British workers are struggling to adapt to new digital tools, losing hundreds of hours in productivity in the process, according to a new report.

Following the global COVID-19 pandemic, millions of workers have been forced to incorporate tools they have never used before, as an individual or employee, creating a drain or productivity and new challenges in communication.

The Modern Worklife report by Sigma, a leading UX design and development agency, has revealed that the average worker loses 28 minutes every day using digital programmes or tools that they can’t use effectively – almost two and a half hours per week.

For a full-time member of staff, this equates to 560 minutes (9.3 hours) per month or 112 hours per year. Considering there are 43,000 medium-large sized businesses in the UK, with 14,142,000 people employed at these enterprises, this equates to a total of 211,187,200 working days lost.

The new report also found that two-thirds (67%) of British workers lose up to 30 minutes every day due to difficult-to-use, inefficient or difficult-to-understand digital tools – with another quarter (26%) losing between 30 minutes to an hour.

Hilary Stephenson, managing director at Sigma UK, said: “Despite the workplace being revolutionised by digital tools such as, instant messaging, video conferencing and project management applications, clearly there is still some way to go for them to be an entirely efficient addition to modern working life. This is in part due to workers having limited understanding of how to use new tools and also tasks being doubled as suppliers, clients and different department using different types of tools to complete their day-to-day work.

“What’s more, following the global COVID-19 pandemic, millions of workers have, almost overnight, been required to conduct their jobs remotely and adopt a series of digital tools with little or no training, and with the tools often suffering from poor implementation. When interacting with other colleagues, teams, clients and suppliers that have adopted alternative tools, integration and communication breaks down and even doubles up, before a single channel is agreed upon.

“For example, email is being replaced with instant messaging apps and boards to share information that would be typically emailed, however it doesn’t suddenly become a legacy channel; new ones are simply added on top. Instead of just checking emails, everyone has to stay on top of numerous channels at once.”

The research found that on average, UK workers are using four digital tools in their daily working lives, with 6% of workers – almost 2 million people – using more than nine.

However, it’s not all bad news, 81% of workers feel that digital tools make day-to-day working life better, more productive and more efficient.

The data industry is the worst for time lost to difficult tools, followed by IT – naturally these industries have a higher usage of digital programmes that workers have to grapple with.

However, the hospitality industry is also placed highly in the list of lost hours, as it too struggles with new digital tools such as booking systems, rota and time management systems, order at the table apps and new POS (point of sale) systems.

Hilary continued: “More must be done, particularly in the industries which have been highlighted as having the most inefficient users, to better educate and integrate new digital tools for both internal and external communication. Often legacy systems are not fully replaced or integrated leading to further confusion among the workforce.

“Although this research was undertaken before the pandemic, there is no doubt the rush to work remotely has impacted even more businesses and their workers, meaning that figures could be temporarily even higher as the workforce is fragmented.

“There is opportunity to adopt these new digital tools and reduce the time it takes to do certain admin and organisation tasks, leading to efficiencies, ultimately saving time and money. As with any new system and process there will be initial teething problems, however those that persevere and address initial hurdles will be the businesses that benefit the most.”

The report, Modern Worklife, surveyed 500 SMEs and 500 employees from medium-large businesses in a range of sectors about their current working processes.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post 112 Working Hours Per Worker Wasted Each Year Due To Digital Tools appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

2019 is already heading to its second month, and that brings the perfect opportunity for organisations to self-assess and consider how they can better contribute towards the welfare of their work force for the year ahead.

The quality of workplace benefits provided by an organisation can significantly improve the happiness and retention of existing employees. Likewise, when recruiting – the generosity of a benefits package will have a bearing on the appeal of a business to prospective candidates.

Given the positive impact workplace benefits can have on employees, such as higher engagement and morale, it is imperative organisations get their offering right. Yet, according to research conducted by renowned recruitment company ‘Michael Page’, 64% of employees feel businesses are investing in expensive benefits that they neither want, need nor use.

Interested in job satisfaction, training and qualification firm The Knowledge Academy analysed the latest findings from professional services company ‘Capita’, who surveyed 1,894 UK employees to better understand and discover the workplace benefits they most want.

