Companies called upon to fight against infobesity and digital stress

The volume of emails to be processed at work is increasing exponentially according to the second study by the (professional) Infobesity Observatory. The National Family Allowance Fund has decided to take the subject head on. An experiment is underway in one of the crates.

Emails, chats, video, discussion groups on Teams, intranet. Since the Covid crisis and the development of hybrid work, communication tools have multiplied and overlapped in companies. Decryption with Sarah Lemoine.

franceinfo: This accumulation of digital tools in companies, for staff, is it sometimes for the better, and often for the worse?

Sarah Lemoine: This is what the second study by the Infobesity Observatory shows. What is interesting is that this study is not based on a survey, but on the very real practices of around ten companies. The latter provided the metadata of the digital communications of 10,000 employees, which offers a unique insight into their daily professional lives.

We learn that the number of emails received continues to increase. An employee has 104 of them every day in their mailbox. A manager 205. And a leader 342, on average. Responsiveness is strong, they are often processed in less than an hour. The number of connections increases outside of working hours.

Managing your mailbox becomes a goal in itself. Not easy, while “reunionitis” is becoming more acute. 6.5 hours per week for an employee and up to 23 hours for a manager.

At the same time, employees are not appropriate for the collaborative tools deployed in companies since Covid?

We’re talking about platforms like Teams which allow you to create team discussions, for example. “These tools were sold with the promise that they would replace emails”says Arthur Vinson, co-president of the Observatory. In fact, this does not work, because two thirds of employees do not use them, according to the study’s metadata.

On the other hand, “they increase the communication millefeuille within the company, and begin to create a digital divide, between those who know how to use them and the others who observe”alerts Arthur Vinson. This infobesity, poorly managed, has impacts, according to him, on workload, health, and productivity itself.

Are companies taking up the subject?

The National Family Allowance Fund is currently carrying out an experiment. She had the metadata of the digital exchanges of 200 employees who work in a regional credit union analyzed. They confirm the predominance of email to the detriment of collaborative tools, the latter being mainly used by managers.

The results will make it possible to develop action plans by the end of the year, explains Emmanuelle Maury, who manages digital transformation at the CNAF. The objective, she says, is to question uses to increase the effectiveness of exchanges, reduce mental load and stress factors. The challenge is also to achieve digital sobriety. Given the quantity of emails stored or never opened.