In today’s business world, communication is essential for both employees and leaders to exchange information and determine priority tasks by organizing the workflow. However, communication should be face-to-face or synchronous with meetings according to the traditional working method. With the spread of remote and hybrid working cultures in today’s business world, synchronous communication is becoming increasingly difficult and negatively affects workflow.

According to some surveys, 35.50% of employees work remotely and from home, which weakens the effect of synchronous communication. If you are wondering how to communicate efficiently with all employees, we’ve got you covered!

In this article, we will explore synchronous and asynchronous communication and give you tips to increase your employees’ performance.

Ready? Let’s dive in!

TL; DR

  • Synchronous communication is a method in which two or more parties converse simultaneously.
  • All participants in asynchronous communication review and respond to messages as they become available.
  • The most popular examples of synchronous communication are meeting apps, chatting software, and face-to-face conversations.
  • The most popular examples of asynchronous communication are cloud services, knowledge management systems, and intranets.
  • Asynchronous communication is the most efficient way to communicate with remote and hybrid workers in today's business world.
  • You can use knowledge management systems to improve asynchronous communication and make sure everyone has access to the documents.
  • If you are looking for an AI assistant that can keep all your data in sync and use your data to complete knowledge management tasks, ZenoChat is the way to go.

What is Synchronous Communication?

Synchronous communication is a method in which two or more parties communicate simultaneously. In synchronous communication, the conversation participants listen to the person speaking simultaneously and make their sentences when their turn comes. Examples of this type of communication include meetings, digital meetings, daily conversations, telephone conversations, and conference calls. The essential and defining feature of synchronous communication is the ability to respond instantly.

What is Asynchronous Communication?

Asynchronous communication means interaction without real-time conversation and immediate replies. Asynchronous communication is a communication method in which two or more parties leave messages for each other and the recipients of the message reply when they are available. The best example of asynchronous communication is email. Email is a communication method in which the sender transmits their message, the information they want to convey, and the arrangements to one or more recipients, each recipient learns the information and gives a delayed reply.

Examples of Asynchronous Communication

Asynchronous communication, which is the most frequently used communication method by both individuals and companies in today's digital world, has different communication channels and methods. Let's take a look at the examples of asynchronous communication.

  • Messaging Software
  • Emails
  • Video Recording
  • Cloud Collaboration
  • Video Libraries
  • Knowledge Management Software
  • Intranets
  • Digital Workspaces
  • Editable SOPs

Synchronous vs Asynchronous Communication

Synchronous communication is a communication method where all parties sending and receiving the message are in the same place. For example, employees communicating with their coworkers in the office or leaders explaining tasks to team members are the most common cases where synchronous communication is used. Synchronous communication can take place not only in physical places but also on digital meeting platforms such as Google Meet and Teams. During synchronous communication, all parties must be available and able to respond immediately.

Synchronous vs Asynchronous Communication

In the asynchronous communication method, all participants examine and respond to the sender's message when they are available. This method is the perfect solution for remote or hybrid working styles. Moreover, the conditions required for synchronous communication, such as instant response and always being available, are not mandatory in this communication. Furthermore, the asynchronous communication method comes with lots of benefits, especially for companies.

Advantages of Asynchronous Communication

Asynchronous communication is a communication method where the sender and receiver of the message are not in the same place and available, so all receivers can examine the message with full focus when they are available. Asynchronous communication comes with lots of advantages for both receivers and senders, such as:

  • Flexibility to Respond: Employees can examine and respond to messages at their most productive times of the day. Since messages sent to employees in companies are usually related to tasks, employees can plan their workday.
  • High-Quality Responses: Since the receiver has more time to think and review the message, creative ideas and clearer responses can be produced in the asynchronous communication method.
  • Transparency: Since the applications used to transmit the message in asynchronous communication offer a chat history, all messages and content can be used for later reference.
  • No More Time Zone Issues: Asynchronous communication is essential for regular communication between employees and coworkers living in different time zones.
  • Time Saving: According to some key statistics by Wifitalents, meetings, being a synchronous communication method, cause employees to spend approximately 18 hours per week. You can put an end to time waste and increase the productivity of your employees by using asynchronous communication methods.
  • Increased Productivity: Employees will increase their productivity as they can avoid wasting time and review messages at the most productive time of the day.
Advantages of Asynchronous Communication

How to Improve Asynchronous Communication?

Asynchronous communication, like any other communication method, needs to be improved and practiced in order to be used effectively. If you want to increase your company's efficiency, make your employees more productive, and strengthen your communication, there are a few methods you should implement.

  • Write Your Thoughts and Refine Them
  • Avoid Overcommunicate
  • Divide Your Tasks into Documents
  • Plan Ahead
  • Make Sure Everyone Has Access to the Right Documents
  • Use Threads and Headings
  • Create a Clear Communication Process
  • Define Urgency
  • Schedule Check-ins

Importance of Internal Knowledge Management Systems on Asynchronous Communication

The most effective method of establishing asynchronous communication between employees and leaders or between different teams is internal knowledge management systems. Internal knowledge management systems allow you to store large amounts of data and information by controlling the files that all employees of the company can access. You can also upload interactive documents such as SOPs, to-do lists, and documents with approval check sections to knowledge management systems so that your employees can always stay in touch.

According to a research by Owllabs, 48% of workers feel like their company has too many communication platforms.

By moving all your internal data and asynchronous communication to knowledge management systems, you can ensure that your employees stick to just a few communication platforms. In this way, instead of checking dozens of platforms to communicate, your employees can focus on their tasks by checking a few basic platforms such as email and knowledge management systems. Reducing all of your company’s internal communication to a few platforms also prevents messages from being missed or overlooked.

TextCortex – Make Information Easily Accessible & Actionable

TextCortex is an AI co-pilot that you can use to complete both individual and company tasks, manage all your knowledge, and focus asynchronous communication on a single platform. TextCortex offers its users features such as multiple knowledge base creation, data analysis, multiple LLMs, and web search, with integrations to 30,000+ websites and apps.

ZenoChat – Knowledge Bases

TextCortex comes with conversational AI that is sure to streamline your entire company’s workload and boost your productivity called ZenoChat. ZenoChat is a conversational AI assistant that lets you use innovative LLMs like GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet, generate text/code/image, generate citation-based web search outputs, and create custom knowledge bases.

asynchronous communication

With ZenoChat’s Knowledge Bases, you can upload all your internal data to ZenoChat and integrate your databases like Notion, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive with just a few simple steps. Moreover, with ZenoChat’s Notion integration, you can keep all your data coordinated and strengthen your internal communication. Thus, you can boost your employees’ productivity by creating multiple knowledge bases for different employees and teams. See the results from one of our case studies:

  • TextCortex was implemented for Kemény Boehme Consultants as a solution to tackle these challenges and today employees report increased efficiency and productivity (saving 3 work days per month per employee on average).
  • AICX, an ecosystem partner of TextCortex, was integral to the onboarding and helped achieve a 70% activation rate of the team within the first weeks.
  • Employee confidence in using and working with AI increased by 60%.‍
  • The implementation results in a 28x return on investment (ROI).