Findings indicated that 58 percent of surveyed U.S. government and education workers said they spend nearly half of their average workday filing, deleting or sorting paper or digital information. According to Basex, a knowledge economy research firm, this amounts to at least $31 billion spent managing information each year by local, state and federal governments.
"Government agencies are being asked to maintain the same level of service to constituents while staring at severely slashed budgets," said Jonathan Spira, chief analyst of Basex. "Tackling the information overload problem is a good place to start recapturing some of those costs."
Other responses from the survey suggest taking steps to ease information overload will help speed up work processes, reduce employee stress and ultimately save time and money for government and education agencies. Of the workers surveyed:
- 57 percent say not finding the right information for their jobs is more frustrating than being stuck in a traffic jam
- 38 percent said they have had to redo reports or other work
- 24 percent said they have used the wrong information
- 23 percent missed deadlines as a result of inefficient management
- 37 percent strongly to somewhat agree that their organizations are drowning in paper
- 50 percent strongly to somewhat agree that their organization's business processes are paper-based
- 45 percent felt increased stress and anxiety about their work
