OpenText, a company that develops and sells enterprise information management software, released a new survey today revealing the extent to which the effects of information overload are impacting Canadians, and how this has changed through the COVID-19 pandemic.
OpenText surveyed 27,000 consumers worldwide, including 2000 Canadians, in 12 countries.
Highlights from the survey reveal that over three quarters of Canadian respondents now feel that information overload, including the constant bombardment of news, pervasive social media, or too many apps to check daily – is contributing to their everyday stress. This compares with just 43 per cent who indicated in an OpenText survey conducted in 2020 that information overload contributed to their daily stress.
Additionally, only 44 per cent of Canadian employees responding to this year’s survey said they feel they are equipped with the right digital tools to work at home. However, at the start of the pandemic, 67 per cent of respondents said they felt prepared for remote work.
Thirty nine per cent of employees said that they normally spend one or more hours per day searching on company networks or shared systems for specific work files or pieces of information just to complete tasks for their job, and almost a half reported information scattered across multiple locations is hampering their ability to find the information they need to do their job.
The survey also revealed that about half of surveyed employees use personal file sharing systems like OneDrive, Google Drive, WhatsApp, and Dropbox for work related file sharing as a way to make things easier for them.
More information about the survey and its findings are available here.
