Using artificial intelligence and cutting back on meetings are two ways to help improve workplace productivity, according to the company behind recent research.
Qualtrics conducted the survey for Slack Technologies Aug. 24 to Sept. 15 among full-time workers in the United States, Australia, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. Results were released in December.
Ninety-four percent of participating executives queried expressed at least some degree of urgency to incorporate AI tools into their organization.
“People at every job level may be shocked to see that more than two hours of meetings a day reduces productivity. It may feel unrealistic to many team leaders to try to hit that target today, but that’s where the newest generation of AI tools could be a lifesaver,” said Christina Janzer, senior vice president of research and analytics at Slack and head of Slack’s Workforce Lab.
“An AI assistant that could accurately summarize meeting notes and automate common workflows could be the key that frees up our time and helps us to unlock the balance we need to set ourselves up for success,” she added.
Some employers may think that working longer hours means improved productivity, but that is not the case, according to the results.
“We’ve long seen a focus on quantity over quality across many aspects of work, from how we spend our time to how we define productivity. Constantly feeling like you need to catch up is hurting employees and businesses,” Janzer said.
“This underscores the importance of building a culture of trust where employees feel safe enough to speak up when they need help prioritizing and have the right balance of time in the workday to get work done,” she added.
According to the report, 40% of the 10,333 workers surveyed said that they routinely work after quitting time. Fifty percent of the respondents said they work extra hours because they feel pressured to do so, not because they want to do so.
At the same time, according to the authors, the employees who felt obligated to work after hours reported 20% lower productivity throughout the day. Workers that regularly took breaks throughout the day were approximately 13% more productive than colleagues that sit at their desk all day without taking breaks.
“A majority of workers overall said spending more than two hours a day in meetings is the tipping point for them, cutting into the time they have to focus on their work. Email is no help, either: 21%of individual contributors said email overload is pulling them away from their tasks,” according to a SHRM article about the research.
