Productivity hampered by colleagues’ failings

Working as part of a team can be extremely positive to anyone. However, according to the results of a recent survey, coworkers are also the source of productivity.

US company Taskworld polled 1,000 individuals for its 2014 Productivity Impact Study to find out how often coworkers had an influence on the amount of work completed.

Half (50 per cent) of respondents said poor performances from their coworkers affects them and 48 per cent stated they are frustrated by coworkers not meeting deadlines.

This frustration can cause problems of its own. The survey states that as coworkers decrease their productivity, the frustration levels in other team members grows. As a result, their own productivity diminishes.

Taskworld CEO, Fred Mouawad, said it was important that team members work together on projects and assignments, but there has to be accountability for individual productivity levels.

"Our study proves employees often feel the effects of how timely their colleagues complete tasks," he said.

"The missing piece to this is the opportunity to hold coworkers and teams more accountable with actionable feedback."

Missed deadlines headache

According to the survey, missed deadlines cause the most problems for office productivity. This is because if important deadlines aren't achieved, then other team members must follow up progress through emails and additional meetings.

Close to a fifth (19 per cent) of respondents said they spend 1-3 additional hours following up projects and tasks, and 75 per cent reported they often wait on coworkers to complete tasks. Based on the survey findings, one missed deadline can result in a project delay of up to three days on average.

To improve deadline target rates, business could consider investing in workflow automation that streamlines all human resources components such as payroll. This would reduce the amount of time employees spend on tedious tasks that require manual data entry.