It can feel like businesses are ever more relying on technology to grow. This couldn’t be truer after a year like 2020 that forced many companies to pivot to virtual offices and remote work, putting more entrepreneurs and employees online than ever. And we accrued more digital data because of it.
Think of all those recorded video conference calls, bookmarked tabs on your browsers, screenshots stored on your work phone. We might not be physically tripping over this clutter, but the reality is that it must be stored somewhere and that storage can negatively impact our businesses and even the environment — our devices and servers are expected to account for nearly 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.
And while on the business front we often consider technology as a means to increase productivity, when there’s too much tech to handle and data to deal with that can actually have a reverse effect and lower employees’ productivity, induce stress, and heighten cybersecurity risks such as data leaks.
There’s even a term for amassing unnecessary data: digital hoarding.
All this to say, the next time you step back and evaluate your leadership skills, remember one of the qualities of good leaders is to know cooperation is key to get things done. So, recognize that every employee plays a part in amassing the digital clutter your company keeps.
To put your team on the right path, reference Norton’s digital hoarding infographic below to diagnose your company’s digital hoarding habits and how to break them.
Please include attribution to norton.com with this graphic.
