Everyone knows the business axiom, “time is money.” Its corollary might be, “wasting time is wasting money,” and the fact is that plenty of time gets wasted at work. Recent research reveals that cell phone usage is the number one reason for wasting time at the office, followed by gossip and using the Internet. However, another cause of wasted time at work has nothing to do with social media or texting — it’s due to IT-related issues.
In fact, the typical employee wastes about 22 minutes a day on IT-related problems. Twenty-two minutes may not sound like a lot, but that time adds up to more than an hour and a half of wasted time per week. Every week! Add that up and you’ve lost more than two weeks of employee productivity in a year because of IT issues.
Those issues can range across mobile and desktop devices. With mobile devices, 70% of users experience poor Wi-Fi or mobile coverage, while another 63% find that the batteries from their devices die too quickly. Sixty-two percent of users are troubled by mobile apps crashing frequently, while 44% find that their devices reboot on their own, which can cost time and may cause data loss.
Yet,even these statistics may underrepresent the problem, as many employees don’t bother reporting their IT-related issues. Nine in ten of those who do submit a report say that it takes at least half an hour to resolve a mobile technology issue. It’s not surprising, therefore, that six in ten employees say they feel stressed when mobile problems prevent them from being able to do their job, which can further impact productivity.
The statistics aren’t much better when it comes to in-office-related IT issues. Employees face a number of problems. A full one-third complain that their equipment runs too slowly; one in four deal with Internet connectivity issues; and one in five deal with cyber breaches. Malfunctioning equipment and outdated hardware are two more IT issues that can affect productivity.
These kinds of problems can distract employees from their responsibilities. When an employee is interrupted or distracted, it can not only cause stress — it also takes him or her an average of 23 minutes to get back on track, further affecting overall productivity.
Fortunately, there are several ways that businesses can reduce the amount of time employees spend dealing with IT-related issues and help enhance their productivity. The accompanying resource describes more about this issue and how to address it, courtesy of Time Technology.
