Oakton has released findings from its Employee Collaboration Index that show many Australian companies don’t understand the value of employee collaboration.
The consulting services firm said the research was designed to provide insight into the collaboration practises of Australian organisations.
It is the first study of its kind released by the company. It found that 26 per cent of organisations continue to rely on older technologies such as email for collaborative purposes. Oakton also said that 20 per cent of companies still rely on face-to-face communication.
The study found that only twelve per cent of organisations use an intranet, and as few as nine per cent use video conferencing to collaborate with colleagues. Only three per cent use social media and just five per cent use the internet.
Oakton Chief Solutions and Innovation Officer, Shaji Sethu, said there appeared to be a fundamental disconnect between what is said and what organisations are actually doing.
“Our research shows that Australian organisations need help understanding how to build a strong business case around collaboration and seeking help from collaboration experts who can demonstrate the business case for collaboration technology, including quantifiable return on investment metrics, is the best start point.”
He went on to say it was striking that only some organisations frame the benefits of collaboration around hard business metrics.
The study also found 47 per cent of organisations in the country don’t know how much they plan to spend on collaboration in the next 12 months. That’s despite 97 per recognising the importance of it.
The figures are not surprising, given that most Australian employees still work in localised environments. In these situations, face-to-face contact is still an efficient way of working with fellow employees. This situation may change markedly as working environments become increasingly disparate.
Oakton insists there needs to be a change in attitude towards the value of collaboration from an engagement value to a hard business metric.
