Poor data quality and inefficient data management cost the Belgian economy billions of euros in lost productivity annually.
Belgian companies are estimated to lose 8.41 billion euros per year due to inefficiencies in searching for data and correcting erroneous information. On average, employees spend nearly two full work weeks each year on these tasks, which has a significant impact on productivity.
The research was conducted in July 2025 among 1,088 employees in the Benelux region, across various roles and company sizes
Data Searching Consumes Time
A study by Savanta, commissioned by Snowflake, reveals that Belgian employees need an average of 64.8 minutes per week to find the right data. This amounts to more than 50 hours per employee per year. At a national level, this translates to a productivity loss of 4.83 billion euros.
Not only does this cost time, but it also slows down data-driven decisions and project deliveries. In comparison, employees in the Netherlands spend an average of 54 minutes per week searching for data.
Correction Work
In addition to searching for information, Belgian employees also lose a lot of time correcting erroneous data. More than half of the employees (53%) say they spend time on corrections weekly, with 16 percent doing so daily. On average, this amounts to 37.56 hours per year per employee, costing companies another 3.58 billion euros.
Only 24 percent of the surveyed Belgian employees have high confidence in the quality of the data they work with. 57 percent say they regularly have to check for accuracy, further underlining the lack of trust.
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