Most businesses like to think that they operate in an open and supportive fashion, where ideas are exchanged freely and everyone knows where they fit into the business.

But a recent study shows that bosses and companies could be fooling themselves when it comes to how communicative they really are, with workers saying they don’t feel comfortable sharing good ideas with their bosses, don’t feel their superiors are interested in what they have to say and don’t feel appreciated for good work that they do.

Furthermore, it’s not just bosses that employees feel they are not communicating properly with, with many employees saying they often replicate other people’s work because they simply don’t know what other people in the business are actually doing. And despite feeling unclear, we’re actually swamped with internal meetings and emails, which is estimated to cost the UK economy up to £255 million a day.

The study highlights the lack of communication that exists in many businesses in the UK. So how much untapped talent and how many potentially break through ideas are businesses missing out of because of this? And how much work is being replicated and time being wasted because the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing?

Communication between individuals, teams and departments can change the way businesses collaborate and share data, and can help to reduce emails and eliminate meetings, and ultimately improve efficiency and results. So how can you improve communication in your business?

Log on to our web TV show where Richard Alvin gives his top tips for opening up the lines of communication to make sure you business is getting the most out of your employees. Also on the couch is Edward Saatchi of the famous Saatchi advertising family, who set up the website ‘NationalField’ which has become known as the Facebook of the business world, helping employees and managers to communicate easily at the click of a button. Sitting alongside him will be Andrew managing director of Ocean Sky Aircraft Management who has firsthand experience of using NationalField.

‘NationalField’ has even been credited with being a key factor in the election of President Barack Obama in 2008, with his team using the website to track what was happening in real-time within the organisation.

Edward Saatchi and Richard Alvin join us live online at www.studiotalk.tv on Tuesday 18th October at 14.30.