Email is dead.

We spend 28% of our time reading and answering emails*, which means more than 2.24 hours every day or 11.2 hours every week. Do you want to use that time for things that matter? For tasks that are specific to your role and that make the project move forward? Stop using email.

Communication beyond email

Email is how you share information, how you assign tasks, and how you escalate risks. You use email for most of the communications you have with your team and other departments. You love email because everything is written down and stays there. We don’t want to take that away from you, but it is time that you start embracing new ways to share information and interact with your colleagues, and mainly, it is time for you to get part of those 11.2 weekly hours back.

If you want collaboration in your team, the unidirectional nature of email will go against your efforts. If you want to establish real conversations and to illustrate them in a dynamic way that reinforces collaboration, it is time for a change. Contact us and we will help you analyze what aspects of your communication and processes can benefit from new technologies. The time to embrace collaboration tools has arrived.

How is it possible that killing email will help my communication?

Emails are not for collaboration, emails are cold and we all know that they bring serious miscommunication. Collaboration tools are designed so we can interact in a more organized way with our colleagues. They are applications designed to help teams and people that are involved in common tasks to achieve goals.

The communication is task-based so instead of one email that contains instructions about 5 different tasks, you can receive comments about each one of the tasks. When you are ready to perform that task, just go to the online collaboration tool and find all the instructions and comments. Everything is well organized for you and it is easier to follow the thread.

A must for rapidly changing organizations

For the last 10-15 years, your organization has been moving at the speed of light: adapting to markets, merging with others, introducing new products, etc. So fast that you are not even sure you are comfortable with it. In this scenario of constant change, collaboration tools can be your ally, because you will be able to stay more organized.

You have been there, sometimes finding an email makes you feel like Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost. The McKinsey Global Institute has estimated that we could improve our productivity between 25%-30% if we stop using emails. Imagine you don’t have to read so many emails, that you don’t have to search for messages, to think about who is on copy and who is not; and to send “FYI” messages when somebody forgot to put on copy half of the affected people.

A must if you want to attract young talent

If you have realized that your company needs to be attractive for young and creative talent, letting them wear whatever they want at work is not going to be enough. The tools you give them to communicate cannot be from the 20th century, they need to be contemporary. Take into account that nowadays all the study groups in universities are organized around collaboration tools and messaging applications, not email. If you want to attract new talent, don’t talk to them about email or they will run away from the job!

On top of that, there is the gamification aspect. We all like to play, but millennials have grown up playing games that constantly reward them for their achievements. Collaboration tools include a gaming strategy which leads to an increase on employee satisfaction and helps team motivation not only with younger generations but absolutely everybody.

Think it in this way, in organizations where team members are evaluated based on the results they achieve and not on the time they spend in the office, it just makes sense that communication is also task based, don’t you think?

A must for geographically dispersed teams

You used to call home to say you would be late, now you send a text or a WhatsApp. The same should be happening at work. Shorter and more agile communications should be replacing email especially when we are talking about virtual teams that are far from each other. Communication with collaboration tools take less time. On top of that, if you are struggling with trust between team members, collaboration tools will be your ally, they will help you build trust based on better communication and transparency.

They are the best way to working across different time zones: the information is all in the collaboration tool. No need for so many meetings at crazy hours. You can easily rely on the collaboration tool to spread messages.

What tool is appropriate for your organization?

Contact us and we will help you find the collaboration tool that better fits your needs. Don’t invest time looking at the hundreds of tools that are available in the market. Contact our team of experts and we will help you Twitternarrow down the list of tools and help you set it up so your team, whether they are all in one location or not can start improving their time. Have you thought of all the things they will be able to do with 11 extra hours every week?!

Are you interested in introducing teleworking, remote collaboration and virtual leadership in your company, feel free to visit pwcib.com or follow me on: Twitter , Facebook and YouTube

*International Data Corporation (IDC): McKinsey Global Institute analysis https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/capturing-business-value-with-social-technologies