Enterprise employees worry that poor collaboration tools result in lost revenue

Just over half of office workers believe poor employee collaboration in hybrid and remote work environments is costing organisations revenue, and nearly two-thirds (62%) of employees agree that poor collaboration tools stunt overall business growth, according to research from professional creativity and productivity solutions provider Corel Corporation.

The Collaboration survey polled 2,027 office workers from the US, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Australia, and found that collaboration tools have enjoyed a renewed importance in the wake of the pandemic, thanks to their role in empowering hybrid and remote teams to be productive and work from anywhere. But it also showed that employees expect businesses to provide them with the tools they need to work effectively how and where they want, and that many businesses are falling short on this front.

Asked what makes a collaboration tool successful, respondents identified two main characteristics: 48% said collaboration tools should enable multiple team members to work seamlessly on the same project at the same time, while 31% favoured collaboration tools that allow them to work and collaborate on any device.

Yet the study also highlighted a perceived lack of growth, the main cause of which was a decrease in productivity, with 82% of employees agreeing that poor collaboration is limiting their productivity and wasting their time.

When pressed on what was causing this potential collaboration crisis, 46% of employees said they had not been trained to use the tools, 27% agreed that collaboration tools have poor functionality, and 9% said businesses were not investing in the right tools.

Assessing the report, Corel said the pandemic has changed the landscape of work permanently, and the impact of poor collaboration tools on an organisation’s growth and bottom line is something businesses cannot afford to ignore.

“Over the past two years, we’ve learned that hybrid and remote work environments can be incredibly productive, so long as businesses are investing in tools that empower employees to do their jobs well,” said Scott Day, chief people officer at Corel.

“This survey underscores the alarming cost of inadequate collaboration tools and highlights that organisations of all sizes are limited by the quick-fix solutions that were implemented at the beginning of the pandemic. Rather than improving employees’ ability to be productive, these stop-gap solutions are frequently a barrier to getting work done and can significantly impair hybrid and remote workers’ overall productivity.

“Listening to employees, creating an environment in which people want to work and investing in simple and intuitive collaboration tools is what will set businesses up for success in 2022.”