A few weeks ago I wrote about how email has become a key driver of mobile recruiting. I was essentially making an educated guess that a big percentage of email is being read on mobile devices, largely because of the way I read email.  Even before I switched from a Blackberry to iPhone, I would typically read emails for the first time on mobile, and then later on the desktop to access attachments or to follow links to additional content.  But with the iPhone, more and more content is now consumable right from the palm of my hand.

Rather than just speculate, we decided to conduct a survey to actually track this trend. We asked 134 professional workers a series of questions regarding how they use their smart phones in the workplace. The results illustrate some interesting insights regarding the impacts of mobile technology on workforce communications.

Here are a few snippets from the white paper which will be published in the coming week:

Smart Phones are never just for work.  94% of our respondents say they use their smart phone for both personal and work related purposes, only 6% say they use it for personal only, and none use their smart phone exclusively for work.  This means we are seeing more and more integration between personal and work related communications in terms of when and where employees access information.  It is also the trend that is driving organizations toward BYOD policies to enable employees to access company systems and data from their personal devices.  It is a way to leverage the productivity gains of mobile technology, without having to furnish and pay for the devices.

For the last couple of decades email and intranets have been the primary communications tool to keep our employees informed and to stay connected.  This can be problematic within industries like retail, hospitality, and health care where a good portion of the workforce is not likely have access to a company issued computer. So we asked about access.  Only 10% of the respondents say they are in front of a computer all day long, while more than 30% indicate they are at the PC for 1/2 the day or less.

75% of respondents have access to their smart phone 100% of the work day. Only 13% say they have access to their smart phone for 1/2 the day or less. Most companies are geared to communicate with their employees based on the assumption of computer access.  This data suggests that regardless of industry, the most reliable way to stay connected with your employees in the future will be through mobile devices.

More on this subject tomorrow………