The Center for Media Research reports that professional workers are spending more and more time searching for information. The survey, HotTopics: 2001 vs. 2005: Research Study Reveals Dramatic Changes Among Information Consumers, commissioned by Outsell, reveals that professionals on average spend 11 hours per week gathering information
4 thoughts on “Searching kills employee productivity”
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“Collectively, the time spent gathering and looking for information translates to an estimated. 5.4 billion lost hours per year for US corporations” — it looks as if they are assuming that 100% of the time spent searching is wasted. That is, of course, ridiculous. People wouldn't keep searching if they weren't finding what they seek. Let's be reasonable and say HALF the time is wasted because of the other points you raised. That's 2.7 billion hours — still an impressive number, but not so obviously a pseudo-statistic.
These statistics show an opportunity to improve the efficency of information retrieval, but don't necessarily mean that we are less productive. There are plenty of productivity and efficiency numbers published; no need to invent them out of statistics on searching.
Well you know what they say about surveys: “you can produce a survey for any intended result.” Good point about the stats though — it may be inflated and hugely sensational, but the point is clear: employees are wasting far too much time trying to find information.
Of course you are right – employees are more productive than ever. However, most intranets are contributing only in minor ways and could in fact make employees far more productive than they are today.