Increasing the efficiency of information workers

Here are some pointers to current (or not so current - some of this comes from as far back as 2009) data about the productivity of information workers, summarising a study by Susan Feldman:

• The Information Advantage: Information Access in Tomorrow's Enterprise: http://www.3ds.com/fileadmin/PRODUCTS/SIMULIA/e-Booth/PDF/Exalead_IDC-Information_Access_in_Tomorrows_Enterprise-AR.pdf
• Hidden Costs of Information Work in the Enterprise Exposed in New IDC Progress Report: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20090506005284/en/Hidden-Costs-Information-Work-Enterprise-Exposed-IDC

I don't have access to the actual study, nor does IDC seem able to even locate it in their database. Ironic, really ;) But here are some interesting key statistics from the first link above:

• An information worker spends, on average, 8.8 h/week on repetitive tasks.
• Analysing information takes up 8.1 h/week.

(I would have to assume that searching for bits of information is covered by "analysing", otherwise the long section that follows in the article makes no sense.)

For a technical writer, searching for information would probably be a higher priority and consume more time. We search not only on the internet and in the corporate information system, but also in the product being documented and in the heads of the people building it, as well as in legacy documentation and in the documentation we're creating. So for us, any enhancement in the tools we use for this task offers an even bigger payoff than your average info worker!