South African employees perceive the use of e-mail as being addictive, a study by enterprise solutions provider Symantec reveals.
Based on a survey of 1 700 users and IT managers in 17 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, including SA, the study was aimed at obtaining insight and understanding into issues associated with the growing levels of e-mail use.
The study revealed that e-mail volumes have grown by 47% in the last 12 months, with 32% of South African employees sending between 10 and 19 e-mails daily and 28% sending between 20 and 29 e-mails a day.
"In recent years, e-mail has changed from being another method of communication to being a critical business tool," says Patrick Evans, regional director for Symantec sub-Saharan Africa.
"The danger that South African businesses face from the continuous growth of e-mail is that it will ultimately become impossible for users to open, action and manage all messages and requests that they receive," he says, adding that businesses need to evaluate policies and guidelines that will assist employees to manage the increased flow of information.
"In addition, this research clearly indicates that SA is following global trends in terms of the growth of e-mail volumes. Therefore, local businesses cannot become complacent and take an attitude of 'it happens in other countries`."
The research has determined that e-mail dominates the working day, with some 52% of respondents spending two hours a day reading, replying and creating e-mails. The majority of South African employees spend one hour or more on e-mail, with 42% spending one hour, 20% two hours, 16% three hours, 14% four hours, 2% six hours and 2% seven hours.
Symantec also claims that e-mail addiction extends the working day, with 54% of all employees checking their mail before 9am. Locally, the study found, 12% of employees check their e-mail between 6.30am and 7am, 10% between 7am and 7.30am and 44% between 7.30am and 8am.
The study also found that e-mail volumes are continually growing and 91% of IT managers claim the volume of e-mail traffic through their companies has risen by an average of 47% during the last 12 months. This rises to 200% at large companies with 500 employees or more.
In extreme cases, some employees are sending as many as 350 e-mails a day and receiving as many as 450.
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