Is SMS the Future of Employee Communication or Should We Stick with Email?

Hi All,

Please share your views on whether Employee Communication through SMS is a good avenue to deploy or if the Conventional Email system is the one to follow.

In my opinion, in the next generation to come, mobiles are more accessible and will provide a more personalized touch to communication.

Please feel free to share your views!

Hi,

Even though mobile communication might be prominent in all fields, it's not right to communicate through SMS to or between employees. This is because sometimes we might need to track the history of a particular conversation which can't be done using mobiles. There are so many other practical difficulties. This is my view.

Regards,
Jayashri

I agree with Jayasree. Any official interaction should be done through emails. This will help in keeping track of every detail, and one cannot deny it. For SMS, one might say that they have not received it or claim that it got deleted wrongly before they could read it. SMS can be useful for instantly conveying a message but one must email the details for future reference.

This is all that I feel.

Hi Shri,

I too agree with both Sohini and Jayashree. Since you can't keep a record of things, it is always good to use emails, which will help you make others understand the message clearly. Hope you will agree with me.

Regards,
Amith R.

Hi Amith, Sohini & Jayshree... Thanks for your opinion.

Suppose there is an online tool used for pushing SMS, maintaining a database of recipients, enabling scheduling of messages, and many other functions. Of course, it should not be used for individual communication (official), but for some kind of mass communication, urgent notices, for your Sales & Marketing, or any other field operations team who do not have access to emails all the time. This could include corporate achievements, motivational quotes in the morning, etc.

I think mobile SMS is also a good avenue for the mentioned activities.

Waiting for your views on this.

Regards,

SHRI

In that case, it can be done. But still, I suppose the executives are leaving the office for their appointments. Try to finish off with all data interaction then only, rather than waiting for him to leave the office. For motivational quotes, you can write them on the board where you discuss your marketing strategies or on the notice board, which is easily visible to all employees.

Hi,

For the above-mentioned purposes, a company can utilize an internal chat system. Each employee can have a separate ID and password, which can be used instead of mobile SMS.

Awaiting comments.

Regards, Jayashri

Hi Jayashree & Sohini,

Hope you are doing well.

I never underestimate the importance of emails or internal chat engines. I just want to convey whether SMSs can also act as an instant tool to get in touch with your employees. I have mentioned its many other features on all the avenues we can deploy it. It's not only catering to the IT sector or ITES sector, but various sectors where all employees don't sit in front of the system all the time. Many companies like Pharma, Manufacturing, Advertising, Media, to name a few industries where we can deploy SMS-based services for employee communication.

Awaiting your response!

Regards,
SHRI

Yes, any communication in the official environment should be through emails rather than SMS. I feel mobile is a bit personal thing, whereas emails are more official. By forwarding SMS, we cannot maintain a professional tone; that personal touch is present, which I feel is not always required.

All the best!

Regards,
Smriti

Here is the corrected text with proper spelling, grammar, and paragraph formatting:

"Yaah, I admit... that's why I said... people who are leaving the office for appointments or have fieldwork should at least come to the office once daily, right? And for those who are not approved for the system, as I mentioned, they can use the notice board or the whiteboard, etc. Of course, for important and urgent cases, you can use mobile devices, but it's important to limit it. That's it."

It's clearly a forward-thinking concept that can gain popularity with high-end application mobiles and mini computers.

Please let me know if you need any further assistance.

Communication through SMS should be avoided between employees. However, in certain cases, when I call my Team Leader to inform them about my leave, she never picks up the call. What am I supposed to do? Additionally, we have a criteria that leave cannot be informed at the last minute.

Radhika Srinivasan
IT Recruiter

Hi,

It is best to follow up with a written note or email. I don't think that an SMS communication would be held as legally delivered in the eyes of the law. If the message is of the type which the receiver doesn't want to receive, they could always claim that they did not receive it because of a network problem.

Having said this, I read in the news last year that a company informed a number of employees on a Monday morning that they were "being laid off and need not attend work" through SMS. This was followed by written documents. This took place in Europe (don't recall the organization name or the country). It showed a very insensitive attitude of the management and the HR towards the employees, along with an inability to stand in the line of fire and deliver bad news.

Regards,
Ryan

Hi Everybody,

Communication through SMS may be a good idea in personal matters. However, in my opinion, for official communication, we should not use this medium as records of such communication may not be available for future reference. Nevertheless, kudos to the new technology, as one day or the other, we will have to adopt these advancements in our day-to-day work.

Regards,
Pankaj Sharma
Executive

Dear Friend,

Even though SMS communication is acceptable in one way, that should definitely be confirmed by written documents which safeguard the establishment/HR department later.

P. Ramachandran

Even I used to come across such circumstances where employees or fieldwork students, whenever they wanted to take leave, they would send an SMS. I personally advised them with the same wordings that are written by all.

Regards, Praveen.

Hi All,

In the office, we can use the existing email system for all important communications. When offline, SMS is the best way to communicate messages. As Smriti said, it would give a personal touch.

Regards, Sathish J

Yes, I think for conveying general, urgent, one-way, short messages to the staff, especially those in the field, it is a good idea. We should understand that it is just a means of communication; its potential should not be underestimated, nor should it be thought of as superficial.

