UK employees spend under half of their time actually working due to “unproductive activities and misapplied technologies”.
This is according to the 2020 State of Work report published by Workfront, a modern management application platform. It found that UK workers only spend 40 per cent of their working week doing the job they were hired to do.
Employees ranked meaningless tasks as their number one factor from keeping them feeling fulfilled at work.
The vast majority (60 per cent) of an employee’s day is wasted on excessive emails, unproductive meetings and a lack of standard processes and collaboration.
Also, under half (43 per cent) of workers state that the applications and programs they use at work make them less productive. At the same time, 56 per cent believe that their stall in productivity is due to outdated technology in the workplace.
The majority (90 per cent) of workers desire modern technology and 96 per cent feel it should be as easy to find information at work as it is on Google. Next-generation employees expect this trend to grow as 89 per cent think that workplace technology should look more like Amazon or Instagram.
In spite of this 91 per cent of employees feel proud of their work and 75 per cent of workers feel like their job is more than just a paycheck. Workfront believes this “highlights a strong opportunity for UK companies to find new ways to support employees in doing their best work.”
Steven ZoBell, chief product and technology officer at Workfront said:
The 2020 Workfront State of Work survey shows us that today’s knowledge workers want to do important work that makes a difference for their teams and accomplishes strategic business objectives for their companies. This research provides vital insight for enterprise leaders, demonstrating the importance of modern work management as companies work to strategically align and equip their people to accomplish extraordinary goals.
Workfront asked the opinion of 3,750 knowledge workers across the US, UK, Germany and the Netherlands in order to collate this data. A knowledge worker is an employee whose main capital is knowledge such as programmers, physicians, architects and scientists.
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.
