A few years ago, Harvard Business Review suggested the amount of time modern workers spend collaborating has actually doubled over the last decade, and now equates to 80% of a person’s workday[i].
And just last year, 31% of respondents to Deloitte’s Human Capital Survey said they now operate mostly or almost wholly in teams[ii].
There’s no question employees are now collaborating more, and sharing greater volumes of information on a daily basis.
But unfortunately, this doesn’t necessarily translate to greater productivity.
In fact, evidence suggests many workers spend too much time wading through communication and searching for what they need.
In a recent study, a whopping 91% of workers in the US said they’re so overwhelmed with information, they sometimes delete or discard work-related content without even reading it[iii].
How collaboration solutions can help get cut-through
Collaboration solutions, like Microsoft Teams, have provided businesses with a powerful and effective way of managing this large-scale collaboration, giving employees a central and easy way to come together and share information and content.
It came as no surprise when Microsoft recently announced Teams was the fastest growing app in its company’s history, or that it now has in excess of 13 million daily users[iv].
However, as Microsoft Teams grew and businesses of all sizes have very rapidly embraced it for its powerful collaboration and integration with Office 365, it’s also given rise to a situation where there is so much information at hand, it’s increasingly difficult for employees to know where to quickly and easily find the files and resources they need.
As we spoke about in our last blog, this can be due to several factors, including a lack of process or structure for how information is saved and shared; lots of duplicate data; and the fact that a lot of information remains trapped in silos – shared only within certain teams and between certain people.
Can a search solution help?
For many businesses, adding a search tool on top of an existing collaboration solution can be an ideal way to find and use information effectively.
Our app, Teams Scout, for instance, is built on the Microsoft Platform and works seamlessly with Microsoft Teams. It gives users an easy and logical way to find information both in Teams, as well as across the business’ entire Microsoft ecosystem.
However, every business is different, and it’s important to find a collaboration solution that works for you and your people. If you’re interested in finding out more and seeing if Search365 can help your business improve access to information, get in touch.
[i] Harvard Business Review, Collaborative Overload, [online] https://hbr.org/2016/01/collaborative-overload
[ii] Deloitte Insights, 2019 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends
[iii] Smarp, How does information overload affect your business and how to stop it, 2020, <https://blog.smarp.com/how-does-information-overload-affect-your-business-how-to-stop-it>
[iv] TechCrunch, Microsoft says its slack competitor Teams now has 13 million daily active users, 2019
