More Than a Third of Working Time is Wasted!

Management-Issues reveals that an international study of business productivity performance by Proudfoot Consulting, which suggests that executives, unions and governments are placing too little emphasis on dealing with the most frequent causes of poor productivity in companies.

• An astonishing 37% of all working time is effectively wasted, on average. Three-quarters of this wasted time is a result of basics such as poorly planned and managed work or inadequate supervision of workers.

• As part of the study, Proudfoot Consulting rated 150 meetings in 50 companies against a 'best practice' scorecard. Almost half had no agenda and in less than a third were participants prepared, with minutes captured. Only 12% resulted in a clear set of next steps.

BOTTOMLINE: "Tackling ineffective management and work processes, and improving worker supervision may not be glamorous but they are certainly the fastest and lowest cost routes to higher output and financial performance. The report leads me to the conclusion that interest groups, however well intentioned, are nonetheless busy doing the wrong things."