Three Out of Four Users Say They Receive Too Much E-Mail
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- In a global survey of over 1,700
business communication professionals, an overwhelming majority of
respondents (85 percent) said that e-mail overload is having a negative
impact on their productivity at least some of the time. The negative effect
on productivity was even higher (93 percent) for users of BlackBerry
devices and other personal digital assistants (PDAs). The survey, conducted
by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and
twisurveys, also found that most PDA users feel they receive and send too
much e-mail, and that they spend the most amount of time each day managing
the information they receive.
Sixty-two percent of respondents to the IABC survey said they receive
too much e-mail, compared to 75 percent of PDA users. In addition, almost
half of the respondents (44 percent) agreed that they send too much e-mail.
In comparison, 56 percent of PDA users are guilty of sending too much
e-mail.
Amount of e-mail received All Respondents BlackBerry users
Too much 62% 75%
Just right 37% 25%
Not enough 1% 0%
Amount of e-mail sent All Respondents BlackBerry users
Too much 44% 56%
Just right 53% 41%
Not enough 3% 3%
Negative impact on productivity All Respondents BlackBerry users
Frequently 9% 14%
Regularly 30% 35%
Sometimes 46% 44%
Rarely 12% 6%
No impact 3% 1%
The IABC survey also explored the sources of e-mail overload. The
biggest cause of information overload was found to be external news sources
and professional subscriptions (61 percent), followed by co-workers (39
percent), professional networks (34 percent), team/department sources (29
percent) and companywide corporate sources such as senior management and HR
(23 percent).
When asked about the number of times they checked their e-mail daily,
81 percent of respondents said their e-mail was always open. Further, 40
percent of respondents spent 2 hours daily to respond to e-mail; 35 percent
of respondents spent 3 hours or more daily to respond to e-mail. For more
information and charts on these findings and comparisons with PDA users,
visit the IABC News Centre at http://news.iabc.com/index.php?s=experts .
The survey was conducted by Tudor Williams, ABC, and Ryan Williams from
twisurveys, an organizational research and strategy development company
specializing in employee, association member and customer research. The
online survey was sent to IABC members around the world. A total of 1,718
responses were received. More details on the survey findings appear in the
current issue of Communication World magazine. The article is available
online at http://www.iabc.com/cw (member log-in required), and can be made
available to the media upon request.
About IABC
The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) is a
global network of communication professionals committed to improving
organizational effectiveness through strategic communication. Established
in 1970, IABC serves more than 14,000 members in 70 countries, 100 chapters
and 10,000 organizations. For more information, visit http://www.iabc.com .
Media Contact:
Joseph Ugalde
+1-415-544-4700
JUgalde@iabc.com
SOURCE International Association of Business Communicators
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Related links:
http://www.iabc.com
CONTACT:
Joseph Ugalde of IABC, +1-415-544-4700, or
JUgalde@iabc.com
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