Survey says: More work, increased sharing and collaboration, common challenges

By Kurt Foss, Editor, AcrobatUsers.com

A recent survey of some 1,500 Knowledge Workers highlighted many similarities in the types of work issues they face, in the way they function to complete tasks and projects, and in the types of technological tools and methods they tend to use most frequently to do their jobs.

Survey says

Research highlights include:

Technology is pervasive in Knowledge Worker work and collaboration

Knowledge Workers report spending more time at work because of the availability of the Internet and related technologies. The majority are at least somewhat overloaded with information during a typical workday, and their use of e-mail for collaboration has eclipsed that of more traditional means.

Figure 1: Response to question about how often the information or documents people work with are shared with people in many different places, both inside and outside the organization.

Challenges exist for more effective Knowledge Worker collaboration

The top challenge faced when collaborating on information is waiting for others to respond; the size of files, maintaining version control, and software compatibility are challenges noted by many when trying to collaborate electronically; and formatting issues with exchanged electronic documents is a challenge noted by the majority of those surveyed.

Knowledge Workers must be agile, working with multiple people on multiple projects

Over half of respondents say they have control over how they complete their work, and they work on more than one project team at a time; they also require feedback from multiple people on documents circulated for review.

Knowledge Workers create highly visible information and documents for use inside and outside of their organization

Half report sharing documents with many others, both inside and outside of their organization, at least very often; one-third of knowledge workers report sharing more than half of the documents they create with people outside of their organization, and more than half consider it very or extremely important to deliver a combined set of documents that is easy to access, navigate and read, while also highly polished and professional.

Figure 2: Response to question about reasons for the increase in the amount of time spent on work-related tasks over the past two years.

Knowledge Workers are required to secure information

Knowledge workers say they mainly use password protection and PDF files to control the use of information in electronic documents; restricting the ability to edit electronic documents, to open files, and to copy and paste from files that need to be kept confidential electronically are the main methods they use.

For Knowledge Workers who create and distribute forms, technology is being used often to accomplish the task, but challenges still exist

Approximately one-third say they create forms for others to complete at least sometimes; e-mail is the primary method used to distribute forms; and more than half face challenges with others incorrectly or incompletely filling out forms, and with getting others to fill out and return forms in a timely manner.

Survey benefits

Marion Melani, group product marketing manager for Acrobat, explained Adobe’s benefits from better understanding the group's work styles and needs.

"I was really surprised by the number of people (66 percent of respondents) who continue to experience difficulties in sharing content due to cross-application, cross-platform difficulties like 'I shared a file and it didn't show up the way I had intended or there was an application difference," she says. "It shows that one of the basic values that Acrobat delivers—about reliable document sharing—continues to be a problem that we can help address in the market."

"The other thing that I thought was really interesting that I could personally relate to was that 55 percent of people are spending more time on work-related tasks than they did two years ago," Melani says. "The more technology we have and use to help us address efficiencies and productivity, the more time we spend working. I don't think that was surprising, but to find that it's a universal problem and particularly when you're here in Silicon Valley and you think it must be different elsewhere, but it's not."