The Knowledge Academy found that UK employees would most like employers to have private medical insurance (42.7%) as a part of their benefits package. Thereafter, employees are keen to receive retail vouchers (35.0%) to spend at some of their favourite brands.

Moreover, life insurance (34.5%) and private dental insurance (32.1%) feature prominently at the top of the benefits employees place a high value on. With people more health-conscious than ever before, it’s perhaps unsurprising 30.3% of workers think gym membership should be included in any benefits package offered by an employer.

On the other end of the scale, gadget insurance cover (e.g. phones, tablets, laptops etc) is the least desired workplace benefit by employees in the UK at 16.3%. Slightly above that, 18.5% of British employees consider personal accident cover as an important inclusion in a company’s benefits selection.

In addition to this, the Knowledge Academy sought to determine the benefits employees would be most willing to pay for out their own pocket if an employer did not have a given one. From this, travel insurance (43.4%) was established as the benefit workers would most pay for themselves if an employer did not make it inclusive in their benefits packet.
Life insurance (38.2%) and gym membership (28.9%) also ranked highly as the workplace benefits employees would be more than happy to splash their own cash on if an employer did not provide them.

Despite being the two most wanted benefits, only 16.6% and 12.8% of employees would respectively get private medical insurance and retail vouchers if it meant dipping into their own wallet to do so.

Contrastingly, even though 26.3% of employees would like their employer to give them the chance to get regular health screenings, just 8.7% would go to one on their own accord. Similarly, only a small percentage would independently fork out on income protection (11.4%) and personal accident cover (11.0%) – though neither had a huge demand from employees for companies to provide them in their benefits offering (income protection cover – 20.3% and personal accident cover – 18.5%) to begin with.

Joseph Scott, a spokesperson from the company commented: “The professional working environment for many employees is more than just about getting the work in hand done and earning a salary. Alongside the enjoyment they gain from their respective role, how well they are treated beyond the monetary level contributes heavily towards their overall job satisfaction. Consequently, this research indicates that employers should be aware of this and aim to have a mix of lifestyle as well as insurance-based products in their employee benefits offering. Additionally, they should take the responsibility to make workers aware of all the benefits available to them and which ones would be best suited to their individual needs”.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post These Are The Employees’ Most Desired Workplace Benefits appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Despite margins often being tighter and tensions or losses often being felt more keenly in smaller businesses, new research shows that the level of occupational stress workers feel directly correlates to the size of the company they are in.

Micro businesses employing a maximum of four members of staff were less likely than those in businesses of any other size to feel work-related stress, with 45% of employees reporting this, according to a study of 3,000 UK workers carried out by Perkbox, the UK’s fastest growing employee benefits platform, as part of the 2018 UK Workplace Stress Report.

This figure increases to 57% for small businesses (5 – 50 staff) and again to 62% for small to medium sized organisations (51 – 500 employees).

Finally, workers at the largest sized businesses surveyed – those with more than 500 members of staff – report the greatest instances of staff experiencing workplace stress, with 65% doing so.

In fact, one in five (21%) UK workers reveal they experience moderate to high levels of work-related stress as often as several times per week.

Many businesses could see dips in productivity as a result – as the data reveals that 25% of UK workers struggle to be as productive at work as they normally would be when experiencing stress.

Unfortunately, almost half (45%) of UK workers say that their place of work does not have anything in place to help reduce employees’ stress levels and improve their mental wellbeing.

Chieu Cao, CMO & Co-Founder at Perkbox, said: “Interestingly, it’s those in micro businesses that are the least likely to experience work related stress, despite those in smaller companies feeling the direct impact of business tensions or losses. It’s fascinating to reveal that the level of occupational stress can directly correlate to the size of a business.

“It’s more than clear that a happy workforce is a productive workforce. It’s surprising to see that in 2018, employers are not doing more to ensure a happy, healthy and productive work environment, not only to protect staff against stress but also to gain the very best results from the driven workforce.”

Cao continues: “There are also numerous benefits that businesses can offer to promote a more productive work environment that staff will welcome, including free or discounted gym membership, yoga classes and mindfulness classes which are all ‘perks’ that work to also create healthy coping mechanisms and reduce stress.”

Contributed content

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post SME Survey: Workers at Small Businesses Are Least Likely to Experience Stress appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.