Technology Releases - Workforce management

A global research project has painted a lukewarm picture of GFC workplace recovery and revealed new pressures on the knowledge worker as a consequence.

The research from Delphi Group and Australian-based Panviva revealed that sentiment is low for a near-term (6-12 months) job-based recovery with many respondents indicating strategic plans are in place for a long-term jobless growth over the next five years.

The research, which spanned across 15 industries and more than 1000 mid-large companies, also revealed hiring plans are being influenced, with 65% of companies planning for reductions in staff or replacement hiring and only 15% indicating hiring had been unaffected.

With companies operating on reduced workforces and sustaining without restaffing, an impact is being felt by knowledge workers, the research also revealed.

An attempt to define the conditions current knowledge workers are operating in showed that 53% of respondents felt they were doing the work of three of more people while 15% felt they were doing the work of five or more people. Many comments revealed the burden of work is increasing radically and at a very high cost of stress, quality and poor sustainability.

The impact on day-to-day activity can also be seen. Approximately 60% of workers have at least six separate windows open on their desktop at any one time and an incredible 39% spent at least 25% of their day searching for the information they require to do their jobs.

CEO David Frenkel of Panviva, which specialises in Business Process Guidance, said the research is ultimately pointing to a longer term shift in how we work.

“There is a need to do more with less – companies are learning how to operate with a significantly reduced work force - and this requires some new approaches and new tools for knowledge work,” said Mr Frenkel.

“Throw into the mix the aging population and, as Prime Minister Rudd has pointed out, the need to boost productivity and it is clear that something has to be done to allow fewer workers to grow the economy and juggle more tasks in order to create the long term stimulus needed for long-term economic growth and jobs.

“There is also a need to embrace the increase in volatility and unpredictability in the market, economy and the world and required are non-rigid solutions that can cope with this unpredictability.”

In terms of future planning, this research points towards a need for solutions that help understaffed workforces better deal with the basic obstacles of search times, the complexity of desktop and enterprise technologies and the stress of change and uncertainty, said Mr Frenkel.

“Solutions will have to have situation awareness – that is, a true understanding of the environment the knowledge worker is operating in including all of the applications, information sources and different contexts they deal with.

“Guiding workers step-by-step through processes and best practices will be essential as will customisation to the individual worker and embracing collective knowledge.

“Knowledge Management and Business Process Management has had to grow up to accommodate for these changes – and that’s what Business Process Guidance is all about - navigation systems that power users across multiple applications and information sources  in real time in complex environments so that they can find exactly what they are looking for.

“Other technologies will need to follow suit and mature accordingly.”

For a full copy of the report please visit: http://www.delphigroup.com/whitepapers/pdf/knowledgework.pdf.

For more information:

• www.delphigroup.com/whitepapers/pdf/knowledgework.pdf

<a href="http://www.whatech.com.au/technology-releases/workforce-management/1017-research-points-to-new-way-of-working-during-gfc-recovery">Research points to new way of working during GFC recovery</a>

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