Vast majority still not connected to email

60% of employees are in ‘email exile’, with many organisations still reliant on bulletin boards and post, despite digital revolution initiatives. Research by Sendmail, Hewlett-Packard and Intel finds workers effectively cut off from instant messaging with their HQ, customers and colleagues because of the ‘deskless’ nature of their jobs, which don’t allow access to email through computers or PDAs. The result, say the trio, is that safety notices, customer requests, schedules and policy guidelines arrive much later throughout the company than the ‘wired’ world leads us all to believe. While a small number of companies surveyed (16%) use email, accessed from mobile devices or kiosks, to communicate with deskless workers, the vast majority (84%) still use more traditional methods such as snail mail and inter-office memos. Of this group, even the most technologically advanced only use one-way channels such as pagers or static intranet pages. “Everyone’s heard of the digital divide, but what’s surprising is that it has widened so dramatically within enterprises that are otherwise technologically advanced,” says John Stormer, vice-president of marketing at Sendmail. “This study clearly shows that while some corporate departments are using the latest enterprise technologies, those on the front-line are reliant on nothing more hi-tech than water-cooler chats and notice boards. This is despite the fact that almost half of the interviewees (45%) admitted that existing methods of communicating with deskless workers are slow, inefficient and expensive. “Email doesn’t need to be universal but firms do need to ensure they’re not hindering their staff’s productivity and performance by excluding them.”