Brits spend almost nine HOURS writing emails – but barely half will be read

THE average employee spends eight hours and 42 minutes a week drafting emails – of which only 42 per cent are likely to be fully read, according to research.

A survey of 4,000 UK small business employees found they draft an average of 99 emails a week, spending just over five minutes on each.

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But they estimate their emails are fully read and understood by their recipients less than half the time (42 per cent).

It also emerged four in 10 won’t bother reading an email longer than eight sentences, which is deemed “too long”.

And those polled delete or don’t read an email based solely on the subject line an average of six times per day, leaving 31 per cent missing something important.

The study, commissioned by Slack also revealed 27 per cent of UK small business employees feel email is an “outdated” form of communication.

Some of their frustration comes because it’s easy to misconstrue tone (55 per cent), or because they lose emails to the spam or junk folders (48 per cent).

Others said their inbox is easily clogged by emails that aren’t relevant to them (44 per cent) and there’s an expectation of staying “formal” (35 per cent).

This particular point is more of a struggle for younger generations, with 45 per cent of Gen Z and 38 per cent of millennials feeling this way, compared to only 28 per cent of Gen X and 22 per cent of baby boomers.

While younger respondents were more likely to say emails are not worth it (30 per cent of Gen Z and 24 per cent of millennials) compared to older generations (17 per cent of Gen X and 12 per cent of baby boomers).

Deirdre Byrne, head of UK and Ireland, Slack, said: “Email is the cockroach of the internet – it simply won’t die.

“Yet when it comes to business communication, the research reveals this 50-year-old tech isn’t fit for purpose.

“Employees at small businesses are losing a working day each week to drafting emails — which often go unread — at the expense of productive work.

“It’s up to leaders to embrace technology that helps streamline communication and knowledge sharing, accelerates work with AI and automation and which keeps everyone engaged and focused on more meaningful and impactful work.

“Email may never fully go away, but if we can get beyond the tyranny of the inbox, we can make a massive difference to work today.”

The study also found others not fully digesting an email has left 68 per cent feeling that their questions haven’t been answered, and 46 per cent with a query they have already responded to.

While 46 per cent have even been addressed by the wrong name.

Nearly six in 10 (57 per cent) feel their company relies on email because it’s the way things have always been done, along with it’s inexpensive (57 per cent) and everyone else seems to use it (47 per cent).

But 40 per cent feel bogged down at work because of menial tasks like sending emails, with Gen Z most likely to share that sentiment (52 per cent).

Filtering irrelevant emails (49 per cent), responding to emails (35 per cent), and finding internal information they need for their role (23 per cent) also make it harder to succeed in their role.

Employees at small businesses are losing a working day each week to drafting emails — which often go unread — at the expense of productive work.”

Deirdre ByrneHead of UK and Ireland Slack

As a result, 22 per cent feel their productivity would be positively impacted if their company relied less on email.

The research, carried out via OnePoll, found 29 per cent believe AI tools will increase their productivity — with just 10 per cent believing it would have a negative effect.

Replacing manual and repetitive tasks was seen as the top appeal for AI (51 per cent), followed by receiving immediate answers (41 per cent) and freeing up focus time for other tasks (41 per cent).

Ali Rayl, SVP Product Management, Slack, added: “The structure of work today is profoundly different from what jobs looked like in the past.

“We now have productivity platforms and job-specific tools at our fingertips to help us make the most of our time and talents.

“When we integrate our workplace — the way we communicate and the tools we use to get work done, which increasingly includes AI — we foster deeper connection, quicker communication, greater clarity through shared context, and overall, we waste less time.

“Information can’t fall through the cracks when there’s one single place where everyone in a company can go to find information.”

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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk