Just 20 years ago, disorganized data wasn’t such a widespread problem. Employees may have had trouble finding paperwork here and there if it wasn’t filed correctly or was lost, but there wasn’t a flood of digital data to manage.
Today, the average employee has to deal with 60-100 emails per day, on top of accessing numerous accounts online just to get through a workday. Add to that all the text messages, chats, and social media interactions they need to field.
Thanks to disorganized data, many employees are overwhelmed and wasting your payroll dollars just trying to get work done. If you don’t get a handle on data organization, the end result will be detrimental to your business.
Mitigate the risks with software
Software applications that centralize data for your team are the best way to keep data organized and easily accessible. For example, many businesses use agency management software to help with onboarding, collaboration, and other situations that are supported by good data organization.
For instance, this particular type of software provides a centralized knowledge base for new hires to search for any information they may need, from policies to case studies to company history. Access to data in this way helps people do a better job, especially employees in positions that require fast access to data.
Today’s employees have more information to manage than ever before, and without a seamless strategy for organizing and centralizing data, your business is at risk for failure. It may not happen all at once, but over time, the impact of disorganized data will become apparent with the following cumulative effects:
Productivity usually decreases
When data is scattered and difficult to find or condense, it negatively impacts employee productivity in the following ways:
- Wasted time. Employees spend an excessive amount of time looking for data, which kills productivity. According to McKinsey, the average employee spends 1.8 hours every day looking for information they can’t find. That amounts to losing $1.7 million every year for every 100 employees.
- Mistakes. Without immediate and easy access to data, there’s a bigger chance for mistakes and errors in both decision-making and daily tasks. The impact will cause a cascade of other problems.
- Bad decisions. When decisions are based on incomplete or outdated data, it creates inaccurate insights that can lead to making the wrong decisions.
Costs can increase
When data is unreliable, you can count on increased costs in the following areas:
- Wasted resources. Poorly organized data inevitably leads to wasted resources. For example, payroll dollars are wasted when employees can’t find what they need, and when pressured, they will often redo the work to create files they can’t find. Work redone may not be on par with the original.
- New data management systems. Once you realize your data needs to be centralized and organized, you need to invest in a system to manage the data. This can be costly to build from scratch if it isn’t already part of your budget.
- More customer returns. If disorganized data impacts your business in certain ways, it can lead to more customer returns and refund requests. These experiences can also lead to lost sales if unhappy customers post about their experiences online.
- Missed opportunities. Poorly organized data can prevent you from identifying new trends and opportunities in your industry. This stifles innovation and your bottom line.
- High turnover. While employees tolerated disorganized data for many years, they’re starting to quit in droves. This movement has been dubbed “The Great Resignation.” Cluttered data is the reason 54% of parents said they’d quit their job if there was no efficient way to search for necessary information.
Reputational damage is possible
One of the worst ways disorganized data can harm your business is by hurting your reputation. This usually happens after a data breach or cyberattack that negatively impacts your customers or clients. People lose trust in a business when these situations happen, and they sometimes pursue legal action.
It’s one thing to be fined by regulatory authorities for a data breach, but it’s another to have your clients’ financial data stolen and used by hackers. If you get sued, you could be on the hook for millions of dollars. If you have an insurance policy that will cover the judgment, your business might survive, but your premiums will rise, and you’ll have a hard time earning back trust.
Avoid “The Great Resignation”
Scattered data can harm your business, and it’s time to do something about it. Avoid excessive turnover and wasted payroll dollars by centralizing your company data. If you don’t know where to start, find a data centralization consultant to show you exactly how it’s done.
