74% of organisations are drowning in information overload - is yours one of them?
Almost three quarters of organisations say their employees are drowning in information overload. Not occasionally. Not during busy periods. Constantly or frequently.
That’s the headline finding from our latest survey of 286 professionals across APAC, EMEA, and the Americas, and it points to a problem most organisations already feel, but often struggle to quantify.
What’s more striking is just 5% of organisations in our survey believe information overload is rare or under control.
In other words, for the vast majority of organisations, information overload isn’t an exception - it’s the norm.
The results are in - and they're alarming
We recently surveyed 286 professionals across three regions (the Americas, APAC, and EMEA) as a part of our SharePoint Intranet Festival, and asked them a simple question:
"Do your employees suffer from information overload?"
The results were striking, though perhaps not surprising. An overwhelming majority said “yes”, and the regional differences tell an interesting story about how overload is experienced around the world.
Across all three regions, 74% of respondents said their employees are either "constantly overwhelmed" or facing information overload as "an ongoing challenge." Just 5% said it was rare or not a concern.
Let that sink in. Only 5% of organisations feel they have information overload under control.
Americas and APAC: A shared sense of overwhelm
The Americas and APAC results are remarkably similar. In both regions, roughly 76% of respondents said overload is either constant or frequent. The "Constantly" response was particularly strong, with 28% in AMER and 26% in APAC.
EMEA: Slightly less severe, but still a major concern
The EMEA results paint a slightly different picture. While 70% still said overload is constant or frequent, only 15% selected "Constantly," compared with 28% in the Americas and 26% in APAC. Instead, a larger proportion (55%) landed on "Frequently."
Possible explanations include stronger regulatory frameworks around working hours, "right to disconnect" legislation, and cultural preferences for fewer, more curated communications. That said, seven in 10 EMEA respondents still report overload as a persistent challenge.
Results from SWOOP Analytics’ survey asking if employees suffer from information overload.
Why this matters
When employees are overwhelmed by digital messages flooding in from Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Viva Engage and SharePoint, three things tend to happen:
Important communications get missed - buried under a mountain of less critical updates
Productivity suffers - employees spend more time managing messages than doing meaningful work
People burn out - extending work hours just to keep up
As internal communicators and digital workplace leaders, we need to shift from "keeping people informed" to "keeping people effectively informed.
From gut feeling to hard numbers
The challenge has always been quantifying the problem. How do you move from a vague complaint that "there are too many updates" to something concrete you can take to leadership?
That's exactly why SWOOP Analytics built the Information Overload Calculator.
By entering some simple information about your organisation - headcount, communication channels, content types, and frequency - you can quickly estimate:
How many updates employees are exposed to each week
The time required to read and process them all
The additional burden on managers cascading communications
The true cost of your organisation's communication investment
The calculator generates your Employee Overload Index (EOI) and Manager Overload Index (MOI), giving you the evidence needed to make the case for smarter targeting, better bundling, and clearer prioritisation.
What can you do about it?
Once you understand the scale of the problem, you can start testing "what if" scenarios:
What if HR and IT bundled their updates into a single weekly digest?
What if regional leaders switched from weekly to fortnightly updates?
How much time would managers save if cascade items were consolidated?
These aren't just hypothetical ideas, they're actionable changes that can dramatically reduce the communication burden on your workforce.
Try the Information Overload Calculator
If our survey results resonate with you and if you suspect your employees are drowning in digital noise, then try the Information Overload Calculator today.
You might be surprised at just how quickly "keeping people informed" turns into "overload."
The survey was conducted during SWOOP Analytics’ SharePoint Intranet Festival events held globally in May 2026, with 286 respondents from medium to large enterprises across APAC, EMEA, and the Americas.
