On average, UK IT decision-makers waste 27% of their time at work on tasks that do not add critical value. This is according to Vanson Bourne research commissioned by Dropbox, which revealed that monotonous admin is starving UK businesses of innovation.
Admin over innovation
The findings revealed that UK IT decision-makers in the modern workplace are spending too much time on administrative tasks, which is preventing them from focusing their time on creative activities and being productive.
As a result, almost two-fifths (38%) said that increasing employee productivity is a main priority for the business over the next 12 months. But in order to do this, the majority (84%) said they need the ability to meet the various collaborative working needs of different teams.
“The pace of technological change has us racing around from morning until night, working every minute and attempting to squeeze as much as we can out of a day. With concerns about a burnout epidemic on the rise, the way we work needs to change,” said Adrienne Gormley, head of EMEA, Dropbox.
“With decision-makers being time poor, it is of paramount importance that organisations can reduce this waste and maximise the amount of time that their employees are allocating towards creative and business critical activities.”
The struggle of the UK CIO: many left unfulfilled by internal ‘politics’
UK IT decision-makers, what’s problem?
Recognising the problem is a good start, with more than half of respondents believing that significant or large improvements are needed when it comes to collaborative working across teams.
Organisations need to reinvent the way that teams collaborate. Despite the challenges that could arise as a result of this need for improvement, only 4% have not experienced any barriers to improving collaborative working.
A collaborative working culture
Moving towards a more collaborative working culture is not simple, but the research found that a connected workspace, which brings together people, tools, content and the conversations around them, can lay the groundwork for a collaborative culture, whilst driving the organisation forward in the process.
As such, collaboration tools are among the biggest investment priorities for over a third (35%) over the next 12-24 months. And it’s money well prioritised — 83% believe that investment in a unified workspace will improve the way that employees at their organisation collaborate internally and externally.
“There are so many upsides to implementing a collaborative working culture, and the organisations who recognise this and take timely action to encourage it, will find themselves ahead of those who fail to recognise the importance,” said Gormley. “But as much as the prospect of a streamlined, focused future is appealing, it is clear that businesses first need to stop, hit re-start, and work with solutions that reduce the noise, not add to it.”
