Employees say finding information is harder when working from home

New research from enterprise search specialist Sinequa reveals that 61 percent of UK workers say it's harder to find the information they are looking for when working remotely.

The top reasons given for this are that systems are slower from home (25 percent), that information is scattered in lots of locations (24 percent) and because they can’t ask colleagues for an answer (24 percent).

The report also finds that knowledge workers in large enterprises now search for information eight times a day on average, spending over five minutes each time carrying out the search -- that means an average of 44 minutes a day, per employee spent searching for information.

A worrying 54 percent of employees say that there are days when they never find the information they were looking for at all.

Although 40 percent of knowledge workers questioned report being more productive when working from home, 59 percent believe they could be more productive if they had better access to information. Working from home isn't the only problem either, 68 percent of workers surveyed have struggled to find information they need when a member of their team has gone on holiday.

Stephane Kirchacker, VP sales EMEA at Sinequa, says:

In modern enterprises, it's a challenge for employees to find the information they need to carry out their jobs. Our research found the average knowledge worker spends 44 minutes a day searching for information and, on average, has to access five different systems in order to find that information.

While we are all working remotely, it's no longer an option to ask your colleague sat next to you to help you find the information you need. Technical issues reported, such as slow broadband, should be overcome in time, but challenges around finding information needs a change in approach from employers. If enterprises can get it right, the opportunities are plain to see. The majority of respondents said they could be more productive if they simply had better access to information, meaning less time spent searching for information and more time achieving proper results for the business.

You can find out more in Sinequa's white paper on the digital workplace.

Image credit: F8 studio / Shutterstock