Riyaz

Greetings for the day ahead!!!

I am in complete agreement with for.shri.

For instant communication, it has to be mobile especially in cases where everybody is not in front of his/her workstation. The logic:

1. For keeping a record of communication, one can use SMS services from a computer. There are many available in the market. In such SMS, the message goes from a name and not a number, and thus corporate identity is maintained as well. (Posted earlier by for.shri)

2. As far as mobile being personal is concerned, most people today have two mobiles - work & personal. Even if anybody has only one mobile, we all use it for official purposes during office hours.

3. Concerning deleting SMS, that may be a worry, but once the practice is started, people will start looking into SMS before deleting them.

We have deployed this tool in our org, and it is very successful and helpful, actually.

Just to substantiate, one of the biggest banks in India runs purely on SMS, especially BD & wealth management.

These are my personal views, not meant to offend anybody.

Regards

Dear All,

In the advancement of technology, it is wise to utilize it rather than keeping it shelved. In the case of employees on the move, not all will have a laptop with a data card, but many have a cell phone. Certain messages such as meeting reminders, well wishes, or any information to be conveyed to the employee, like someone they interact with being on leave, can be efficiently communicated via SMS. It is easy and, of course, quick.

Best Wishes,
R. Ramamurthy

Hi,

I accepted the view of Jayashree and Basu Roy's communication through email, which is useful for recording, maintaining, and reviewing the same (Database). I also agreed with the statement of Shri. Communication through email or SMS is based on the needs of the business concern or area. Certain communications should be maintained as a record (needing review), while some may not need to be.

For example:
- Email is necessary for conversations related to decision-making, forwarding technical data, and so on.
- SMS is suitable for following up on work, sending reminders, and is more applicable for field executives.

The above-discussed communication (email or SMS) is really effective based on the situations.

Thanks & regards,
R. Rajaram

Communication can be done through more effectively via SMS. If there is an urgent message to be conveyed, then SMS plays a crucial role; otherwise, email is suitable for communicating messages.

Communication can be done through much importance than through SMS. If any urgent message needs to be conveyed, then SMS plays a role; otherwise, email is good for conveying messages.

Thanks & Regards,
Lakshmi

Science has been developing rapidly, and day by day, hi-tech utilities are becoming available in the market. Mobile phones with email facilities are also widely accessible. These phones can be connected to your computer so that whenever your PC receives an email, you can view it along with any attached files on your mobile phone. You can promptly respond using either your mobile or PC, depending on your convenience, or with the assistance of your office colleagues. This utility allows us to manage tasks promptly even while away from the office.

Regards,

Dear Friends,

Official communication through email is important for all of you because it helps in keeping records. I agree with all of you. I would like to point out that if the system gets a virus or the hard disk crashes, then you will lose everything stored on it. SMS is a new invention in communication that helps in staying in touch with all the employees of the company at one point in time. The key here is to communicate with all employees, whether they are in the field or in the office.

These days, companies offer mobile connections with GPRS activated for accessing emails on the go. In short, we need to embrace new communication patterns like SMS while continuing with the traditional email pattern as well.

Thank you all.

Ketul Shah

Just want to add...

I believe that humans always do what comes first in their hand in an emergency, like in today's world, using mobile (SMS) to inform about important things. I feel it's fine for emergency purposes only, but for daily communication, you may prefer emails. Now you can also access emails from your cell.

Thanks,
Chanda

SMS is good for sending short messages only, such as reminders to attend a meeting or follow-up matters. However, when it comes to important communication, email or a formal letter should be used.

N. N. Tiwari

I think we should be more interactive on this website. Can anyone tell me how we can chat here?

In my opinion, SMSing is not the proper official communication method; it should be through official mail. Employee communication should be done through email, which can be used for sharing any official information or when a message has to be conveyed to more employees rather than just one or two employees.

I agree with Jayasree. Any official interaction should be done through emails. This will help in keeping track of every detail, and one cannot deny it. For SMS, one might say they have not received it or claim it got deleted mistakenly before being read. SMS can be useful for instant conveying of messages, but it is essential to email the details for future reference. This is my perspective on communication using SMS in this generation.

Regards

Employees have gone to the extent of using a funny, weird abbreviated language to communicate these days. This is not a healthy trend.

Anything official needs to be either mailed, or a regular letter should be sent in.

Hi,

No doubt, communication through SMSing can give a personalized touch, yet organizational communication should not be conducted through SMSing. Official communication is formalized. All official communication does not need to be personalized. The size of the communication matters - one cannot load all the files/attachments for reference!

Regards,
Ellora

I feel it should be implemented in some departments and not for all. This might be very important for departments such as Marketing & Sales, branch offices reporting to the Head Office, etc., as it occurs with many companies and their employees working from outstation locations where they might have poor internet connectivity or there could be a state-wide strike or a natural disaster on that day.

I believe all of us will agree that it's very much required, but again, not for all departments or sections functioning within a company.

Hi all,

I think in a fast-paced environment, communication through SMS is not harmful. Maybe your SMS should not come from an individual mobile number. It can come from specifying the company name, not any numbers.

I will accept this is not a formal one, but it can act as a ready reference and convey important things as well. The employees will realize the efforts the company will take care of themselves.

This is my opinion. Comments awaited!