Time/Resource Management Statistics That Every Manager Should Read

Whether you require employees to commit to a strict workflow or encourage more individual regimens, chances are time or money are being wasted somewhere. That’s true even if everyone does their best to use resources wisely. Sometimes, it’s your own company policies that aren’t making the most of what’s available.

Below you’ll find some time and resource management statistics that every manager needs to read to discover potential areas where your team may be struggling with good resource stewardship. Then, look at your processes with a critical eye to ensure you’re not contributing to the problem.

People with advanced degrees are more likely to work at home.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey, individuals with advanced degrees are more likely to do some of their work from home than those with lower education levels. Around 46 percent of individuals with advanced degrees report that on days that they work, at least some work is done from home. Approximately 12 percent of individuals who have a high school diploma reported the same.

What’s the take away? Companies that rely on individuals with higher educations to participate in teams or projects may want to make working from home possible. Using project management software and other tools that allow work from disparate locations lets you entice qualified individuals who want flexible schedules.

American workers don’t use vacation time because they’re worried about falling behind

According to a Glassdoor study, American workers may not take needed time off because they’re afraid they’ll fall behind. In 2017, the nation’s workers gave up around half of all vacation hours. One in 10 workers didn’t take any vacation at all.

What’s the take away? Employers know that time off is important to overall worker morale and effectiveness. Stressed, burned out workers aren’t getting as much done, even if they don’t take their vacation. If your employees can’t take time off because they’re barely keeping pace, it may be time to look at efficiency solutions. How can you help them remove unnecessary time constraints or drains ? How can they meet performance requirements and enjoy work/life balance?

Executives spend more than 20 hours a week in meetings

Meetings have always been a time drain on company leadership. But it’s not something that’s gotten better over time. In fact, according to Harvard Business Review, the total number of time executives spend in meetings has more than doubled since 1960. Today’s business leaders spend an average of 23 hours a week in scheduled meetings. That’s a lot of time talking about doing instead of actually doing.

What’s the take away? Harvard Business Review countered the idea that meetings are a necessary evil with research that showed 62 percent of executives didn’t think meetings brought teams together well. Further, 71 percent said they were not efficient or productive. Today’s managers need to think about ways to get the work of meetings — communication, idea sharing and decision-making — done without interrupt productivity to force people to gather unnecessarily.

Employees may spend half their day checking email

Adobe Systems conducted a study to find out how people interacted with email. What they found was that workers spent a lot of time checking email. On average, workers are spending 30 hours a week checking both personal and company email. Which is around 6.5 hours each day.

What’s the take away? Email systems can be a void for productivity. Workers spend a ton of time checking their email. They decide which messages need responses or action. They sort messages and just keeping up with inboxes and other folders. That’s all time that could be better spent on more productive tasks. Companies can implement project management software or workflow solutions. This reduce reliance on email and can potentially save thousands of labor hours annually.

The majority of employees waste time at work every day

Almost 90 percent of employees say they waste some time at work everyday, according to Salary.com. Just under a third waste around half an hour each day. But 10 percent of workers say they squander as much as three hours daily. Even if all employees are on the minimal end of time wasting, a company with 100 employees is losing 250 productive hours a week.

What’s the take away? Employees obviously need breaks. And very few people operate at 100 percent productivity consistently eight hours every day. But leadership does have to stay proactive in reducing purposeful time wasting. Setting the right goals, encouraging positive company culture and integrating software that makes it easy for employees to do their jobs (and track their work) are some things you can do to mitigate this risk.

Employees spend around one day a week just looking for information

Interact reports that 19.8 percent of an employee’s work time — especially in knowledge-based roles — is spent searching for information. Whether workers can’t find a file or are relying on Google, they’re spending almost a full day’s worth of the work week seeking the resources required for their job.

What’s the take away? You may be paying people to prepare for work instead of do their work. Companies need to provide workers with an easy, consistent and seamless way to find the information they need. It should be rare that workers have to turn to an internet search engine to find the resources they need. Once a knowledge base is built, each team member should be trained on the quickest way to find information they need.

These are just some of the statistics that show how employees and companies don’t always manage time and other resources well. The best solutions for good resource management statistics come from the top down. Consider adopting more efficient policies and promoting the use of tools such as automation and project management software to make all your teams more efficient.

The goal should never be to launch a project just to be more technical. The best solutions are intuitive, solutions-based and designed to reduce unnecessary hours spent in meetings, email inboxes or searching for answers.

resource management statistics