caused by communications barriers and latencies.

This study also found that in companies with more than 20 workers, time spent per week dealing with communications issues was closer to 50 percent higher than other companies. In hard costs, the study concluded, companies of 100 employees could be losing more than $500,000 each year by not addressing their employees' most painful communications issues. This works out to roughly $5,000 per employee, per year.

To help all companies that are experiencing loss due to poor communications, the Siemens-sponsored study identified five areas of focus:

1. Inefficient Coordination – As many as 65 percent of respondents had difficulty coordinating communications among team members, which impacted their ability to respond quickly to time-sensitive customer requests. These respondents also average 3.7 hours per week spent attempting to coordinate communications across team members.
2. Waiting on Information – 68 percent of respondents reported that they experience work delays while waiting for information, with an average delay of 3.5 hours per week per knowledge worker. In each case, this is information that the employee has tried to reach live a number of times through various methods.
3. Unwanted Communications – 77 percent of respondents experienced unwanted communications, such as low-priority calls and voicemail. These individuals reported spending two or more hours per week on unwanted communications, which create distractions and disrupt workflow.
4. Customer Complaints – Negative comments or complaints from customers took up an average of 3.3 hours per week for 74 percent of respondents. Many of these were complaints as a result of the customer not being able to reach the employee in a timely fashion.
5. Collaboration Barriers – Problems with communications are causing issues for 61 percent of respondents who are finding it difficult to collaborate with colleagues. These employees spend an average of 3.3 hours per week attempting to address these issues.