What a Waste of Time!

by Eric Kurjan

Can you think of a more compelling message to do something about your business success than to realize the fact that 14% of each work day is wasted?   Wow, that is a painful statistic.

In my previous article, I explained that leading a horse to water does not insure that it will drink. No matter how compelling the story and the facts, some “horses” simply do not wish to drink the water. Even with clear benefits and a return-on-investment right there, they choose to go thirsty. It is always a matter of choice.  Some organizations attribute their hesitancy to a lack of motivation to endure change. And for others it is about the money - is there a real, hard-dollar return for investing in making the change to the business?

Without a doubt, the return-on-investment (ROI) becomes obvious very quickly for those organizations who take a systematic approach to managing and growing their business. They can show a big improvement in the bottom line or a return, for placing emphasis on building a plan and executing it. Our process looks at three (or four) major improvement areas – Revenue Growth, Profitability Growth via improved utilization (process, procedure, etc) and/or reduced variable expense, and Improved Employee Efficiency. The focus in this article is on the latter.

Here are some startling research facts about wasted time in organizations.

• 64% of respondents report wasting one hour or less each day
• 22% waste approximately 2 hours daily
• 17.2% of all wasted time is due to poor communications (about 2.5 hours week)
• 14% waste 3 or more hours each workday (37% of all working time is wasted)

*SOURCE: Proudfoot Consulting, 2005

Be careful who you blame. Our first reaction to the wasted time issue tends to be that it is the employee who is at fault. However in most cases it is leadership who is at fault. In fact, according to the Proudfoot research, 75% of wasted time is a result of poorly-planned and managed work, or inadequate supervision of workers.  That means we are not setting clear expectations, direction, measurement, nor communicating the above to produce the desired results.

The six major contributors to lower employee performance/wasted time are the leadership team’s issues to understand and deal with.

• Internal Communication Problems
• Employee Motivation and Morale (engagement)
• High Staff Turnover
• Quality of Supervisors
• Inability or Unwillingness to Change
• Lack of Training

*SOURCE: Proudfoot Consulting, 2008

I can hear some of your grumbling that Employee Motivation and Morale (engagement) and Inability or Unwillingness to Change are employee issues, not yours. I would beg to differ. It is in fact, the leadership team’s issue in that it is about the culture that they build in an organization and that starts with a mission, values and a vision. And if you think that this is all just fluff, I can show you a client organization with 230+ employees with an astoundingly low 0.6% absenteeism rate and 1.0% turnover rate and it is all tied to developing, implementing and living a truly powerful culture.

The bottom line is stop wasting time and start drinking the water.