2023 Digital Work Trends Report
There’s been a shift over the last two decades in how decisions in the workplace are made. Critical business decisions that were once based on gut instincts and senior level executives’ opinions are now more frequently based on data––or any metric within an organization that illustrates performance and progress.
Slingshot’s 2023 Digital Work Trends report explores the relationship between productivity and workers’ access to data. Slingshot surveyed 305 full-time U.S. employees to better understand how workers across generations are using data in their jobs.
Employees’ productivity is more dependent on data than workplace flexibility.
Seventy-two percent (72%) of workers say their productivity is more dependent on metrics that track performance and progress, than working independently or autonomy.
Companies have long been focused on improving workplace flexibility, but companies’ priorities are not aligned with what’s driving workers’ productivity: only 39% of workers say independent working improves their productivity, and 27% say the same of autonomy.
A majority of employees are using data to make decisions in the workplace, but there are still many individuals making decisions based on their gut instincts and opinions of senior leaders.
While more than half of workers (56%) gather and use data to make business decisions, 12% of workers say they make decisions by asking the most senior person in the business or department, and 6% of workers admit to using their gut instinct.
It’s likely that these workers are defaulting to the latter because the data they need to inform specific decisions is not easily accessible within their organization, or available to them at all.
Gen Z is the data generation.
Gen Z workers (ages 18-26) are integrating data into their job more than any other generation. One hundred percent (100%) of Gen Z workers say they use data at work at least a few times a week, with 61% saying they use it every day.
While nearly three-fourths (74%) of Gen Z workers are using data to improve performance, only 61% of Boomer workers (ages 59+) say the same.
Gen Z workers are much more likely than other segments to use data insights to understand customer behavior and needs (61%).
A lack of data and information hurts workers’ productivity the most.
Sixty-five (65%) of workers say that a lack of data is what most negatively impacts their ability to do their jobs.
Over one-third of workers cite too many projects (37%) and constant notifications across multiple applications (35%) as other factors that negatively impact their productivity.
Employees are using data in the workplace for more than improving productivity and performance.
Data is helping individual workers to do their job better and more efficiently, which also then drives efficiencies and performance at the team and company level.
While 72% of workers use data insights to improve their performance, more than half of workers use data to prioritize goals (54%) and 46% say they use it to create strategic plans and understand customer behaviors and needs.
Many workers have to guess what’s most important at work because they lack clear priorities.
While 40% of employees say they communicate with other employees to identify their priorities, nearly the same amount say they guess on what’s most important (34%), choose what they want to do (31%) or try to work a bit on each project they have (31%).
Older generations are more likely to make their own decisions about their priorities at work.
Nearly half (49%) of Millennial workers (ages 27-42) guess on what’s most important at work, while 33% of Boomer workers (ages 59+) and 35% of Gen X + Y workers (ages 43-58) would rather choose what to do.
Gen Z workers (ages 18-26) are different, potentially because they’re early on in their career and don’t feel comfortable making these larger scale decisions. A majority (55%) of Gen Z workers say they communicate with their colleagues to identify priorities.
Males and females differ in their approach as well: 43% of females would communicate with their colleagues to identify priorities while 45% of males say they would choose what they want to do.
More meetings don’t mean more productivity.
While many employers rely on frequent check-ins to track employees’ progress and empower productivity, employees say their productivity would benefit more from having clear priorities (42%) and set deadlines (30%).
Only 19% of employees say that having more frequent check-ins with their manager/team would make them more productive.
Employees are overloaded and unguided–and they’re losing half of their day because of it.
A majority of employees (64%) say they lose at least 1-2 productive hours a day when they don’t have deadlines–with 22% of employees saying they lose 3-4 hours each day.
Employees also say they lose productivity when they have to juggle too many projects. Sixty-two percent (62%) of employees say they lose at least 1-2 productive hours a day to it, with 20% losing 3+ hours.
Leaders feel the need to step in most when employees’ work isn’t hitting their standards.
More than half of leaders feel the need to closely supervise employees when they are not delivering quality work (69%) or hitting deadlines (52%).
Half of leaders (50%) also say they feel the need to step in when team members are having trouble with co-workers or a specific individual.
Too much time with their boss is making employees feel micromanaged.
Employees feel micromanaged when they’re engaging with their boss more then usual, such as when their boss checks in on them too often (45%) or when they have unnecessary status meetings (43%).
Gen Z workers are the most likely to work overtime to hit a deadline, compared to other generations.
Gen Z workers (ages 18-26) are the most likely to work overtime if they are not going to hit a deadline (55%). Millennials (ages 27-42) are the least likely to do so at 24%.
