Today, workplaces everywhere are becoming more global, more mobile, and more digitalized. Yet, in organizations all across the world, valuable time is still lost every day searching for information – documents, forms, handbooks and guides.
In a study called America’s Most Broken Processes, software company Nintex found that 49% of the one thousand employees surveyed from a wide range of industries and departments said they have trouble locating documents.
Then, of course, there’s McKinsey’s infamous report that revealed employees spend 1.8 hours every day — 9.3 hours per week, on average — searching and gathering information.
Information Overload
It’s no wonder employees spend so much time searching for information - the sheer volume of information “out there” is astounding. A Forbes article called 10 Steps to Conquering Information Overload, cites Daniel Levitin, McGill University psychology professor and author of The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload, who shares that “In 1976, there were 9,000 products in the average grocery store, and now it’s ballooned to 40,000 products”.
Levitin calculates that we’ve created more information in the last 10 years than in all of human history before.
In the Clouds
With workplace digitalization, cloud storage and cloud-based software have become increasingly prominent solutions for housing and centralizing the mass of information which exists today. In fact, Tech Jury predicts that an incredible 82% of the workload will reside on the cloud by 2020.
However, in order for cloud solutions to be practical and useful, functionality and ease of use are imperative. Benify’s market-leading global benefits and total rewards platform has helped thousands of organizations around the world digitalize their workplace. Through the self-service portal, employees can find information concerning their employment including, payslips, pensions, and benefits, all in one place, reducing the number of inquiries sent to HR.
HR can also place important company information such as handbooks and policy guides, as well as forms, FAQs and more, in the portal so that employees can access this information with ease.
One Very Small but Important Detail
While centralizing and housing information in a one-stop-shop is smart, in order to reduce the time spent looking for information, searchability is essential. Benify’s benefits and total rewards platform includes one small but very important detail - a search feature. You’d be surprised how many cloud services or file management systems are missing this simple but important function.
The usefulness of a search function cannot be overstated. Consider this: a survey by SearchYourCloud revealed that workers can take up to eight searches before finding the right document and information they need.
As EConsultancy shares, “Whether you choose mobile web or smartphone app, search will be one of the key means of interacting with your brand online whilst on the move.”
In the Benify platform, which can be accessed via computer or through the Benify app on a smartphone or tablet, employees can browse and search their benefits, use the booking tool to make appointments, discover new offers and more.
Just think how access to information and searchability contributes to the employee experience. If you’re interested in learning more about employee experience, download our e-book The New Employee Experience: "How to maximise and optimise every step of the employee journey". /Content%20offers%20(UK+COM)/E-books%20(UK+COM)/Employee%20Experience%20(UK+COM)/Employee_Experience_Cover.png?width=455&name=Employee_Experience_Cover.png)
How can your company make information easier to find and make up for lost time?