Chris Beck

Industry professionals 'wasting 46 minutes a day' working from home

News
2 mins read

Research released by Sinequa has uncovered new challenges in finding information when working remotely for the manufacturing and engineering sectors.

The research found that efficiency and productivity across the industry is struggling:

  • The average manufacturing and engineering professional searches for information 8 times a day on average and spends nearly 6 minutes each time carrying out the search
  • This represents an average of 46 minutes a day spent searching for information, per employee, which could be otherwise used more productively
  • In fact, 55% of manufacturing and engineering professionals report that there are days when they cannot find the information they are looking for at all
  • Although 49% of manufacturing and engineering professionals report being more productive when working from home, three quarters (75%) believe they could be more productive if they have better access to information
  • This is corroborated by a previous Sinequa study of senior decision makers that found 55% of organisations wish to implement digital workplaces in order to increase employee performance.

    • 2020’s global switch to remote working went relatively smoothly for most organisations, but the downside is that conversations and documents are becoming increasingly scattered and siloed across systems. Finding the information that manufacturing and engineering professionals need to carry out their jobs is becoming harder than ever, with 41% of workers say it’s harder to find the information they are looking for when working remotely. As a result, manufacturing and engineering businesses are increasingly looking to implement digital workplace solutions to help employees get their work done.

    Top reasons for why it is harder includes data siloes, lack of access to information, and not having colleagues on hand to assist with queries:

  • The systems are slower from home (27%)
  • I can’t ask my colleagues for the answer (24%)
  • The information is scattered in lots of locations (22%)
  • The information is siloed across many files (16%)
  • There is no central search function (14%)

    • There are also further challenges to tackle when colleagues go on holiday. According to Sinequa’s research two-thirds (67%) of workers in manufacturing and engineering businesses have struggled to find information they need when a member of their team has gone on holiday. This has a knock effect on the work that they are doing, with over a third (37%) of respondents agreeing that this meant they couldn't access sensitive information, which in turn set back the projects they were working on.

    Stephane Kirchacker, VP Sales EMEA at Sinequa said: “In modern enterprises, it’s a challenge for employees to find the information they need to carry out their jobs. 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. Professionals in the manufacturing and engineering sectors 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 about Sinequa’s latest research into remote working and the challenges that enterprise workers face by reading its latest whitepaper on the Digital Workplace.