Survey: Print and Scan Still Important for Both Home-Based and Office Employees

A new survey conducted by the Mopria Alliance, a global non-profit organization providing universal standards and solutions for print and scan, shows that print and scan remain essential for workers at home or in the office.

The survey also found that employees continue to experience major distractions at home and in the office.

Print and Scan in the Office and at Home

According to the survey, employees print more often in the office than at home. Ninety percent of office workers are frequent print users (printing at least once per week), while 66 percent of work-from-home users are frequent print users (printing at least once per week).

Similarly, employees scan more at the office than when working at home. According to the survey, 78 percent of employees in the office are frequent scanners (using an MFP, All-in-One, document scanner, or smartphone app), compared to 58 percent of employees at home.

Benefits of Print and Scan

The survey had good news for print and scan, with 78 percent of respondents stating print helps them focus and 78 percent stating print is key to improving their overall work.

A majority of respondents (78 percent) also stated that they preferred reading materials on paper versus a screen, and 71 percent said they would be more productive with mobile print and scan.

When it came to print and scan, the survey also found:

• 84 percent of IT employees said print helps them focus better.
• 90 percent of top managers value access to print and scan.
• 80 percent of all work-from-home parents believe print helps with productivity.

For mobile print and scan:

• 81 percent said printing and scanning easily from their phone would save them time.
• 74 percent of print users would be more productive with easy mobile print and scan.

Working Parents More Distracted at Home

Overall, the survey found employees face a host of distractions both in the office and at home.

Employees experience an average of 77 distractions per week, or roughly one distraction every 31 minutes. For most workers, these distractions are said to negatively affect their work and productivity, and increase stress, regardless of whether they’re working from home or at their office.

Overall, Mopria’s workplace distractions survey found that the top distractions that both work-from-home and in-office employees face are personal communications such as text or chat, checking personal email, or surfing the web, and unplanned conversations.

The population most affected by these distractions are working parents living with children at home. The survey found that working parents face a distraction every 25 minutes during their workday, which is 37 percent more than their non-parental peers. Specifically, parents that work from home face about 10 percent more distractions than in-office parents and nearly 50 percent more distractions than non-parents who are working from home.

Children weren’t the only distraction at home: some 66 percent of respondents also said they face distractions from their pets.

Phil Mazzilli, marketing chair for the Mopria Alliance, commented: “Aligning with external research, our findings indicate that parenting and working have become significantly harder during COVID due to increased distractions faced by working parents.

 “Almost half of all parents are consciously working additional hours to compensate for the need to handle more personal and family matters during working hours. This leads to parents feeling less connected and more isolated, less confident about their work, and more burnout among peers.”

Moreover, workplace distractions are creating toxic challenges for all employees. The survey found that 37 percent of employees are working extra hours to make up for distractions. 46 percent of employees said they take longer to complete work and get less done. The survey also found that, on average, employees spend 11.1 hours in meetings per week, but nearly half of all meetings are deemed unproductive to an employee’s core tasks.

“These findings may have significant implications as employers make decisions on employees returning to the office,” continued Mazzilli. “Employers should consider who their employees are, what distractions exist in their specific working environments, and what solutions they can provide to employees to overcome distractions either at home or in the office.”

The workplace distractions survey found that 78 percent of workers believe that the ability to easily print and scan helps them to overcome distractions, and 80 percent of parents would be more productive with printed activities to entertain or educate their kids. This suggests that access to print and scan solutions could help mitigate the effect of toxic distractions and perhaps even help these employees focus better.

The survey included 573 responses from employees working 30 or more hours per week.

Mopria Scan and Mopria Print Service

The Mopria Alliance’s Mopria Scan and Mopria Print Service are available as part of workplace-solution portfolio that can also be used at home and on the road. Users can download the Mopria Print Service and Mopria Scan from the Google Play store, or directly from the Mopria website.

The Mopria Alliance was founded by Canon Inc., HP Inc., Samsung, and Xerox. It’s since grown to 21 members, and today includes Adobe, Brother, EFI, Epson, FUJIFILM Business Innovation, Lexmark International, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Microsoft, OKI, Pantum, Primax, Qualcomm, Ricoh, Toshiba, Vivo, and YSoft.