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American professionals overwhelmed with too much information
26 February, 2008
By Mark Cox |
A national workplace survey reports that more than seven in ten American white collar workers feel inundated with information at their workplace, while more than two in five feel that they are headed for an information "breaking point." The survey of 650 white collar and knowledge workers found that employees across virtually every industry are affected by information overload, but that the problem is particularly acute in the legal profession -- with almost eight in ten legal professionals saying they are increasingly overloaded with information.
The 2008 Workplace Productivity Survey, commissioned by LexisNexis, is the first of this scope to look at the rising problem of information overload for the U.S. legal and professional fields.
According to the survey, a majority of employees in the professional and legal fields feel they are close to a breaking point, where they will be unable to effectively process or handle any increase in information flow. The survey also indicates that companies have not provided the right tools employees need to cope with this growing information burden.
Sixty-two percent of professionals report said they spend a lot of time sifting through irrelevant information to find what they need; 68 percent wish they could spend less time organizing information and more time using the information that comes their way.
While an average workday for white collar workers is 8.89 hours, the survey finds that on average, 7.89 working hours are used conducting research, attending meetings, and searching for previously created documents.
White collar professionals also said they spend an average of 2.3 hours daily conducting online research, with one in ten spending four hours or more on an average day.
The information age has brought the American professional workforce to an information overload, said Mike Walsh, CEO of LexisNexis U.S. Legal Markets. "The results of the survey clearly suggest opportunities for American businesses to ease this growing burden by providing workers with the right technology, training and tools. Companies that take action on this issue will realize higher employee productivity and satisfaction."
LexisNexis sponsored the 2008 National Workplace Productivity Survey. The national study included 650 white collar and knowledge workers in more than 23 different sectors, including 250 professionals from the legal industry and 400 non-legal white collar professionals. It was fielded by WorldOne research, an international market research agency, specializing in the collection and analysis of data for leading market research organizations, consulting firms and corporations. The findings are available online at (www.lexisnexis.com/literature/pdf/ Workplace_Productivity_Survey_Results).
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