With the rise of remote and hybrid work, more employees are now using instant messaging apps to communicate with colleagues, vendors, partners and suppliers, confirms a new survey from Rocket.Chat, the leading open-source communication platform. What’s more, 95% of employees expect their workplaces to keep these conversations completely private and secure.
“The future of digital communication in the workplace will be more streamlined and transparent than ever before, as the latest generation of employees wants to be able to easily collaborate with colleagues and external partners, across platforms,” said Gabriel Engel, Rocket.Chat CEO. “With instant messaging being more widely adopted than email in 2021, this collaboration openness is a game changer, enabling increased productivity. Data privacy, security and ownership at work are key elements to ensuring the viability of this capability; they are not nice-to-haves but must-haves. As an employee, I expect it. As an employer, I prioritize it.”
The survey’s four major findings confirm that Rocket.Chat’s approach to workplace communications is on target with emerging trends:
- Employees want their messaging platform to facilitate streamlined collaboration
- Instant messaging is not just for internal stakeholders
- Data privacy is of prime concern to employees
- Ease of use is of critical importance to users
Employees Want Their Messaging Platform to Facilitate Streamlined Collaboration
The survey demonstrates that a majority of respondents are looking for a complete collaboration tool that also offers security and customer engagement. Nearly two-thirds of employees – 65% – cite the ability to message and video chat with coworkers through one centralized platform as important.
The survey underscores the demand from younger generations to streamline and simplify communication through a centralized channel, with 88% of those under the age of 45 wanting an all-encompassing communications platform.
- 91% of the 25-34 age bracket stated a centralized channel was important
- 16.7% of those 75+ see a centralized app as critical
Instant Messaging Is Not Just for Internal Stakeholders
More than 70% of employees now use instant messaging platforms to communicate with other companies, such as vendors, partners and suppliers. However, when it comes to interacting with these outside companies, instant messaging platforms have some catching up to do with email – 40% of respondents think it's more difficult to communicate with external contacts than via email.
Most communication apps make it difficult to connect with external contacts. For example, you can use Gmail to email a Hotmail account, but you can’t use communication apps to message a user on a different communication app. These apps require that person to have an account.
Rocket.Chat resolves this challenge with its federation feature, which ensures collaboration with external stakeholders is as streamlined and intuitive as with internal colleagues. Rocket.Chat's game-changing collaboration services enable users to easily leverage it for file sharing, video streaming and attending virtual meetings.
Data Privacy Is of Prime Concern to Employees
Nearly all employees– 95% – trust and rely on their employees to ensure privacy and confidentiality company-wide. Almost a third also depend on their employers to keep their personal and identifiable data secure.
Ease of Use Is a Top Priority
A solid majority – 77% – see ease of use as top priority to look for in a messaging app. This aligns with how respondents rate the top three benefits of instant messaging compared to email:
- Faster response times (70%)
- Easier to share/send files (52%)
- More intuitive collaboration (43%)
In May, Rocket.Chat announced expansion of its platform functionality, which includes a federation feature that allows internal teams to collaborate with teams from different companies, while ensuring the security protocols of each company aren’t breached; an email channel that enables users to receive, send and collaborate internally with emails using only the Rocket.Chat interface; and the ability to create automated flows that connect Rocket.Chat and the apps in its marketplace. Rocket.Chat’s expanded functionality enables companies to customize their communications platform, while ensuring their data is protected and their employees’ conversations are viewed only by the intended participants.
Learn more about Rocket.Chat’s open source communication platform here.
Methodology
In July, Rocket.Chat and Propeller Insights polled more than 1,000 full-time people across various industries that use technology in their work, to understand their views on remote working and the importance/impact/benefit of tech communication platforms in the current and post-COVID-19 climate.
About Rocket.Chat
Rocket.Chat is a fully customizable open source communications platform for organizations with high standards of data protection. It enables real-time conversations between colleagues, with other companies or with your customers, regardless of how they connect with you. The result is an increase in productivity and customer satisfaction rates. Everyday tens of millions of users in over 150 countries and in organizations such as Deutsche Bahn, the U.S. Navy and Credit Suisse trust Rocket.Chat to keep their communications completely private and secure. Rocket.Chat’s platform has been recognized as a Category Leader for Instant Messaging and Chat Software by GetApp, a Gartner company; named to Capterra’s Shortlist as a Top 20 Most Popular Live Chat Software; shortlisted by Constellation for Enterprise Group Messaging; and recognized by ISG Provider Lens as a Product Challenger for Enterprise Collaboration Solutions. For more information, please visit http://rocket.chat.
