Sleepworking—when employees can’t make an impact on the business or achieve their full potential due to a lack of data and the right tools to access it—is a big, expensive problem for businesses. It costs employers $6.5 billion in productive working hours each week, and it could be affecting your company more than you think.
Domo conducted research on what impacts employees in their day-to-day work, including how they use technology and what kind of access to data they want. The report—“Sleepworking: How Employee Disengagement Is Hurting Your Business”—is a wake-up call for businesses on the challenges employees experience at work and the role technology and data access plays in overcoming them.
Of all the eye-opening takeaways from the report, here are five data-driven insights that will change the way you think about data and help you curb sleepworking in your organization.
58% of workers say their need for tech has increased in the last 5 years, but their access to tech tools isn’t keeping up
Employers are playing catch up by trying to access data that’s already available in their systems. But without the right technology, employees can’t access the data they need to make quick, smart decisions.
Employees can only maximize their potential and impact on the business when they can easily access data when, where, and how they need it. This means more than having data available in curated and static reports. Anyone in an organization should have fast access to data at the right moment—from employees on the front line who work away from desks to analysts scrambling to find answers to urgent business questions. Bottom line—data needs to be readily deployable and consumable in multiple ways to meet multiple needs.
3 in 5 workers say they could get more work done and do better work with better tech tools
Workers need—and crave—better technology and tools that empower them to be more productive, efficient, and impactful. But what does “better” mean? According to the research, part of what it means to employees is access to more data. And not just data for data’s sake—real-time, accurate data that enables the entire organization to be agile and proactive.
In many businesses today, by the time data is gathered and curated, it’s outdated or the time to act on the insights has passed. When business professionals have better technology when it comes to real-time data they can trust and act on, they not only get more work done, but they also get the most impactful work done.
45% of workers wish they had access to more data, whether internal or external, to help inform their strategic ideas
The research shows that a significant portion of the workforce wants more data. They want to explore their strategic ideas, make data-driven decisions, and help the business. Companies can tap into and spark that sense of data-driven curiosity with technology that connects people with the data they need to go from sleepworkers to impact players.
Businesses create a culture of data-driven curiosity through technology that arms people with more data they can use to ask and answer questions that push the business forward.
70% of employees who say they have the perfect amount of tech tools plan on staying at their company for a long time
Employees who feel like they’re making an impact want to stay at their jobs. Domo’s research shows the connection between technology and retention, which shouldn’t come as a surprise. With too many tools, workers don’t know where to start to find answers. With limited tools, they often can’t access the information they need to achieve their full potential in their roles.
Businesses can navigate the sleepworking phenomenon rippling through the world of work by empowering everyone across the business with effective technology and tools that help them access and act on the right data at the right time in the right context. With empowerment comes engagement, and with engagement often comes better results and retention.
58% of workers say access to tech tools makes their company better able to weather the economic downturn
If we’ve learned anything over the last few years, it’s that we don’t know what will happen next. Businesses that focus on agility have an edge because they can adapt to change. So how do you use tech tools and data to be more efficient and agile? Provide employees with the right tech that helps them find answers to new and surprising challenges—and maybe even get ahead of those challenges and avoid them altogether.
The best way to overcome sleepworking is to give employees the tools they dream about—tools that reduce noise, not increase it. Tools that are more than gimmicks they’ll use a couple times and then abandon for something else. Businesses can break through the noise of sleepworking by providing people with better technology that makes data accessible and actionable. Give workers tools that make it effortless to chase their curiosity, make decisions, and improve their contributions to their teams, their companies, and their own growth.
Check out the full report to get more information on how sleepworking might be affecting you and your business—and ideas on how to overcome it.