Half of the Workday is Wasted

 

Knowledge workers at SMBs spend 50% of their workdays on unproductive but necessary tasks like dealing with spam or scheduling meetings, says a study conducted for cloud-based VoIP and unified communications company Fonality. The impact of inefficient communications shows a need for immediate change, said Steve Taylor, editor-in-chief and publisher for Webtorials, which conducted the 2011 Report on UC and Cloud-based Services for SMBs. The report says reducing a worker’s unproductive time by 25% adds the equivalent of six productive weeks each year; a business with 50 employees making between $40,000 and $110,000 per year could save $950,000 annually. Fonality, a unified communications vendor, unsurprisingly touts unified communications as a way of realizing such efficiencies. “You’re going to see the change toward cloud service – it’s going to start with small business,” said Wes Durow, chief marketing officer of Fonality. “All that time that’s wasted seeking information and trying to connect others can be greatly reduced.”

 

• 36% of worker time is lost scheduling, digging up information, and trying to get in touch with people.
• 74 minutes per day is wasted trying to get in touch with customers, partners or colleagues.
• 67 minutes each day is spent looking up information about the business.
• 33 minutes per day is spent trying to schedule meetings with colleagues.
• 39 minutes each day is spent repeating themselves – by email, chat and/or phone.
• 29 minutes per day is spent dealing with Spam and avoiding phone calls.
• 50% of knowledge-worker time at SMB is wasted on unproductive yet unavoidable tasks.
• The bright side: Reducing unproductive time by 25% can give workers back 6 hours each week to do their jobs better.