Oh Poo Emoji! New Workfront Survey Unveils UK Office Workers Don't Have Enough Time to Perform Primary Job Duties
Excessive meetings and email eat up the majority of the day
LONDON, Oct. 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- A survey released today by Workfront, the leading provider of cloud-based Enterprise Work Management solutions, found that more and more, workers are spending large portions of the work day on things other than what they were hired to do; stating that only 38% of their day was spent on their primary job duties.
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The study also revealed that the top three things that got in the way of work included: wasteful meetings (62%), excessive emails (52%), and excessive oversight (39%). Not surprisingly, nearly one third of workers (32%) stated their feelings about attending meetings could be best described with a sad face, angry face or poo emoji.
"Meetings and email are a necessary part of today's workplace. Unfortunately, they are often misused, decreasing, rather than increasing, productivity. Combine this will a future projected shift over the next five years away from email as the primary means of business communication and an increase in remote workers, and you have to ask, how will work get done efficiently?" said Joe Staples, chief marketing officer at Workfront. "The good news is there are better ways to manage work. By implementing a solution like Workfront, teams are able to collaborate in the context of work, and gain complete visibility into the work that is being done. This eliminates the need for unnecessary status meetings, and lengthy email threads and gives teams time back to be more productive. It's really about providing the tools that allow businesses to focus on the right work, create their best work, and deliver that work faster than ever before."
While work isn't always rainbows and butterflies, the survey revealed several bright spots, primarily around people's work environments and co-workers. Three-quarters of office workers stated they love their jobs and are usually happy to be there (74%). They also expressed that dealing with their co-workers makes them feel happy (68%) and that at least one person at work has their back (85%). Approval ratings were also high for bosses with respondents stating that they felt that their boss listened to them (85%), and they felt empowered at work (72%).
Some other interesting findings from the 2016 State of Work Report include:
- Do not disturb —26% of workers said uninterrupted blocks of time would help them be more productive at work, followed by more efficient work process (26%), and more/better qualified people and resources (19%).
- Ding-dong the hour-long lunch is dead —62% of general office workers take 30 minutes or less for lunch, with 28% stating they take less than 15 minutes. The top two reasons given for working through lunch were, "I am too busy for a lunch" (50%) and "I prefer to work through my lunch" (40%).
- Watch out- work changes ahead — 37% of office workers agree that email will no longer be the main mode of communication in five years, with over half (57%) saying that the majority of workers will work remotely in the coming years.
- Overtime on the rise — 40.6 hours is the typical workweek for office workers in 2016. When asked how they feel about working after hours or on weekends, 69% of workers said it made them feel negatively (sad face, angry face or poo emoji).
To view the full report and to learn more about Workfront, visit https://resources.workfront.com/h/i/290849070-2016-17-uk-state-of-enterprise-work-report/278016.
Survey Methodology
The survey was conducted online within the United States by Regina Corso Consulting on behalf of Workfront from July 6- July 31, 2016 among 609 U.K. adults ages 18 and older, employed full-time or part-time, who work at a company with 500 or more employees and who work on a computer and collaborate with other people.
For a complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Shelbi Gomez at shelbigomez@workfront.com
About Workfront
Workfront is a cloud-based Enterprise Work Management solution that helps marketing, IT, and other enterprise teams conquer the chaos of excessive email, redundant status meetings, and disconnected tools. Unlike other tools, Workfront Enterprise Work Cloud is a centralized, easy-to-adopt solution for managing and collaborating on all types of work through the entire work lifecycle, which improves team productivity and executive visibility. Workfront is trusted by thousands of global enterprises, like Cars.com, Cisco Systems, Comcast, iProspect, Schneider Electric and Trek. To learn more, visit www.workfront.com or follow us on Twitter @Workfront_Inc.
Contact: Shelbi Gomez
shelbigomez@workfront.com
801-477-9813
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