Virtual platforms such as Zoom, Skype and Slack on top of email and phone calls have enabled employees to work from home and connect in real-time with their colleagues, but the constant flow of information comes with a cost, says Monica Watt, chief human resources officer at Elmo Software.
“It is similar to analysis paralysis,” Watt says, according to the article. “Too much information leaves us unable to process anything and instead, we become overwhelmed.” The saying, “knowledge is power,” is something most people may embrace, but that knowledge is of little use if the user is not actually using it.
“It actually is just weighing us down,” Watt says “There is a tipping point in having too much information and it’s unrealistic to think we can consume it all.”
HR can help by encouraging their staff “to be critical about what information they absorb and what they ignore,” she notes. She also encourages the use of shared devices that may make it easier for workers having a hard time managing information. “In the work environment I have no doubt we’re all accessing a lot of similar information,” she says. “Creating shared drives where people can source, access or share knowledge, rather than hoard it and feel weighed down by it, is actually liberating.”