News | HR Technology

Workers lose 62 days a year to bad tech

Find out how to solve this productivity crisis, according to data from Userlane and RingCentral.

October 05, 2023, 12:04 PM | By: Allie Nawrat

News in Brief

Tech tools are getting in the way of productive work.

That's the conclusion of two separate surveys: one from RingCentral and one from Userlane.

Here's how better tech can be part of the solution.

Employers across the world are grappling with productivity challenges.

Many are grasping onto remote or hybrid work as the culprit, and therefore pushing for return to office.

However, that is a simplistic resolution. Instead, it seems that technology, which is working location agnostic, is a huge part of the problem.

New global research from RingCentral, which surveyed 4,500 workers in the US, the UK and Australia, found that employees are losing 500 working hours a year switching between different apps – this is an equivalent to 62 working days.

Another survey of 1,000 UK and German leaders and employees by Userlane came to a similar conclusion.

In the UK, on average, employees were losing 2.33 hours a week to software challenges, this rose to 2.65 hours in Germany.

The issue is that HR tech tools are not up to scratch, and workers are facing an “app overload”, as Userlane CEO Hartmut Hahn tells UNLEASH.

90% of UK employees told Userlane they struggled with software usage, and 53% are using more tools than they were last year (the figures are 88% and 46% respectively in Germany).

RingCentral’s data identified that employees are grappling with six or more apps at work (52%), and 46% are having to spend at least an hour a day checking message alerts.

These message alerts are a particular drain on productivity, according to RingCentral.

16% felt pressure to respond to these alerts immediately, and this rose to 35% within the hour.

This pressure doesn’t go away outside of workhours, 70% are checking their notifications in their personal time and this creates an always-on mentality for 56%.

Therefore, it is no surprise that 58% of workers are anxious about notifications, that notifications are impacting their ability to focus (49%) and stay on top of their tasks without making mistakes (43%).

The solution? Unified, seamless technology

Both RingCentral and Userlane’s research came to the conclusion that better technology tools are needed.

68% of respondents told RingCentral they’d prefer a single, unified communication and collaboration platform – and this would increase their productivity (85%).

Artificial intelligence (AI) has a huge role to play here.

According to RingCentral, 59% of employees said that AI could save them time – 35% see the promise of AI for notetaking, 28% for meeting summaries and 55% as assistants to reduce the daily chaos.

Speaking exclusively to UNLEASH, RingCentral CHRO Bobbie Grafeld shares: “AI has an instrumental role to play in solving the productivity pinch.

“For the smoothest implementation process, leaders will need to proactively seek employees’ opinions regarding AI tools, via line managers or anonymous employee surveys, to inform the decisions around specific tools integrated.”

Grafeld adds: “In addition, the organization will have to set out clear guidelines to manage the use of AI by employees.

“These should include expectations of employees using AI in any capacity and the AI tools that are approved for work use.

“As with any guidelines, they should be reviewed regularly to ensure that as the implementation and use of AI at work grows, the guidelines remain fit for purpose.”

Employees further told Userlane that they wanted a stress-free, seamless tech experience – this would drive productivity (75% UK, 70% Germany), as well as happiness at work (68% UK, 67% Germany).

To help here, Userlane is calling on employers to step up; “boosting digital adoption requires the right approach to training”, Hahn tells UNLEASH.

Employees prefer to learn by doing and in the flow of work, so it is great news that the leaders surveyed plan to offer training “with an emphasis on employee-led, immersive, and embedded experiences as opposed to traditional group workshops or peer-to-peer learning”, shares Hahn.

HR tech and UNLEASH World

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It’s not too late to grab your ticket, and hear how YOU can find and implement the right tech into your organization from industry stalwarts like Josh Bersin, Anika Grant and Vincent Belliveau!