I saw an interesting article on Workplacelaw.net site last week about time lost from employees searching for lost files and documentation, which I thought I would share with you.
“Research published earlier this month revealed that the average UK employee wastes one and half hours a week looking for documents and information misplaced or lost at work.
The study by the information management specialists, EDM Group, states that for the entire UK workforce, this equates to approximately 37.6 million hours a week, worth a huge £557m. It adds that over the course of a year, the corresponding figures are 1.95 billion hours and £29bn.
EDM Group predicts that this problem will only get worse because the amount of information and data employees receive is increasing at a dramatic rate. According to its research, 56% of people claim that they now receive more information at work than they did three years ago, while 18% said that they have seen an increase of over 50%.
Commenting, Spencer Wyer, Group CTO at EDM Group, said:
“There are now so many more ways in which you can contact an organisation that it is easy for employees to become overrun with data and information. Not only is this having a negative impact on customer service, for example, we also believe that it will lead to employers facing more fines for non-compliance.
“Indeed, research we conducted earlier this year with senior executives reveals that over half expect the number and size of fines levied on companies for poor management of information in their sector over the next five years will increase – fewer than 3% expect a fall.”
The research by EDM Group also suggests that while the average time spent by an employee looking for lost documents is one and a half hours a week, 2% of the UK workforce spend over five hours doing this, and 9% of employees spend between three and five hours.
Of the five specific sectors reviewed (healthcare, financial services, professional business services, retail and Government/not for profit/public sector), employees working in healthcare waste on average 1.64 hours a week looking for information and documents, which was the highest of the five sectors.”
If the above is an on-going problem for your organisation, please contact Rackline on the numbers below, our products can help reduce employee’s time looking for lost documents.
If you would like to arrange to a free consultancy visit to discuss any filing or storage requirements or would like further information on our products, please use our contact form or telephone our sales office on 01782 770144
