Instant messaging wins over in-person meetings for collaboration

Even though more knowledge companies are pushing for a full-time return to the office for their staff, collaboration challenges are becoming a major focus, with leaders struggling with collaboration more than employees, and both failing to see the value in in- person meetings, according to research from Zoom.

The Global collaboration in the workplace report surveyed nearly 8,000 leaders and employees from 16 countries to learn how people prefer to work together and what gets in the way of collaboration. Its topline finding was that effective collaboration is crucial, as over a third of leaders lose more than an hour daily resolving problems caused by poor teamwork.

The data showed that the issue is a productivity loss that could cost more than £12,000 per manager per year. All told, the study found that the time spent resolving issues related to inefficient collaboration can cost organisations an estimated $16,491 a year per manager in wasted time, or up to $874,000 annually for an enterprise of 1,000. 

Leaders were struggling with collaboration more than their employees, and were more likely to spend a significant amount of time collaborating with colleagues, especially in meetings and email. Fully remote leaders reported the highest numbers in this regard. More than half of this group spends three or more hours a day on email (56%) and virtual meetings (52%). 

In addition, 47% of team leaders reported spending too much time in meetings, compared with 33% of employees, and were finding that it takes longer to refocus between tasks.

Managers also spent more time than employees resolving common issues relating to bad collaboration and take more time to refocus between tasks. All this adds up and can end up costing organisations in the long run, Zoom warned.

Both leaders and employees agreed that instant messaging/chat was their preferred method of collaboration. After instant messaging/chat, the next preferred methods of collaboration for leaders were project management software and in-person meetings. For employees, second and third were email and in-person meetings respectively.

Almost half (46%) of AI users preferred asynchronous collaboration methods such as project management software, shared documents and video clips, compared with 20% of non-AI users.

Yet a generational difference emerged with these preferences. Gen X, millennials and Gen Z leaders preferred non-face-to-face collaboration, such as instant messaging and project management software, while Baby Boomers leaned towards in-person meetings. Gen Z leaders are the most affected by inefficient collaboration, with 48% spending over an hour daily following up on project statuses, which is significantly more than Baby Boomers.

Both leaders and employees alike reported being overloaded by apps. The study found those who reported using more than 10 apps for work were more likely to struggle with issues such as misunderstandings in communication, lack of engagement from colleagues and lack of alignment than those who reported using fewer than five apps.

In addition, teams using more than 10 apps were twice as likely to spend over an hour resolving collaboration issues compared with teams using fewer than five apps.