New Global Survey from Jive Software Underscores "Corporate Amnesia" Epidemic

CAMPBELL, Calif., March 29, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- With the current shift toward more flexible and freelance work environments and a 23 percent global employee turnover rate, businesses are more susceptible than ever to "corporate amnesia." This affects organizations when information, knowledge and content is misplaced or lost due to the departure of employees, data overload and an increasingly distributed workforce. The spread of corporate amnesia was measured by a new Jive Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: JIVE) global survey, which found that 47 percent of "global knowledge workers," defined as employed adults who use a computer or mobile device for at least some of their work, cite corporate amnesia as a problem at their company. Meanwhile, more than half of German knowledge workers (54 percent) say corporate amnesia is a problem at their company, followed by workers in the UK (47 percent), France (44 percent) and the U.S. (42 percent).

"Corporate amnesia becomes a rising problem when organizations fail to put their most valuable asset, their people, at the center of their digital transformation," said Elisa Steele, CEO of Jive Software. "Without an effective solution to document, categorize, share and access the ever-growing mountain of information being accumulated globally, businesses risk collapsing under the weight. What's worse, far more organizations are experiencing the detrimental side effects of institutional knowledge loss than is being reported by employees—this is just the tip of the iceberg."

The global survey, conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of Jive Software in December 2016, includes data from global knowledge workers based in the U.S., U.K., France and Germany. A separate survey found that corporate memory loss costs companies an estimated $430,000 per employee on top of 'the usual recruitment replacement costs.' In addition, Jive's key findings include:

• More Search; Less Work: Global knowledge workers say they spend 29 percent of an average work day searching for corporate information needed to complete work projects. Comparatively speaking, French knowledge workers say they spend 33 percent of their day searching for corporate information, followed by those in the U.S. (32 percent), UK (26 percent) and Germany (24 percent).
• Email Overload: Twenty-nine percent of global knowledge workers often feel overwhelmed by the number of work emails they receive on a daily basis. Meanwhile, thirty-five percent of American knowledge workers report feeling this way, followed by knowledge workers in the UK (34 percent), France (27 percent) and Germany (21 percent).
• Email Often Primary Search Tool: Seventy percent of global knowledge workers use applications provided by their company to search for corporate info, with email-based search being the most used application (34 percent). In addition, 73 percent of knowledge workers in France, 69 percent in the UK, 68 percent in both the U.S and Germany use applications provided by their company to search for corporate info. While email-based search remains the primary search tool used by knowledge workers in the U.S. (40 percent), the UK (42 percent) and Germany (31 percent), 39 percent of French knowledge workers seem to prefer an intranet/collaboration hub to search for corporate information.
• Corporate Amnesia Becomes an Epidemic: Forty-seven percent of global knowledge workers say corporate amnesia is a problem at their company. By comparison, more than half of German knowledge workers (54 percent) cite corporate amnesia as a problem, more likely than those in France (44 percent) and the U.S. (42 percent).

Investing in a collaboration hub can have a significant impact on an organization's ability to store corporate knowledge and improve productivity. In a recent study conducted by professor Paul Leonardi from the University of California, Santa Barbara, researchers found that Jive considerably increased workers' metaknowledge—the knowledge of "who knows what" and "who knows whom"—within an organization. After only six months of using Jive, employees' knowledge of who-knows-what improved 31 percent while the company's metaknowledge shot up 88 percent. In a separate customer survey, Jive found that Jive's collaboration hub decreases search time for information by 34 percent.

Added Steele, "With the amount of digital data worldwide set to explode to 44 zettabytes (44 trillion gigabytes) by 2020, and half of global employees currently working remotely at least a few times a week, the need for companies to find new and effective ways to capture, organize and disseminate data across entire organizations is more important than ever. By investing in a modernized collaboration hub that makes work searchable, visible and memorable, organizations can preserve corporate memory to help current and future employees reach their full potential."

Global Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of Jive Software from December 28-30, 2016, among knowledge workers ages 18 and older, defined as employed individuals who use a computer or electronic device for at least some of their work, in the US (n=778), UK (n=420), France (n=559) and Germany (n=584). This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Katy Green at SHIFT Communications.

About Jive Software

Jive (Nasdaq: JIVE) is the leader in accelerating workplace digital transformation for organizations, enabling people to work better together. The company provides industry-leading Interactive Intranet and Customer Community solutions that connect people, information and ideas to help businesses outpace their competitors. With more than 30 million users worldwide and customers in virtually every industry, Jive is consistently recognized as a leader by top analyst firms, including Gartner Inc., Ovum and Aragon Research. More information can be found at www.jivesoftware.com or the Jive Blog.

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SOURCE Jive Software