- Use of workplace collaboration tools increases considerably from pre-pandemic trends
- Minor increases in storage and sharing tools as well as real-time mobile messaging tools
- Respondents report less time spent in in-person meetings, with this time commitment expected to dwindle further in near future
Summary by Dirk Langeveld
The use of workplace collaboration tools has seen a sizable increase during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a recent survey.
The Gartner Digital Worker Experience Survey, which polled employees at organizations in the U.S., Europe, and Asia-Pacific, found that 79 percent of workers were using these tools in November and December 2020. This was up 44 percent from a spring 2019 survey, when just 55 percent of respondents said they were using workforce collaboration tools.
Christopher Trueman, principal research analyst at Gartner, says collaboration tools, along with cloud-based personal and team productivity technologies, are likely to see continued popularity as businesses shift to remote and hybrid employee management.
- Use of storage and sharing tools has increased from 64 percent to 74 percent, while real-time mobile messaging tool usage has increased from 75 percent to 80 percent
- The use of training and personal development tools remained unchanged at 47 percent
- While 2019 respondents said 63 percent of their meeting time was held in-person, 2021 respondents said it had dropped to 33 percent
- Gartner predicts that in-person meetings as a share of enterprise meetings will drop to 25 percent by 2024