SMS messages have a 98% open rate (Pew Internet), and most recipients are compulsively reactive to its accompanying alert; 90% of all text messages are read in under 3 minutes (Connect Mogul).  So, if getting your message delivered (and read) in a timely fashion is your goal, SMS takes some beating.  

Are we all closet Nomophobes?

Ever heard of nomophobia?  There’s no reason why you should have done, but rest assured it is a genuine and growing phenomenon these days, and there’s a strong chance you may well have experienced it yourself.  Quite literally, it is “no-mobile” phobia.  In other words, the fear of losing or being without a mobile phone.

As ‘first world problems’ go, it doesn’t get much more panic inducing than the moment of realisation that you’ve no clue at all where your mobile phone is. Or worse still. You do know where it is, because you can see it staring up at you from the bottom of the toilet pan.  Yep … been there, done that, won’t go into the detail.

How we interact with our Smartphones

The fact of modern life is that our smart phones and mobile devices have become an indispensible part of our daily lives.  We take them everywhere. Even when we aren’t actively using them, we are clutching them, poised and ready for action should there be an urgent requirement to tell the time, reply to a What’s App message, find where we are going, check the weather forecast, update Facebook, check a calendar appointment, or even, just maybe, make a good old conventional phone call.

The average person is never more than a metre away from their mobile phone, according to a survey by myvouchercodes.co.uk. And a study by mobile security company Lookout reported that 60% of respondents don’t go an hour without checking their phones.

And so it is that mobile technology has not only transformed the way we interact socially (or perhaps, arguably, anti-socially!), but it has also brought with it significant change to the way in which we communicate in business.  Mobile messaging is no longer simply useful for organising where and when to meet for drinks on a Friday night.  Specifically, there are examples of major institutions adopting SMS as a primary tool for communicating with customers and employees, and for sharing information, from test results and appointment confirmations via the NHS, to A-Level results and confirmation of school and university places within the education sector. There’s a very good reason for this; it works! SMS messages have a 98% open rate (Pew Internet), and most recipients are compulsively reactive to its accompanying alert; 90% of all text messages are read in under 3 minutes (Connect Mogul).  So, if getting your message delivered (and read) in a timely fashion is your goal, SMS takes some beating.

How does this impact corporate communications?

So what, we hear you say?  Well, the point is this: if it is a good enough means of communication for the NHS (in spite of all the issues they face around data protection and patient confidentiality), it is surely time that the world of HR embraced it more wholeheartedly as an efficient and productive communication tool in the work place. According to HeyWire Business’s recent survey, 67% of professionals use text messaging for business-related purposes. Of course, the emphasis must be on appropriateness, particularly in matters relating to employee relations.  (The example springs to mind of The Accident Group, who, back in 2003, communicated mass redundancies to their employees via text message; a move which was afterwards described by one of their spokespeople as ‘less than ideal’.  The very definition of an understatement!). But adopted appropriately, there are a whole host of ways in which SMS is arguably an ideal vehicle for communicating with employees.

Think about the last time you had to communicate something to your entire employee base, or even to a large sub section of it. In today’s workplace, traditional methods of internal communications have lost the edge.  Company notice boards won’t reach your home or remote workers (besides which, the chances are that everyone else will wander past oblivious, heads buried deep in their mobile phones). Company-wide emails are more effective, but risk becoming ‘lost’ in a long stream of inbox ‘noise’, especially for part timers whose ability to manage and monitor inbox activity is by nature only sporadic. Traditional memos and printed newsletters went out with the Ark. And corporate intranets will only reach those keen beans inclined to log on and actively engage with the content. The fact is that SMS is the superlative tool. Let us remind you of the stats again:  98% get opened, and 90% are read in under 3 minutes.

Monitoring employee opinion – the smart(phone) way

At great{with}talent we are all about employee engagement.  Our job is to help you make your business enjoyable for your people and productive and profitable through your people, so that they join, perform, deliver, develop and stay. We work with our clients to assess and monitor best-fit candidates at the hiring stage, and to build employee engagement and establish employee opinion throughout the employment life cycle.  We give your candidates, your current employees and those departing for pastures new a voice and a chance to influence how things are done and the environment in which they work.  And in so doing we empower you to make key and significant changes to workplace culture and practices which enhance the employee experience and in turn build upon your organisational achievement. Our expertise means that we can create exactly the right questionnaires and audit tools to suit your business and its needs, and we can turn the results into solution driven and action-oriented reports.

But even the most brilliantly composed candidate assessment tool, employee engagement questionnaire or online exit interview is wasted if it isn’t seen and responded to.  That’s why, for employers wanting to keep their finger on the pulse of leaver feedback, we’ve developed a simple, yet inspired solution which will transform the value of your exit data; leaver questionnaires via SMS. They’re targeted, ‘real time’ and ridiculously user friendly.  In most cases (and unlike email) they trigger an alert or notification, which serves to encourage the recipient to check and read the content almost instantly. And above all they are quick and easy to complete right there and then, on the go, from any mobile device.  No requirement to return to a desktop, log on and ‘make time’ for the task in hand.

We know the challenges every employer faces with leaver feedback.  The time and resource invested in sending out and chasing questionnaires, whether by snail mail or over email.  The impossible uphill struggle of encouraging your already disengaged leavers to engage with you openly and honestly one last time before they depart.  Not to mention the administrative burden that goes alongside every part of your ‘traditional’ exit management process.  The solution is simple.  Remove the ‘hassle factors’, make completion as simple and efficient as possible and you’ll see a significant upsurge in response rates, and in turn, increase the reliability of your leaver data.  Resulting in reports that give you real and honest insight into what triggers resignations in your company, and how to prevent them in the first place.

Effortless efficiency, both for you and for your employees. Sounds good doesn’t it? Don’t just take our word for it. View the leaver experience via SMS on your own device and you can see for yourself.

Don’t get left behind. Be smart. Join the fingertip revolution today and sign up for a free trial of our LastOpinion Leaver Experience Questionnaire.

If you are interested in using LastOpinion, please visit our website at www.lastopinion.com or our main site www.greatwithtalent.com