“The Personal Productivity Challenge” conducted by Microsoft in 2005 sampled over 38,000 people in 200 countries about their productivity. The results are staggering and point to a real need for productivity training and policies in the workplace.
Image provided by: Peter Baer
A summary of Microsoft’s findings include:
- People average of 45 hours of work a week and consider 17 of those hours to be unproductive.
- 55% of those surveyed relate their productivity directly to their software.
- People spend 5.6 hours every week in meetings and 69% feel those meetings are unproductive.
- Only 34% use proven scheduling tools and techniques.
- 60% say they have no work-life balance, and that being unproductive contributes to this.
- Women’s average productivity score was 72%, compared to 71% for men.
- The biggest productivity issues are unclear objectives, lack of team communication and ineffective meetings.
In order to reclaim the 38% of vanishing productivity, the Center for Management & Organization Effectiveness suggests that you implement tools and processes to:
- Explain and communicate organization goals in a way that is meaningful to each employee.
- Link employee contributions to organizational goals.
- Communicate and coach employees to build commitment.
- Develop employees to be more productive and focused on performance.
Productivity has a direct impact on profits and your organization cannot afford to ignore these bottom-line busting statistics.
