Source: Jabra research report.
According to audio and communications company Jabra, modern workplaces face difficulties in fostering productivity due to common hurdles employees experience daily. These include distractions, poorly structured meetings, and technology that doesn’t work as intended.
Jabra’s 2015 research report, Productivity at the Office – Challenges, highlights that while companies invest in resources and tools to help office workers collaborate and focus, employees still encounter obstacles. These include constant distractions, unproductive meetings, and challenges utilizing technology meant to enhance their output.
The report’s key findings show that over a third of respondents (36%) believe office meetings hinder productivity, while nearly half (46%) find noise levels to be the most distracting factor. Interestingly, over a quarter (28%) are frustrated by excessive emails, yet 78% prefer email communication over calls for issue resolution.
Productivity at the Office reveals that most employees question the effectiveness of collaborative workspaces, primarily located in open plan offices (34%), which are considered the least productive environment by 35% of respondents.
Furthermore, the report indicates a failure to achieve productive collaboration time. Over half (51%) of respondents agree that meetings lacking clear direction or an agenda lead to wasted time, while 32% cite poor decision-making. Additional factors include lack of follow-up (31%), insufficient preparation (26%), and latecomers (25%).
Conference calls present unique challenges. The most bothersome issues relate to sound quality, such as inaudible voices, background noise, connection problems, poor overall audio, and uncertainty about speakerphone functionality. Paradoxically, while 36% of respondents find meetings detrimental to their personal productivity, most still prefer them for the perceived organizational benefits.
Desk work, where employees spend over 66% of their workweek, presents significant opportunities for productivity gains or losses. However, knowledge workers contend with up to 17 distractions throughout the day, often caused by colleagues. Noise levels (46%), interruptions (43%), and emails (28%) are identified as the most frequent distractions. Controllable environmental factors like temperature, air quality, and lack of privacy also impact productivity. The report suggests that re-evaluating workspace design for focused work could mitigate these issues.
Jabra’s SVP, Holger Reisinger, emphasizes productivity’s crucial role in business success and competitiveness. He stresses the importance of maximizing resource utilization and implementing effective processes and tools. While many companies invest in collaborative workspaces and technologies, the intended benefits aren’t always realized. Reisinger advises businesses to re-assess their employees’ needs to ensure productivity throughout the workday and achieve business goals.
The report also reveals how limited workplace productivity impacts a company’s ability to attract and retain talent, as distractions significantly affect work-life balance. A considerable portion of knowledge workers (36%) are forced to complete tasks outside work hours to meet deadlines.
While technologies like smart boards, speakerphones, and project management software aim to facilitate meetings, they often hinder productivity. Setting up conference calls, for instance, can be time-consuming. The report reveals that 25% of meetings experience delays due to technical or user issues, wasting an average of 2.7 minutes per meeting.
These issues can escalate costs depending on the meeting size. While 71% of meetings occur in one location, 29% involve multiple locations, emphasizing the importance of collaborative technology. However, knowledge workers often struggle with these technologies, leading to frustration for half of the respondents.
Reisinger concludes that companies must find a balance between collaboration and concentration. He acknowledges the progress made in facilitating collaboration but stresses the need to ensure employees utilize technology effectively to avoid wasted resources. Reisinger emphasizes the importance of adaptable workspaces that cater to individual preferences, tasks, and job roles as the future of work.
Interested?
Read the TechTrade Asia blog post about Jabra’s latest collaboration device
*About the Productivity at the Office report is a survey of over 2,449 workers aged 18 to 65 across US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, China, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, conducted in May 2015 as part of Jabra’s New Ways of Working initiative.