Do you feel more productive than a year ago?
We asked almost 2,000 people that question – and the answer was mostly no. In our research study, “The Gray Work Index: Our Productivity Gap in 2024,” Quickbase found that over half of respondents (54%) say it is harder to be productive today than a year ago.
In this report, which surveyed people in the US, United Kingdom, and Ireland across operationally complex industries, we found that even with increasing investment on productivity tools, people are struggling to get what they need out of their software, and are frustrated as a result. Here are some of the key takeaways from our research, and how you can learn more.
Read the full report, "The Gray Work Index: Our Productivity Gap in 2024"
The challenges of Gray Work
Quickbase’s study found that people are spending their time chasing information on manual processes, sacrificing valuable time that could be spent working on tasks that actually impact revenue. 58% of respondents spend less than 20 hours per week on meaningful work that drives results. That’s the same figure as our research in 2023, showing how little progress we’re making on these challenges.
The culprit, here, is Gray Work – the manual processes that make our days tedious and require us to find information from different systems or people.
More Tools, Less Impact
One of the big hurdles to making an impact in our work is that when we add more tools, they don’t actually fulfill the promise of making our lives easier. Almost 70% of respondents say that using multiple project management software solutions prohibit them from easily sharing project-related information. With the promise of digital transformation being a more seamless and productive way of working, that’s an issue.
Data as an opportunity – and a roadblock
We all use data across our organizations every day, but when that data isn’t trustworthy, we don’t know where to turn. And unfortunately, people don’t trust the data at their fingertips. Only 10% of respondents are “extremely confident” in their project information, meaning 9 out of 10 people have some level of doubt in the information they use to get their work done. And with the focus on AI showing no signs of slowing down, accurate data has never been more important.
Learn more: how to solve these challenges
Want to read more about these findings, or dig into the solutions to how you can solve these challenges in your organization? Download our full report to learn more. Additionally, if you want to learn more about how much Gray Work YOU have, take our Gray Work Index quiz to find out where your challenges are and how this impacts your organization.
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