A major new study has laid bare the growing disconnect between what organisations think they are providing for their workers and what employees are actually experiencing on the ground.
The State of Workforce Communication Report, commissioned by Mitel and conducted by independent research firm Vanson Bourne, surveyed 2,000 respondents across the US, Canada, the UK, France, and Germany. The study was designed to go beyond the IT perspective, capturing the views of three distinct groups: IT decision-makers, desk workers, and frontline workers – each represented in roughly equal numbers.
The result is one of the most comprehensive snapshots of workforce communication in the AI era, and it reveals a market under significant strain.
The Gap Between Perception and Reality
The headline finding is stark. Ninety-three percent of IT leaders consider communication tools integral to daily business operations – yet only 34 percent of workers say those tools are highly effective.
That is not a marginal gap. It is a fundamental misalignment between the people deploying technology and the people depending on it.
Eric Hanson, CMO at Mitel, believes the roots of the problem run deep. "So often in our industry – and actually in every technology category – we get so excited about the technology that we forget that at the end of the day, technology is supposed to be applied to a real business need or a problem to be solved," he said.
"For a long time, communications has been largely a one-size-fits-all approach, and especially since COVID, largely biased towards the knowledge worker and towards video-first, meeting-first experiences. That doesn't address the needs of frontline workers."
The numbers bear this out. Sixty-three percent of workers say they feel pressured to "make it work" with systems that were not designed for their needs.
For frontline workers – like healthcare staff, factory floor workers, field operatives, and retail workers who represent the majority of the global workforce – that figure rises to 71 percent.
Seven Tools, Zero Alignment
Part of the problem is sheer tool overload. The study found that workers are navigating an average of seven disconnected communication tools just to complete routine tasks.
Fifty-seven percent say they waste time switching between those tools, while 50 percent of frontline workers report feeling increased pressure during busy or critical moments as a direct result.
For Hanson, the issue is not simply that there are too many tools – it is that the wrong tools are being provided in the first place. "It's a combination of both," he said. "In some cases, there are legacy tools that have been maintained for lots of different reasons. In other cases, it's the residual effect of a breakdown in governance. IT leaders think they've established the right policies, but because those tools are not fit for purpose, end users go around them. They're using WhatsApp, Slack, and other channels – and that's part of what's driving the sprawl."
