Most people say they have no idea what their job achieves

A new poll claims that most employees are unaware of how their individual contributions at work support larger company goals and growth. Only 23 percent of employees say they are told about company goals, in stark contrast with the 84 percent of leaders who say they’re effectively communicating business goals, objectives and key results to employees. More than half of employees (51 percent) say that having increased transparency into these goals would help them to better manage their job and drive productivity.

Slingshot’s 2024 Digital Work Trends Report sets out to explore the factors that impact productivity from the perspective of both employees and employers. The report looks at how things like transparency into company goals, time spent on digital devices, workload and workplace tools play into employees’ productivity and performance. The new research also shines a light on how company leaders feel they are currently supporting employees’ productivity–and the extent to which employees feel supported.

Key findings:

• One in three workers have digital fatigue–and it’s impacting productivity at work. With teams spending an average of 8 hours a day on screens (i.e. computer, television, phone) for both work and recreational activities, it’s no wonder one-third (34 percent) of workers say they’re overwhelmed by the amount of time they spend on digital devices. With an excessive amount of screen time comes lower productivity with 41 percent of teams saying they feel burnt out due to digital fatigue and  18 percent saying they’re not giving tasks their full attention and decreasing the quality of deliverables.
• Too many apps are taking too much of employees’ attention. Nearly half (42 percent) of employees and leaders use five or more workplace applications per day, with 12 percent saying they use seven or more. This overload of apps is taking more than just teams’ time–but their productivity. Sixteen percent (16 percent) of teams say using too many applications contributes most to their digital exhaustion and nearly one-fourth (24 percent) say that app notifications are distracting to daily tasks.
• Older employees don’t feel overloaded with work to the extent that other generations do. Most employees (70 percent) have felt overloaded at work, but Boomer employees feel the least amount of pressure when it comes to workload. More workers aged 60+ say they aren’t overloaded with work (52 percent) than cite any one situation when they feel overloaded. This is compared with 16 percent of Gen Z workers (ages 18-27) , 21 percent of Millennials (ages 28-43) and 31 percent of Gen X + Y workers (ages 44-59) that feel the same. Boomer employees also feel less digital fatigue than younger employers, with 53 percent of Gen Z-ers feeling digitally exhausted compared to 18 percent of Boomers.
• Employees want leaders to set expectations for after-hours availability. More than one-third (38 percent) of employees and leaders feel pressure to respond to work-related correspondence outside of work hours. To address this and encourage more work-life balance, employees want employers to encourage them to unplug at the end of the workday (67 percent), not expect employees to be available after hours (55 percent) and not ask employees for deliverables after work hours (45 percent).