Australians are wasting valuable hours battling outdated technology, unproductive workflows and meetings. This is costing employers more than they realise, new research into Australian business productivity has revealed.
Nitro, surveyed more than 1,000 Australian office workers to better understand the productivity challenges faced by employees and consequently, steps employers can take to increase their return on employee investment.
“There’s nothing more deflating than getting into the office early to smash out some work before a hectic day of meetings, only to realize you can’t work on a file you need to update because you don’t have the right software,” Nitro Vice President of APAC Michael Helder said.
The five key reasons for low workplace productivity are:
– outdated processes, policies and workflows
– poor management or leadership
– negative workplace culture
– outdated tools or technology
– insufficient training
Office workers cited lack of access to software or technological tools to complete a task (28%) and being unable to read a poorly scanned or photocopied document (21%) as common productivity pain points.
Faced with a calendar full of meetings they wish they could reduce (43%), more than a quarter of workers now say the most productive part of their day is before (21%) or after (4%) office hours.
70% of all workers said lack of proper training across the board was responsible for much of the loss in productivity. Previous Nitro research shows the average knowledge worker loses four hours a week on paper-based admin challenges alone.
“For an employee on a $80k annual salary, employers are pouring more than $8,000 a year down the productivity drain,” Helder said.
The report found Gen X and Boomer employees were twice as likely to feel neglected by their employers when it comes to training or investment in the latest technologies, compared to 18-25 year-olds.
Key research findings:
● Women were 70% more likely to view insufficient training as a reason for being less productive at work (women, 43% and men, 30%)
● Australians working in the public sector were the most likely to have their computer crash at work (55%)
● Senior management (67%) were more likely to find outdated processes, policies and technology more cumbersome than those in mid-level positions, a group that placed the highest emphasis on poor management or leadership (60%).
● C-suite employees ranked standardising digital tools and technology such as eSignatures the most important at 63%
