IT services provider Auxilion has released the results of a survey of 500 office workers which asked about their experiences working from home and collaborating with colleagues.

Auxilion estimates that Irish businesses are losing €3.3 billion per year on time spent by staff attempting to find and exchange documents.

On the biggest obstacles people face in collaborating with colleagues, the main ones are not being able to talk in person (44%), people not being as available as before (30%) and difficulty gaining access to or finding work files and systems (25%).

Microsoft Teams proved the most popular online collaboration tool, with 59% of respondents using it for work. On the flipside, 57% of respondents said that they hadn’t received proper training on how to effectively use their work collaboration system.

According to the survey, remote workers spend an average of around an hour per day on virtual meetings, with three quarters of respondents believing that virtual meetings will continue as Covid restrictions ease further. One in five respondents expressed the view that their input was as valuable in online collaborations as it is in person.

In Association with

One in three survey respondents admitted to having done a virtual work meeting in their pyjamas, with one in four joining one while in bed. The same proportion admitted to lying that their WiFi was down to get out of a meeting.

Auxilion CTO Donal Sullivan (pictured) commented: “There is absolutely no reason Irish workers should be losing so much time out of their day trying to find files and work with colleagues. Staff also need to know how to use online collaboration tools effectively, so there is an educational piece that companies need to address."

Pic: Chris Bellew/Fennells