Deloitte survey: Nearly half of UK business services workers waste 10 minutes per hour in their working day due to ineffective technology

• 49% of workers waste an average of 10 minutes per hour in a median 35 hour week
• 44% of workers mentioned technology issues as their top reason for lack of productivity
• Eight in ten workers use their personal smartphones for work purposes to make jobs easier
• 56% of workers manually fill out or input work related forms

Manual and admin workers in business services are losing ten minutes per hour in their working day due to lack of effective technology in the workplace, according to the 2018 Connected Worker survey by Deloitte. Just under half (49%) of respondents said they waste an average of ten minutes for each hour worked, in a median 35 hour week.

Of the reasons given, 44% cited issues with technology, such as non-working or lack of devices as the main reason for not being productive at work.

Workers compensate for the lack of employer provided technology with their own devices, with eight in ten (81%) already using their personal smartphones for work purposes. Over half (54%) of the workers feel they have the skills to use more technology at work.

James Yearsley, lead services partner at Deloitte, said: “Our research has found that the majority of workers are both willing and able to use more technology at work.

“While employees are using personal devices to increase their productivity at work, they only gain the benefits if their employer links the devices to the company systems. Business services companies need to do more to provide a productive environment for their employees.”

The majority of administrative tasks are carried out manually rather than digitally. For instance, 56% of workers manually fill out or input work related forms and 64% manually complete timesheets. Just under half of all employees (47%) feel that with the right technology they could work much faster.

Yearsley added: “Documents such as timesheets are crucial to businesses. They are used for a range of purposes from pricing to billing clients. Completing timesheets manually not only risks errors but also adds unnecessarily both time and costs as supervisors and managers have to input data into systems, rather than the workers doing it directly.

“Our research shows that the most common reason for business services companies not investing in technology is the lack of budget. Companies that do invest, will be able to set new parameters for both pricing and quality of service, and be more competitive. The technology can help them to document the value they create, while businesses that stick to traditional methods will not be able to.

“Companies that do not have enough budget for technology should focus on simpler solutions including open-source and app based tools. In addition they could also work with technology vendors to identify different models for investing.

“Providing workers with the relevant technologies will create a more positive working environment, boost productivity and recover the investment, often already over a short period of time.”

End

Notes to editors

The second annual Connected Worker survey was conducted in April 2018. It gathered views from 640 workers.

Two-thirds of the respondents are manual or semi-skilled and one-third are lower level supervisors or administrative workers. In the report we refer to these groups together as business services workers.

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