Only 23 per cent of U.S. employees feel educated on company goals, compared to 84 per cent of leaders who say they’re effectively communicating business goals, objectives and key results to employees, according to a new survey by Slingshot.
The survey, which polled more than 250 U.S. employees, found 51 per cent said having increased transparency into these goals would help them to better manage their workload and drive productivity.
A third (34 per cent) of workers said they’re overwhelmed by the amount of time they spend on digital devices. Two-fifths (41 per cent) of teams said they feel burnt out due to digital fatigue and 18 per cent said they’re not giving tasks their full attention and decreasing the quality of deliverables.
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Two-fifths (42 per cent) of employees and leaders reported using five or more workplace applications per day and 12 per cent said they use seven or more. A quarter (24 per cent) of teams said app notifications are distracting to daily tasks and 16 per cent said using too many applications contributes most to their digital exhaustion.
The majority (70 per cent) of employees have felt overloaded at work, a percentage that increases among generation Z (84 per cent) and millennials (79 per cent) but decreases among generation X (69 per cent) and baby boomers (48 per cent). Baby boomers (18 per cent) also felt less digital fatigue than gen Z (53 per cent).
In addition, 38 per cent of employees and leaders felt pressure to respond to work-related correspondence outside of work hours. To address this, 67 per cent of employees said they want employers to encourage them to unplug at the end of the workday, 55 per cent want them to not expect employees to be available after hours and 45 per cent said employers shouldn’t ask employees for deliverables after hours.
“When employees don’t have insight into their company’s goals, they’re largely unaware of how their daily work fits into the bigger picture of the company, which can cause them to feel confused on priorities and unproductive,” said Dean Guida, founder of Slingshot, in a press release. “Company leaders need to communicate these goals regularly, but this transparency into business goals isn’t the only driver of employees’ productivity that leaders should play a role in.”
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