33 Workplace Productivity Statistics You Need to Pay Attention to Right Now

Do you want a reset for your workplace, a total renewal of the team culture, or a recalibration of employee performance? Then these workplace productivity stats will empower you to make those changes right away!

Why do you need to know these stats? I’ll tell you why. It is because as a people manager, you need to be aware of:

• How leaders are bringing about changes in their offices to cause a real uptick in the trends of productivity.
• All the factors that have the potential to hamper your team’s productivity. 

Learning about what works and what doesn’t work for your team will pave you a way to make a real change at your own workplace. 

With this article, I aim to walk you through the various variables at the workplace that cause intricate changes to your workplace productivity. And then we shall discuss everything that we can do to overcome the most common productivity challenges. 

If you must know

Productivity is an integral element of a team, an office, and a workplace. Without it, there is no driving force to motivate an employee to work.

Speaking of productivity at the workplace, did you know that Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines being productive as “effecting in bringing about” and “yielding results, benefits, or profits”?

That means an effectively performing team is a productive one. And the trends of productivity at the workplace show amazing growth if you analyze the data from the past decade. 

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that the trends of productivity since 2011 have experienced a gain of 3 percent annually at an average.

And for the managers out there who feel that productivity isn’t something that you can calculate, I would like to say that it is incredibly essential to keep a track of employee performance and productivity. Why? Because employees often tend to overestimate their productivity levels. 

In fact, according to a global survey led by PR News, French and American workers tend to feel that they are almost 11 percentage points more productive than they actually are. 

How does communication affect productivity?

Communication makes a big impact on productivity. Where some leaders say that effective communication has conditioned their workplace into a smooth-running machine, some still say that it affects productivity in a very negative way. 

If we talk about communication at the workplace there are basically two schools of thought — there is digital communication via emails, and then there is personal, yet collective communication in the form of meetings.

So let’s discuss how emails and meetings have been affecting productivity in the workplace. Let’s start with:

Emails

Did you know that the average employee receives almost 121 emails per day? This is a very interesting fact. Why? Because this means that an employee has to go through upwards of 100 emails to find a tiny fraction of things that actually matter to them with the task at hand. 

In 2020, emails can be considered as a waste of time. Even with the presence of instant messaging, and task management tools, we still find ourselves clinging to this utterly primitive way of workplace communication. Is it time we give up emails for good?

To relieve any doubts you still have about this, I would like to bring to light the following productivity stats pertaining to emails:

• Your employee spends more than half the day checking their emails. The Washington Post suggests that the average worker spends about 4.1 hours a day checking their inbox. 
• Most employees feel like reading and replying to emails is equivalent to dumping their valuable time in the trash. About 96% of the employees feel that this truly is a problem that needs dealing with.

Meetings

Meetings is another method of connectivity that has been reduced to an excuse for communication over the years. Don’t get me wrong, I feel that meetings have a great chance of turning into something very powerful and result-driven, but there is little to no awareness as to how one can achieve that.

It is important to understand that meetings that are run without an agenda and without a predetermined duration, often end up taking up the time and energy of the employees without producing any real results.

For instance, did you know:

• Teams spend upwards of 17.5 hours in a whole week untangling the web of ineffective communication. This, undoubtedly, is a real loss and displays how communication should be kept concise and well-documented. 
• An Atlassian study recently found out that on average, one hour per day per employee is wasted with meetings. And that comes down to 30 hours a month and adds up to over 300 hours in the whole year.
• The Muse reported that meetings prove to be worse for management. While up to 15 percent of the team’s time is spent in meetings, middle management is at a bigger loss with at least 35 percent of the working duration spent in meetings. 
• Apart from that, The Muse added that an average worker spends more than 4 hours a week solely preparing for said meetings. 
• Coming back to meetings without agendas, did you know that about 67% of all meetings end up being failures? This means that these gatherings are costing you precious time and money.

This is the sad reality — Communication is known to mess with productivity. When asked, 86% of executives pointed out that ineffective communication is the root cause of all productivity-related problems. 

