In recent months, Australia’s office workers have endured a great deal. Many businesses have been forced to shrink their workforce, ways of working have been turned upside down, and for many employees, there’s been a steep learning curve in terms of adopting remote working processes, and new collaboration platforms.
While a great number of businesses have transitioned seamlessly, others have struggled – and in many, the employee experience has suffered. A pre-COVID-19 study predicted that attracting and retaining staff was going to be the #1 issue in 2020 for global CEOs and the broader C-Suite[i]. Now, with remote working set to stay in offices around Australia, at least to some degree, it’s more important than ever before that businesses hone-in on the experience they are offering their people.
So, what makes a positive employee experience?
There’s considerable evidence to suggest that – along with opportunities for promotion and learning – the technology that workers use on a daily basis plays a key role in terms of their overall level of satisfaction and engagement.
In fact, as we discuss in this blog, almost a quarter of all workers say they would even consider leaving their job if the software wasn’t up to scratch[ii].
Unfortunately, however, recent studies also suggest that when it comes to technology, ‘information overload’ is a key problem for many employees and is having a very negative effect on the employee experience.
According to a recent study[iii]:
- 25% of workers experienced significant stress and poor health due to the volume of information they’re required to process.
- 36% of managers reported poor health due to the excessive information they were required to process in the workplace.
- 68% of those managers felt that information overload has had a negative impact on their personal and professional relationships.
What’s the opportunity for improvement?
Technology can play a key role in helping businesses avoid information overload and deliver a more positive and rewarding experience for employees.
In our experience providing information management solutions to a broad range of business, doing so involves answering some key questions:
1. Is your collaboration platform up to scratch?
Evidence suggests that collaboration is now an essential part of the working day, but sadly, only 14% of companies say their internal processes for collaboration and decision-making are working well[iv]. Providing employees with a powerful platform – like Microsoft Teams – that enables them to seamlessly share information, chat, and work together, has become an absolutely essential component of the modern workplace experience.
2. How can you overcome information overload?
For many businesses that have invested in a collaboration platform like Microsoft Teams, the benefits are very clear. However, a downside can be that employees become overwhelmed by the volume of information at hand, to the extent that it becomes very hard to find what they’re looking for. For businesses where this is the case, Search365’s Teams Scout app can help. Our app allows users to search for information in Teams channel posts, files, and wikis, as well as Microsoft emails, calendar items, documents, and more.
3. What’s right for your business?
The collaboration solution that’s right for your business, and how it’s implemented and used, may be different to another – so it’s important to get expert advice on what will work best for you. This is where the team at Search365 can help. To find out more, please get in touch.
[i] Forbes, CEOs worry culture is holding back innovation, 2020, [online], https://www.forbes.com/sites/chetwade/2020/01/02/ceos-worry-culture-holding-back-innovation/
[ii] Tech Republic, 2019, Would you quit your job over bad software? https://www.techrepublic.com/article/would-you-quit-your-job-over-bad-software-24-of-employees-have-considered-it/
[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] Deloitte, The Connected Workforce – how much is too much? [online], https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/consulting/articles/connected-workforce-employee-experience-social-collaboration.html
