Buzz
A report from Microsoft indicates that employees spend more time on emails, meetings, and chats compared to their actual work time. This suggests that communication occupies over half of employees' time. These findings are based on a survey across various industries worldwide, as well as data from the usage of Microsoft 365 apps such as Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. According to Microsoft, the volume of data, emails, meetings, and notifications exceeds employees' information processing capacity. The number of participants in meetings and calls per week has tripled (increased by 192%) compared to February 2020.According to the report, nearly two-thirds of individuals (64%) report difficulties in maintaining the time and energy required to perform their jobs, and these individuals are more likely to struggle with innovation and high-level strategic thinking, up to 3.5 times. Additionally, 60% of leaders express concerns about the lack of innovative ideas or breakthroughs.Microsoft refers to the challenge of employees struggling to keep up with emails, meetings, and chats as a 'digital debt'. People spend more time trying to 'get out of the red' (referring to notifications appearing in red) and getting caught up in communication rather than actually doing their work. There's a significant amount of time during the day not allocated for creative work, which would lead to innovation. In a world where creativity equals productivity, digital debt is not just an inconvenience but is impacting business operations.
68% of survey participants report that work communications such as emails, meetings, and chats often hinder their productivity during the workday, leaving them without enough continuous focus to accomplish their tasks. The majority (62%) say they spend too much time searching for needed information at work. Microsoft notes that an average employee spends over half (57%) of their time on communication and 43% of their time creating documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. The top 25% of email users spend 8.8 hours per week managing their emails, and the top 25% of meeting participants spend 7.5 hours per week on video or audio calls.Survey respondents also identify 'ineffective meetings' as the number one barrier to their daily productivity. Lack of clear objectives, too many meetings, feeling unengaged, and difficulty finding needed information are the top productivity disruptors. Many (58%) find it difficult to brainstorm during an online meeting, while 57% struggle to catch up if they join a meeting late. More than half (55%) of survey participants say the next steps after the meeting are unclear, while 56% find it challenging to summarize what happened in the meeting.However, when it comes to ways to reduce time spent on these meetings, only just over 1 in 3 people (35%) say they think they would miss out if they didn't attend, while most of those surveyed say meetings become worthwhile because they receive information to help them do their jobs better.And what about you guys? How many times a week do you guys have meetings? After the meetings, are the issues resolved? Comment below.According to Microsoft.