Communication can be a big setback when you are trying to focus on the improvement of team performance in your workplace. But we can learn a lot from these communication statistics. These workplace productivity stats pertaining to communication tell me that there is still a need for:

1. A space where communication can be documented. 
2. A defined agenda for conducting meetings. 
3. A defined weekly duration for conducting meetings. 
4. Something better than emails and meetings to keep a track of communication and project-related information in general. 

I believe in staying connected with my team through ProofHub. It is a seamless project management software platform that helps us unite in one single space and exchange information effortlessly.

Don’t take my word for it. Try ProofHub for FREE and find excellent ways for team communication now!

Work-related stress and how it affects productivity

Something we often tend to ignore while going through our everyday schedules is overworking. Employees and leaders both tend to forget to take a breather once in a while and end up in a state of exhaustion or possible burnout. And we don’t want that, do we?

However, you must know the effects that work-related stress can have on your work as well as personal life. Here are some stats that will help shed light on the same:

• Workplace stress leads to a steep drop of about 5% in the productivity rates of the whole team. This kind of stress can occur due to tight deadlines, a change in the workplace environment, or a sudden brand overhaul.
• A very pronounced effect of stress is losing sleep. This undeniably has a great impact on an employee’s productivity. The American insomnia survey suggests that the average worker loses upwards of 11 productive days every year due to lost/missing sleep.
• Talking of sleep deprivation, did you know about the monetary decrement this situation can lead to? According to The Wall Street Journal, it could cost you up to $65 billion a year. 

The gist of all of this is that work stress is something that should be in your crosshairs all the time. And, it can be uprooted fairly easily with the right awareness and strong motivation. A leader must look for problems that can be solved and things that can be made easier for the employees. For example, 

1. You can ease up on deadlines, 
2. Bring in some flexibility in the schedule, 
3. Get the team automation tools to avoid repetition of tasks and the monotony it accompanies, 
4. Solve problems by listening to your employees and giving them your attention,
5. Motivate your team by keeping them engaged and more goal-oriented, and
6. Lead by example and celebrate achievements.

Further reading: Surprising Stats on Employee Recognition You Need to Know

Employee engagement and productivity 

Speaking of motivating your employees by creating an engaging work environment, did you know that this small act determines how productive your team is? 

However, a Gallup poll suggests that it is hard to create and run a fully engaged workforce because about 70% of your employees are disengaged during the average workday.  

Maybe that is why our workplaces aren’t as productive as we would like. 

Here are some workplace productivity stats that prove how valuable team engagement is for absolute productivity:

• The Workplace Research Foundation states that more than 38% of the highly engaged employees prove to be highly productive as well. 
• A disengaged workforce always seems to take the shorter end of the stick since a recent survey says that an engaged team will give you a 202% higher cumulative performance.
• Since employee engagement directly impacts job satisfaction, it will interest you to know that this job satisfaction, in turn, improves productivity by more than 6.6%.

How do you plan on making your workplace more engaging and goal-driven? Here at ProofHub, we usually:

1. Use a project management app or platform to keep goals and milestones on the front and center. 
2. Keep people engaged by involving them in strategy meetings and brainstorming sessions. 
3. Keep the good ideas flowing by organizing discussions to work upon old ideas and mull over past mistakes.

Analyze, plan, manage, and stay connected with an all-in-one solution. Sign up for ProofHub now!

Workplace productivity stats with remote work

Remote work has undoubtedly become a prominent part of our lives over the years. We have flexibility in the work hours, comfort at home, reduced cost of commutes, seems like everything is more convenient with remote work. 

However, the question remains unanswered — Is remote work proving to be a productive means of working? Though considered to be an awkward arrangement in the past, remote work has been turned into a sobering reality.

• In fact, 75% of remote workers prefer working remotely as they find it easier to be productive at home.
• While every employee has their own reason as to why they find remote work as a motivator to be productive, 53% of remote employees cite flexible scheduling as a major factor.
• Interestingly enough, in 2020 itself, 25% of the organizations have seen to be taking a unanimous decision to move 10% of their workforce to permanent remote work positions.

