Employees often too busy keeping up with workloads to innovate

The majority of workers say their workplace regularly asks them to innovate, but a full 65 percent say they’re so swamped with day-to-day work that they don’t have time to think about the future, a new report by Workfront claims. Yet their work remains important to employees, as over half (57 percent) says what they do matters to them personally. The report also found that UK workers rate their own contributions higher than those of their colleagues. On average, most workers scored their productivity at 7.84/10, compared with 7.05 for co-workers and 6.28 for company leadership. Most do believe though that automation will boost personal productivity, as seventy-seven percent thought that the rise of automation will help people and teams think of work in new and innovative ways. There are concerns too regarding too many time wasting activities, with staff spending only 39 per cent of their workday on their primary tasks. Emails and pointless meetings topped the list of things that keep knowledge workers from getting work done.

Alex Shootman, President and CEO of Workfront commented: “As companies race to digitize across every aspect of their business, from human resources to finance to sales, people and the work they do each day has been left behind in legacy productivity solutions and antiquated tools, trapping innovation.

“Today’s workforce wants and needs a new platform for collaboration and digital work, one that connects people to get things done and enables leaders to see, support, and measure their entire enterprise. These results demonstrate how much the modern workforce wants and needs a new approach.”

Workfront has included these findings in its fourth annual State of Work report which can be downloaded here.