Do web 2.0 tools boost employee productivity?

Posted on 13. Feb, 2009 by admin in Employee productivity tips

A new European study of 3,000 users in the UK and Europe sponsored by Adobe and conducted by Forrester found that, despite the hype and press coverage around collaborative networking tools, they are failing to hit the mark for knowledge workers looking to work efficiently and securely together.

Some of the findings are outlined below:

99% said they worked collaboratively with others, and 81% worked with two or more people in different time zones and geographical regions.

49% said that they need to create high-impact content once a month or more. But in doing so, 87% of European knowledge workers had experienced problems with the standard collaboration tools they were currently using.

65% of respondents said faster collection of information was needed

49% wanted to reduce their reliance on paper for information collection

44% said they lacked more engaging ways to collaborate with colleagues

As a result of some of the problems, Tim Walters, a Forrester senior analyst, said knowledge workers tend to resort to using real-time communications, like the phone or email, to share information collaboratively. This has a knock on effect with senior management not seeing the returns on employee productivity they were hoping for.

“The challenge for the enterprise therefore is not just to provide improved collaboration solutions but also to support workers’ current work habits while transitioning them to new and constantly evolving ways of working,” he said.

The study also found collaboration tools were not necessarily set up to ensure the protection of information assets and prevent unauthorised employee activity. Nearly half (47%) of respondents were confident about the security of sharing information within their organisations, but only 21% were confident when sharing data outside of their company.

Forrester warned IT departments to educate knowledge workers of the security risks and find tools and processes that minimise the exposure of sensitive information at the document level.

To avoid the productivity divide, employees are also urged to ensure that users are properly trained on these technologies. The savings in man hours and travel costs are available to be had. Harness the technologies correctly and they will come. With this area and many more, technology is the easy bit, cultural change is the challenge.