October 22, 2024 — New data from Asana's State of Work Innovation Report, reveals that while the workplace continues to undergo significant shifts, UK organisations face critical challenges that stifle productivity.

According to the findings, only 16% of UK knowledge workers adhere to the traditional 9-to-5 workday, 68% either work in a hybrid format or have the option to do so, and 83% of workers rely on asynchronous communication. Yet, despite these changes, the study—based on a survey of 13,000 knowledge workers, including 2,500 in the UK—reveals four major areas where UK businesses face significant challenges that hurt worker productivity:

The Burden of Low Capacity

Capacity is all about how much work an organisation can tackle without pushing its teams to the brink of burnout. But as hybrid work becomes the norm, many organisations are losing sight of who can handle what, leading to a major workload imbalance:

• 54% of UK employees' time is spent on busywork, leaving little time for the skilled work they were hired to do
• 68% of workers say their managers don't understand their workloads.
• Over half of workers (54%) say their team relies on a few high-performers to get work done.
• 67% admit to performing "productivity theatre"; just pretending to be busy.

Adding to employees' workloads, unproductive meetings are draining time and energy, and it's worse now than before the pandemic:

• Time spent in unnecessary meetings has doubled since 2019, with workers wasting 4 hours per week
• Nearly half (47%) of workers say their last meeting was unnecessary.
• 61% say little is accomplished in meetings.
• Employees suffer from "meeting recovery syndrome" after 30% of their meetings, with employees venting to colleagues to recover from bad meetings.

Workers are also exhausted by too many disconnected tools, 75% of workers feel digitally exhausted, and 64% say their work is disrupted by too many tools.

All of this contributes to burnout: nearly 8 in 10 (79%) have experienced burnout in the last 12 months.

The Challenge of Low Resilience

In the face of economic pressures and rapid changes in work and technology, many organisations have struggled to stay productive and resilient in the face of change. This has led to confusion, resistance, and a growing lack of trust. Key findings include:

• Inability to adapt to change. A lack of agility is undermining resilience across organisations.
  • Only 22% feel confident their organisation can handle future challenges.
  • Just 24% say their organisation updates strategic goals based on changing priorities.
• Toxic colleagues. Toxic coworkers are making things worse—as they often lack accountability for delivering high-quality work and aren't transparent about their workloads. This leaves teams unable to move quickly and efficiently:
  • 73% say teammates exaggerate their workloads to avoid projects. 72% say colleagues withhold important information.
  • 41% of workers don't feel fully responsible for delivering high-quality work.

The Cost of Disconnection

Teams are more disconnected than ever, with teams falling into silos—leading to duplicated efforts, wasted resources, and costly inefficiencies. Teams are left spinning their wheels rather than driving real progress.

• People and teams are disconnected.
  • Only 16% of UK knowledge workers say people in their organisations work very effectively across teams.
  • Only 17% of workers feel that their communication tools support cross-functional collaboration.
• Work is also disconnected.
  • Just 19% of workers say different functions are very aligned on goals and objectives.
  • Only half (52%) of workers say they understand how their work fits into the organisation's overarching objectives.

The Price of Low Velocity

In today's fast-paced world, velocity is the difference between staying ahead and falling behind. When teams move quickly, they can adapt to change, seize new opportunities, and deliver results faster. However, bottlenecks are a persistent challenge within organisations:

• Tech bottlenecks. Bottlenecks due to outdated and fragmented technology.
  • Reliance on outdated tools. 96% still depend on spreadsheets to manage their work and 98% rely on email, which creates information sprawl.
  • Reliance on fragmented tools. 66% say their organisation's collaboration tools make their jobs harder.
• AI bottlenecks. Bottlenecks in AI implementations that slow down progress.
  • Different model selection preferences. 35% want to choose their AI models, while 36% prefer not to, creating a challenge for organisations to strike the right balance between flexibility and simplicity, ensuring everyone gets the tools they need without creating confusion or inconsistency.
  • Insufficient training. 27% say their company doesn't provide enough AI training.
  • Use of shadow AI. 33% admit to using unauthorized "shadow AI" tools, putting organisations at risk of security threats.

Dr Rebecca Hinds, Head of Asana's Work Innovation Lab adds:

"This report is a wake-up call for leaders. The last five years have completely reshaped how we work, but too many teams are still stuck in outdated practices that drain productivity. Holding onto these old habits has come at a high cost—leaving teams disconnected and overwhelmed,

With asynchronous work now central to modern workplaces, businesses need to move beyond outdated methods like relying on meetings to solve every problem, face-to-face conversations for critical information, and letting teams adopt technology in silos. AI has the capability to help, but too many organisations are only using AI to boost individual productivity. By applying AI across the organisation, it gains critical context of the work that is happening—giving organisations the clarity of who is doing what and by when. Only then will businesses create connections, move faster, build resilience, and balance workloads."

Tackling These Issues

Overcoming these challenges is possible—and it opens the door to creating a workplace where individuals have clarity and accountability, teams stay connected, and organisations adapt to change while delivering faster results:

• More predictability: Leaders who invest in technology and processes that bring predictability to work have employees who are 183% more likely to avoid being interrupted by non-urgent requests and 138% more likely to avoid unexpected delays.
• More accountability: At organisations where employees say they have enough capacity to do their work, employees are 133% more likely to report strong accountability. With this clarity, there's more focus on real productivity—employees are 24% less likely to perform productivity theatre.
• Less toxic behavior: At organisations that are able to adapt to change, employees are 37% less likely to report toxic teammate behavior, creating a more positive and productive work environment.
• Better AI foundations: At organisations where work and decisions move quickly, they are 54% more likely than slower companies to have an AI policy in place. This gives teams clear guidance on how to use AI responsibly, helping them make the most of the technology without uncertainty.
• Better tools for managing work: These organisations are 47% more likely to use work management platforms that centralize tasks, streamline approvals, manage complex workflows, and give leaders better visibility to make smarter decisions.
• Clearer sense of purpose: At organisations where employees say their teams work well together, employees are 90% more likely to understand how their work adds value and helps achieve company objectives.

This research from Asana's Work Innovation Lab, designed in partnership with leading academic experts, surveyed 13,066 knowledge workers across six countries in 2024: United States (2,500), United Kingdom (2,504), Germany (2,002), France (2,001), Japan (2,044), and Australia (2,015). The surveys were administered via Qualtrics between February and August 2024, with data collection conducted in partnership with panel providers Prolific and RepData. Respondents were employed knowledge workers using computers or mobile devices for at least 50% of their work, with executives defined as Director level and above. Surveys were conducted in local languages where applicable. The study did not target Asana customers or employees.