Without high levels of productivity, a business can’t succeed because its costs will end up being too high, resulting in lower profit margins. The longer employees take to complete a task, the more costly that task will be. So it’s no wonder that employers are always seeking ways to streamline their organisation and make it more efficient across the board. But according to UK workers, a whopping 36 per cent of the hours that they spend on the job are actually unproductive.
Survey Results State Employees Aren’t All That Productive After All
The Global Attitudes to Work survey of 6,250 employees throughout 14 countries revealed some interesting information that many employers probably weren’t aware of and will probably take close note of. In the survey, employees were asked about a variety of aspects of their current working life.
UK workers feel that about 36 per cent of the hours that they spend at work are actually unproductive. On the other hand, the majority of the people who were polled throughout Europe ended up rating themselves more productive than workers in the UK. The exceptions were Spanish employees who felt that they were unproductive 42 per cent of the time, Italians who stated 52 per cent, and Greeks who believe that 38 per cent of their workdays are unproductive.
Motivation Also Varied
When the survey discussed motivation amongst these employees, the results also varied from one country to the next, with employees in different parts of the world finding themselves going to work for different reasons.
In Greece, for example, employees are quite motivated to work because they want to make a difference. Australian workers, on the other hand, are more motivated to work so they can build their wealth. And in the UK, only 15 per cent of the workers go to their jobs simply for enjoyment of what they do.
Employers Seek Ways of Increasing Productivity
Since so many hours are unproductive on the job not only in the UK, but also in other parts of the globe, business owners are taking note of the results of the survey and making smart changes that will increase efficiency.
Listening to employees is a good first step. After all, if you can get your employees to be happy while they’re at work, they’ll be more motivated to go to work and do a great job. Your HR department can also help you with tracking performance using new technology like XCD HR software cloud to make changes and encourage higher levels of productivity.
Also, if so many hours are unproductive, employers can invest in technology that will allow their employees to have flexible schedules or telecommute from home. In this way, only productive work hours can be put in and employers can save money by not having to pay for all of the unproductive, wasted hours.
No matter what employers end up doing to make their organisations succeed, one thing is for certain, and that is that employee satisfaction, motivation, and productivity are lower than most people thought.