Is poor workplace collaboration stoking burnout? Workloads have increased for 64% of UK workers
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55% of respondents say they are blocked in their work while waiting for other teams to provide information
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44% of respondents say it is difficult to coordinate with other teams
43% of respondents feel AI helps them be a better teammate
Atlassian’s State of Teams Report, released annually in the UK amid ongoing discussions on the productivity crisis, reveals that two-thirds of UK workers (64%) feel more overwhelmed by the pace of the work today than they did a few short years ago. Poor collaboration practices contribute to burnout in the workplace as UK companies manage changing ways of working. This could further undermine productivity.
The company collaboration killers
UK workers waste 9 hours per week on average searching for the information they require to complete their tasks. That’s almost a whole working day each week. UK workers spend almost half of their week (48%) on ‘busy tasks, such as sharing information, finding people, and solving misunderstandings.
Over half of employees (53%) believe that the only way they can get the information needed is to schedule a meeting or ask someone. In response, 55% of employees find that their work is blocked when they wait for information from another team. Just over a third (34%), however, feel that working with other teams can slow down the pace at which work is completed.
The cross-team collaboration poses a challenge to productivity, and streamline workflows. 55% of respondents admit that their team learned about a critical decision made by another team way too late in the last year. Over half of UK workers are unaware that they are working on the exact same task as another team.
But solving the collaboration puzzle has obvious benefits. 89 percent of teams that have established clear processes for collaboration are confident they can meet deadlines.
Dr Molly Sands is the Head of Teamwork Labs for Atlassian. She said that this research highlighted a crucial issue in the workplace of today: systems designed to help employees do not keep pace with the growing demands of the work. The inability to access information quickly is creating bottlenecks as teams become more inter-functional. This digital hide-and-seek not only wastes valuable time, but also inhibits creativity and innovation as employees are forced into administrative tasks instead of high-impact work “.
Your virtual teammate
To work more quickly and efficiently, 40% UK workers want all teams to use the exact same methods to complete their work, while 30% would like to see the teams use the identical tools.
AI, especially when combined with human expertise, can unlock greater collaboration across companies. Over half of UK workers (59%) believe AI will increase the quality and speed of their team’s work. Meanwhile, 43% say AI helps them be a better colleague.
To unlock AI’s collaboration potential fully, teams will need to be well-trained. In fact, more than two thirds of UK workers (67%) believe they can use AI to manage and discover information more efficiently.
Adopting tools that create one source of truth can help solve the UK’s collaboration problem. 69% of UK employees believe that it would be easier for them to support their business if they had a clearer strategy and goals.
Is burnout caused by poor collaboration at work? The first time this article appeared was on HR News. 64% of UK employees say that workloads have increased.
