Meaningful statistics about job status

iframe>

We spend a lot of time working, but most of that time is not very productive.

This became amazingly clear when I read it Job Status 2020 Search from my friends at Workfront. It's a remarkable report, by far the best of its kind. They surveyed nearly four thousand knowledge workers from around the world and uncovered some fascinating findings about how we work and what hinders it.

I highly recommend you to download and read full report . It's fascinating, encouraging, frustrating, and motivating, and I don't see a lot of research that can put all of that into a few pages + charts.

It raises a big and important question:

There is a group of companies that consistently outperform the competition. Why? How do they change pressure into opportunity? What makes these organizations different year after year?

The answer, at least in part, is work…and workers.

According to the report: “These companies have the ability to put unrelenting pressure on performance while creating a culture of positivity, openness and honesty.

These organizations also support their employees with the applications and systems they want and need. However, they also laid out a digital backbone that ties the individual tools together into an organized whole, supporting dynamic workflows, and gathering information that supports visibility. display and context.

Instead of simply making work easier or more fluid, they actually take a more dynamic approach, working across departments, changing more often, empowering leaders. new and redeployment at an individual, group or even organizational level…”

I like the sound of that and that's what I'm trying to do here at Convince & Convert, on a modest scale.

Job status 2020 report quite thorough – especially given its global reach – so I wanted to summarize for you the most interesting findings from the perspective.

Most employees are interested in work

According to this document, 78% of knowledge workers say their work represents more than one paycheck. It's encouraging!

78% of knowledge workers say their work represents more than just a paycheck. #stateofwork Click to Tweet

There is no shame

91% of workers surveyed say they take pride in the work they do. Clever!

91% of workers surveyed say they take pride in the work they do. #stateofwork Click to post a Tweet

But, wasted too much time

employee job statistic duties The report shows that knowledge workers globally only spend 43 PER PERcent the time they work with their actual job function. That means 57% of their time is spent by other things.

Workers spend only 43 PERFORMANCE of their time at work performing their job functions. #stateofwork Click to post a Tweet

Start over, and repeat

Knowledge workers are almost on hiatus 14 NUMBER OF TIMES every day by unexpected texts, calls and “pop into” their workspace. One of the many reasons I work from home!

Knowledge workers are interrupted almost 14 TIMES a day by unexpected texts, calls, and the dreaded appearance of their workspace. Click to post a Tweet

Workers want to know why

Less than half of survey respondents globally (46%) believe business decisions are data-driven. Sorry.

Cause and Effect

On the related side, almost two-thirds of respondents (65%) said they wish they were rewarded more based on results, rather than distribution. Good news! However, if they don't believe executives are using data to make decisions, it's hard to compensate the team based on success metrics that aren't based on numbers.

65% of employees say they wish they were rewarded more based on results, rather than deliverables. #stateofwork Click to Tweet

Obsolete

This surprises me, given the huge investments companies of all sizes have made – and are making – in technology, yet 87% of respondents believe that leaders in the organization They should reconsider their use of technology. I call this the “probably Slack does more harm than help” phenomenon.

Too many logins?

One of the biggest headaches for knowledge workers is how they actually plan and execute the work. The tech pain demonstrated above really stands out in this area, as 71% of participants want a single digital destination where they can understand and manage their work. Of course, that's what Workfront very good at: bringing order to clutter.

Five big task management questions

As you begin (or continue) to reflect on how you can facilitate better work within your organization, consider these five key questions, posed in the report, with thought in mind: mine in parentheses:

Do people in my organization understand our corporate strategy and What role do they play in our success? (The former is usually completed. The latter? Almost never, in my experience.)

Are the leaders in our organization working to ensure people and teams can focus on the work they've been hired to lead, drive, and accomplish? (I think, in good organizations, this is often the case.)

Are we measuring and motivating people to complete tasks and complete projects or achieve strategic results? (It should be a strategic outcome, but it is almost always “doing the job.” Part of the problem, though, is that a lot of executives don't fully understand the relationship between execution. tactics and strategic goals because they have been on the front lines for so long.)

Do the technology tools we use help people accomplish their strategic goals? (I guess I'd answer this question with "yes" and "no"? I don't know of a company that loves all of their tools, period. But I don't know many people who hate work either. their tools.)

Do we give all team members the “why” behind their work? Are we helping our people and teams align with strategic decisions? (I'm seeing this more and more. Lesson.ly is a prime example. And many of the companies that are doing this are led by Millennials, who may have a different attitude about getting everyone sailing in the same direction.)

Get your copy of Job Status 2020 Please. It will get you thinking about what and how it gets done (or not) in your own organization, whether you have 2 team members or 200,000.

Disclosure: my friends at Workfront are Convince & Convert paid advertising partners.