HR can help overwhelmed workers

The 24/7 work environment is not creating productive business environments, according to a new Deloitte survey.

The recent Deloitte Global Human Capitals Trends 2014 found that information overload and the expectation to always be connected are undermining productivity, overwhelming workers and contributing to low employee engagement.

The report says that due to both professional satisfaction and financial reasons many people are working online, even when they are at home.

More than one-third of business leaders rated the need to always be connected as one of their top five priorities. While business leaders are aware of the problem, more than half of the participants said the company they worked for was not effectively addressing information overload.

Organisations were also found to be weak by 57 per cent of respondents when it came to helping employees manage information and leaders manage difficult schedules. Only 4 per cent of respondents though this was handled excellently.

Deloitte Australia’s Human Capital Leader David Brown said that HR departments can lead the charge on confronting these concerns by simplifying work environments, creating flexible work standards and training leaders and employees how manage workloads.

“The point of these and similar efforts is not merely to save employees’ time, reduce stress and foster employee engagement, even though these aims are important. Rather, it is to free up unproductive time to allow more engaged employees to really focus on business priorities,” explained Mr Brown.

A successful strategy may include outsourcing or insourcing repetitive non-core tasks to free up employees time, simplifying HR and talent programs, delegating decision making and making meetings more productive.

HR consulting can help if your organisation needs advice on how to cope with overwhelmed employees and managing workloads and schedules.