While the pandemic has prompted many more organisations to adopt hybrid working, it is clear that businesses and workers are still grappling with barriers to productivity.

“Work about work” – time spent on work coordination rather than the skilled, strategic jobs they want (and were hired) to do – remains how workers spend the majority of their day.

This is according to research conducted by GlobalWebIndex on behalf of Asana, Inc., which surveyed the behaviours and attitudes of more than 9,615 knowledge workers across the UK, US, Australia, France, Germany and Japan to understand the impact of cross-functional collaboration, including what’s working – and what’s not.

A New Tipping Point

Given the pressures and expectations ushered in by the current macroeconomic climate – with major tech layoffs off the back of the ‘great resignation’ – statistics around how workers spend their days are worrying signs for the workplace.

Improved processes are clearly needed; workers estimate they could save around 4.9 hours per week, over six weeks across the year, if their working day was more efficient and effective.

Unnecessary meetings are a time drain, sapping 3.6 hours per week from those in senior leadership roles and 2.8 hours per week for knowledge workers – a figure that has grown since last year.

Informal conversations may be more difficult to have with hybrid and remote working, but the classic ‘this meeting could have been an email’ seems to still be far too close to reality.

Executives were also 30% more likely to miss deadlines than the average worker because of too many video calls or meetings.

Without intervention, these challenges may only worsen. Across the board, more time is spent on audio, video, and in-person meetings than a year ago – with 32% of knowledge workers saying video calls are taking up more time and 22% saying the same for audio calls.

This is unsurprising given then number of apps organisations use – 8.8 for knowledge workers on average and 10 for director-level and above.

While this figure has barely shifted from last year’s average of 9 apps, it is concerning as more apps appears to equate to more missed work, with 15% of knowledge workers using 6-15 apps missing messages and actions, rising to 25% for those using 16 apps or more.

“Current economic uncertainty requires enterprises to re-imagine how teams collaborate to drive greater efficiency and growth,” says Anne Raimondi, Chief Operating Officer at Asana.

“Leaders have an out-sized impact on creating smarter, more productive, ways for their teams to collaborate. Instead of adding meetings and apps to already overloaded employees, they can choose to innovate and create intentional, asynchronous modes of collaboration and innovation–making the most of their employees time and talent and delivering better results for their customers.”

Essential Cross-Functional Collaboration

92% of workers at collaborative organisations say their work has value, versus just 50% of those at organisations with weak collaboration.

Cross-collaboration therefore presents a unique retention opportunity as organisations try to avoid company churn.

In an era of work where meaning and purpose are key employee motivators, collaboration has a critical role to play in worker achievement.

Further, cross-functional collaboration benefits the business itself, with 79% of workers at collaborative organisations saying they feel well-prepared to respond to challenges — a figure four times higher than those organisations with weak collaboration.

Given the current macroeconomic climate, building a resilient workforce should be a critical priority for businesses as they look to remain increasingly agile and effective, especially against cyber risks.

Growth is another major item on the agenda for businesses in this year and something that also benefits from effective cross-collaboration, with 55% of workers reporting revenue growth at collaborative organisations over the past three years — a hit rate almost double that of organisations with weak collaboration.

Seeking Clarity Amidst Chaos 

Communicating clear, connected goals to their workers is essential for effective cross-collaboration in an organisation, or they could risk falling into an endless churn of demand and delivery.

Recommended

• Cisco and University of Edinburgh Launch Quantum and AI Centre
• SWIT Announces 2023 Awards Categories
• Women in Tech: Is Actual Progress Being Made?

It can prove a significant boost to employee retention, with 87% of workers with clear, connected goals saying they could see themselves working at their current company for the next year — more than double those who said their company had no clear, connected goals.

This doesn’t just come down to how workers conceive of their own role, but the business as a whole, with 70% of workers with clear, connected goals describing their organisation as ‘innovative’ – with only 12% of those without these goals saying the same.

“How are your people spending their time?” Carson Tate, Founder and Managing Partner at Working Simply, asks.

“Leaders should ensure collaboration is connected to a very specific goal. Goals make collaboration strategic in that they advance the objective of the team or the company. Strategic collaboration is intentional.

“When teams collaborate effectively, they are thoughtful about who is on the team, know what must be completed to achieve the goal, and understand why it matters to the team and the company.”

Given the forecasted economic challenges, this is an increasingly valuable perception for business leaders to cultivate, with 87% of workers who have clear, connected goals saying their business is well-prepared to meet customer expectations — a figure double that of those without such clarity.

Further, 73% of workers with clear, connected goals say their company is ready to achieve a competitive advantage — with just 23% of workers with no clear, connected goals saying the same.