Why Employees Struggle to Find the Information They Need

An employee needs a client contract signed six months ago. She checks email, searches a shared drive, asks in a Teams channel, and eventually gets it from someone who happened to have a copy saved locally. Fifteen minutes have passed to find something that already existed. Multiply that across an organisation and the problem becomes much bigger than a few frustrating searches. Time is being lost simply because people can't get to the information they already have.

When Finding Information Becomes Part of the Job

Search friction appears in small ways every day. Employees ask colleagues questions that should be easy to answer. People recreate documents because finding the original takes longer than starting again. New employees are told to "ask someone who knows" because there is no reliable way to find the information themselves. Over time, this creates a hidden dependency on people who know where things are. Managers spend time answering repeat questions. Subject-matter experts become informal search engines for their teams. New employees take longer to become productive. And when the person who "knows where everything is" is unavailable, the problem becomes even more obvious. The information usually exists. The problem is getting to it.

Why Good Information Becomes Hard to Find

It lives in too many places: Documents, emails, Teams conversations, shared drives, and personal folders can all contain parts of the same information.

Content isn't consistently structured: Different naming conventions, folders, and metadata make information harder to locate and distinguish.

Important knowledge stays in conversations: Decisions and context often remain buried in email or Teams messages instead of being captured where others can find them later.

There are too many versions: When similar documents exist in multiple locations, finding a file doesn't necessarily mean finding the right one.

Access isn't always clear: Information may exist but be unavailable to the person searching for it because permissions were never properly designed.

The result is a workplace where employees spend time remembering where information might be instead of using the information itself.

Make Information Easier to Find

Better search starts with better information management.

Organisations can improve findability by:

• Creating clear places for information to live, rather than allowing important content to spread across personal drives and disconnected systems.
• Using consistent naming and metadata, so content can be understood and located regardless of who created it.
• Capturing important decisions, particularly when they happen in meetings, Teams conversations, or project discussions.
• Removing outdated and duplicate content, so employees aren't presented with several possible answers.
• Giving teams ownership of shared information, so structure and quality don't deteriorate as content grows.

The objective isn't to make every piece of information searchable.

It's to make the information that matters easy to find, trust, and use.

Microsoft 365 Can Turn Search Into a Workplace Capability

Microsoft 365 already provides much of the foundation organisations need. SharePoint can provide structured document and knowledge environments where information has clear ownership, permissions, and context. Microsoft Search can help employees find relevant content across the Microsoft 365 environment instead of checking each system individually. Teams keeps collaboration and conversations connected to the work, while properly structured Teams and SharePoint environments can make important information easier to retrieve later. Microsoft Copilot adds another layer by helping employees find, summarise, and understand information using natural language. But technology can't solve poor information management on its own.

Copilot can help people find what exists. It can't fix information that was never structured, captured, or maintained in the first place.

The Opportunity Is Already in Your Microsoft 365 Environment

Most organisations don't have an information shortage. They have a findability problem. The opportunity is to bring structure to the Microsoft 365 environment already being used — making knowledge easier to find, reducing dependency on individuals, and helping employees spend less time searching and more time working.

Make the information your organisation already has easier to use.

Athen helps organisations structure Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Teams, and knowledge environments around how people actually work and find information.