Nitro Research Shows Impact of Document Challenges on Employee Satisfaction and Customer Experience

Only 3% of Knowledge Workers Are Happy with Document Management at Their Companies

Nitro, a global company specializing in document productivity solutions, announced the findings of industry-first research that provides a global view of the state of document processes today within enterprises. Partnering with global research and customer experience firm Qualtrics, Nitro evaluated the current state of document workflows and tools across the organization, the challenges with paper-based processes, and the impact on employee satisfaction and customer experience.

97% of knowledge workers see room for improvement in how their companies handle documents

Key findings from the research include:

  1. Knowledge workers feel productive at work, but many are stressed and frustrated
    • 65% feel they are very productive (but 1 in 3 feels somewhat productive or worse)
    • 23% are working over 40 hours a week, and nearly half work with at least 6 documents a day on average
    • Those working with over 10 documents a day reported the highest levels of stress
  2. Document workflows are broken today
    • Knowledge workers perform an average of 7 different actions when working with documents, and the vast majority are performed multiple times throughout the day
    • 53% are still printing documents multiple times per day
    • 48% are signing/approving documents on paper
  3. Employers can improve employee satisfaction by addressing document challenges specifically
    • 97% of knowledge workers see room for improvement in how their companies handle documents
    • 68% say the way their companies handle electronic documents helps increase their productivity
    • By improving document processes, employers help knowledge workers save time (59%) and reduce tedious tasks (45%)
  4. Management runs the risk of losing employees (and customers) if they don’t address document challenges
    • 75% of knowledge workers who say they lack the materials and tools to do their jobs reported being not at all satisfied with their jobs
    • 78% of those who don’t feel at all productive also feel the least supported by management
    • 92% of those who don’t feel productive at work are “extremely likely” to have recently explored a job change
    • 100% of those not meeting customer needs feel only moderately productive—or worse

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While the research underscores the impact of document challenges on employee and customer experience, it also highlights opportunities for IT departments to address common barriers to improvement. Fifty-four percent of knowledge workers believe that IT is too busy with other priorities. In addition, limited budget to equip users with better tools was identified as a barrier by 42%, and 38% cited a lack of user training or support.

“Many CIOs I speak with aren’t aware of how much the lack of digital document tools is truly impacting their business,” said Sam Chandler, CEO and founder of Nitro. “Not only can digitization help companies improve the way they manage and process documents and help workers be more productive, but the positive impact it can have on employee satisfaction and customer experience is undeniable.”

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Last month, Nitro released the newest version of the Nitro Productivity Suite, an integrated solution that combines powerful PDF productivity, unlimited eSigning, and valuable usage insights to help businesses streamline document workflows, eliminate printing, lower costs, and work 100% digitally. The new release includes a host of features that make it even easier for users to work faster and more intuitively with their documents. In addition, new security features and enhanced license management make it even easier for IT to deploy to all their knowledge workers efficiently and affordably.