Although the internet has created many business and networking opportunities for businesses, the importance of face-to-face communication must not be forgotten.

Many employees can find themselves overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of emails, phone messages and social media activity that need to be dealt with each day. Some companies are choosing to address this and direct communication away from online channels.

Technology firm Atos has decided to phase out email as an internal communications tool. “Email has become the easy way to communicate but also the lazy way,” says Rob Price, the UK managing partner of Atos.

Indeed, over-reliance on the web is causing many people to lose their interpersonal or soft skills as Sir Victor Blank, the former chairman of Lloyds TSB, explains:

“Technology is a massive aid to communication, but if it takes away regular face-to-face or direct conversations, then you lose something of the softer edges.”

Face to face is one of the most powerful forms of communication and makes sound business sense. It works very effectively, particularly when used to discuss challenging or potentially controversial issues. Talking face to face is often less open to misinterpretation and allows the recipient the opportunity for direct feedback.

This opportunity for interactive, two way communication is essential. Communication shouldn’t be a one-way process, with the employer talking to employee for example. Instead, internal communications should seek to engage, with a free flow of information from one party to another, allowing people at different levels to feed in their views and gain a response.

Over the next two days, the Clareville team is meeting and discussing its PR expertise face to face with visitors at Marketing Week. As part of the Ask The Agency Zone at the two day event at Olympia London, businesses have the opportunity to meet experts from Clareville and discuss how to use PR to further their business success.

Meet the Clareville team at Marketing Week Live 26 – 28 June at Olympia, London. More details can be found here: www.marketingweeklive.co.uk/