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The Top 5 Obstacles to Work Productivity. 

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Across the Microsoft 365 apps, the average employee spends 57% of their time communicating (in meetings, email, and chat) and 43% creating (in documents, spreadsheets, and presentations).

A recently pubished report by Microsoft: The 2023 Work Trend Index: Annual Report, revealed that workers are spending at least full working days (57% of their time communicating in meetings, email, and chat). The report noted an urgent need to make meetings more effective as people report inefficient meetings as their number one productivity disruptor.  The top 5 obstacles to work productivity, according to the Microsoft Work Trend Index Report, are: Having inefficient meetings, Lacking clear goals, Having too many meetings, Feeling uninspired, and Not easily finding the information I need.

Workers spend at least full working days (57% of their time communicating in meetings, email, and chat).

Microsoft surveyed 31,000 people in 31 countries and analyzed trillions of Microsoft 365 productivity signals, along with labor trends from the LinkedIn Economic Graph. The data points to three urgent insights business leaders must know as they look to quickly and responsibly adopt AI. 

The Three Key Findings from the Microsoft 2023 Work Trend Index: Annual Report include:

  • Digital debt is costing us innovation
  • There’s a new AI-employee alliance 
  • Every employee needs AI aptitude

We spend more and more of our days separating the signal from the noise— at the expense of creativity. And the tax on individual productivity is compounding, undermining organizational productivity and global GDP.

Across the Microsoft 365 apps, the average employee spends 57% of their time communicating (in meetings, email, and chat) and 43% creating (in documents, spreadsheets, and presentations). The heaviest email users (top 25%) spend 8.8 hours a week on email, and the heaviest meeting users (top 25%) spend 7.5 hours a week in meetings. And this global average includes frontline workers—for knowledge workers, who rely even more on digital communication, the share of the week taken up by emails and meetings is even greater. 

Top 5 Obstacles to Productivity

The data reveals an urgent need to make meetings more effective— people report inefficient meetings as their number one productivity disruptor. 

The top 5 obstacles to productivity at work according to the Microsoft: 2023 Work Trend Index: Annual Report are:

  1. Having inefficient meeting
  2. Lacking clear goals
  3. Having too many meetings
  4. Feeling uninspired
  5. Not easily finding the information I need.

Meetings

People report that the number one productivity disruptor is inefficient meetings, followed closely by having too many meetings at number three. Most people say it’s difficult to brainstorm in a virtual meeting (58%) or catch up if they joined a meeting late (57%), that next steps at the end of a meeting are unclear (55%), and that it’s hard to summarize what happens (56%). And since February 2020, people are in 3x more Teams meetings and calls per week (192%). 

The data shows a clear need to make meetings better. Today, only 1 in 3 people (35%) think they would be missed in the majority of their meetings. But meeting FOMO is real. Asked what makes meetings worthwhile, people’s top motivation was, “I will receive information that will help me do my job better”—ahead of giving feedback, making decisions, or advancing their career.

With AI, every meeting becomes a digital artifact. When meetings are more than a point in time, you can engage and interact with them when and how it works best for you, whether synchronously or asynchronously

Take Action

  • Identify and address your organization’s productivity disruptors with insights from employee listening. 
  • Radically rethink the workday. As AI frees up time and energy, protect focus time for the creative work that leads to innovation. 
  • Think of meetings as a digital artifact and not just a point in time. Encourage people to leverage AI-powered intelligent meeting recaps, transcripts, and recordings to engage with meetings how and when it works best for them. 

All the best in your quest to get better. Don’t Settle: Live with Passion.

Lifelong Learner | Entrepreneur | Digital Strategist at Reputiva LLC | Marathoner | Bibliophile -info@lanredahunsi.com | lanre.dahunsi@gmail.com

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