If we talk about work-related stress and remote work, you must know:

Remote work is viewed by employees as a buffer, and this causes a change in how they react to tight deadlines, scheduling conflicts, and confusion with the scope of the project. As a result, it has been seen that staying at home allows telecommuters to take a breather from workplace angst, Monday blues, and overall work-stress.

• In the Telework Week Survey conducted by PGi, it was found that along with improvements in stress levels and workplace productivity remote work also affects some other factors. For example, the workforce morale took an 80% hike while absenteeism dipped down by 69% during a particular remote work period.
• While in 2014, a Staples survey suggested that the major reason people prefer to work remotely is that the work-life balance brings them high levels of productivity. 

If we talk about time management and remote work, you must know:

Commuting takes a lot away from the work experience. The travelling hampers with an individual’s brain, not to mention it exhausts the mind and body. According to a 2014 report on Commuting and Personal Well-being by the Office for National Statistics, it was found that daily commuters show low satisfaction and happiness levels at work.

• Additionally, the report also states that a commuter could potentially save 50 minutes to 3 hours each day if they were to switch to remote work.
• Furthermore, about 600,000 employees in the U.S. reportedly have 90-minute daily commutes that affect their workplace productivity a lot.

Also read: 10 Incredible Stats About Remote Working Teams

Does productivity go hand-in-hand with technology?

Well, according to a report by Finances Online, the answer seems to be no. Strictly considering the drawbacks of technology in the form of social media and misusing instant messaging tools that are only meant for official conversations, the report states the following:

• With the availability of lightning-fast internet on every employee’s smartphone, the productivity levels have only seen a hike of 1% over the past few years.
• From the people surveyed, about 65% of the employees admit to using the internet for activities that are non work-related during the work hours.
• As stated before, due to no regular means of communication, the average employee ends up checking their emails for about 13 hours a week.
• The report stated that the average employee spends upwards of 20 hours online and sadly, 5 of those hours are spent surfing non-work-related websites. 
• And even more sad news is that the average smartphone user (which is all of us) checks their device approximately 150 times a day. And that evidently has a big impact on workplace productivity.

The solution is to use technology that can actually keep your team engaged. And you can do that with technology that can help you increase the performance of employees. You must use automation tools and communication platforms that can keep your team on the same platform, always connected, and always working towards their collective goals.

Read more: 42 Productivity Tools That Will Make Your Life Much Easier

How to use technology in your favor for better productivity

So the surveys have established that technology mixed with workplace responsibilities is not the best combination. But what if I told you that your workplace is focusing on the wrong type of technology? 

My team and I believe in using technology that simplifies and streamlines. This is exactly why we explicitly trust ProofHub to do the job of: 

1. Facilitating communication, 
2. Handling employee engagement, 
3. Celebrating achievements, 
4. Keeping everyone goal-oriented, and 
5. Managing roles and tasks. 

Using a project management software is all about easing up the tasks of your team, replacing redundant, repetitive tasks with productive ones, and also saying goodbye to distractions.

Here are all the ways in which a project management tool can help you with automating your work processes:

• We have a streamlined workflow with which the team is always aware of their upcoming tasks. 
• Tools like ProofHub come with a chat tool that allows you to communicate with the team and clear doubts right away. 
• These provide you a space where you can exchange information and share files instantaneously without the hassle of email threads.
• Project management software platforms come with a seamless functionality to end confusion and be on the same page with the team effectively.
• These tools also help you keep a track of employee performance and task status.

Find everything that makes your team productive with ProofHub! Sign up for FREE right away.

The final word

Productivity is fluid. In the workplace, it flows from one employee to another, from one leader to a team, from the team to the leader. But it can only flow when someone, a leader perhaps, is monitoring the performance, looking for hurdles and challenges in the path. 

This paves a way for the constant growth of the team as a whole. 

I hope these productivity stats presented with all the factors that lead to the constant rise in productivity, the factors that lead to the success of the team, and also all the factors that can hamper this productivity at the same time.