Wonder
Sign up
Log in
Research Outline
Prepared for Carey G. | Delivered March 16, 2021
Knowledge Workers' Productivity
Review your project details
Goals
To determine if the productivity of knowledge workers has increased within the past decade including an analysis of productivity trends amongst professionals or subsets of professionals.
View less
Early Findings
A 2020 publication by Harvard Business Review compared the productivity of knowledge workers in 2013 and 2020 amidst the pandemic. The study established that knowledge workers were
more productive
in 2020 compared to 2013.
The study found that during the
l
o
c
k
d
o
w
n
, knowledge workers were more focused on the
tasks that really matter
.
"
They spent 12% less time
drawn into large meetings and 9% more time interacting with customers and external partners.
L
o
c
k
d
o
w
n
also helped people take responsibility for their own schedules. They did 50% more activities through personal choice and half as many because someone else asked them to."
The report also noted that during the
l
o
c
k
d
o
w
n
, the number of work classified as being tiresome dropped from
27% to 12%
.
Also, the number of work that could be easily offloaded to others dropped from
41% to 27%.
Furthermore, a report by
S
m
a
r
p
reported that
71%
of employees believe that their leaders don't spend enough time communicating their goals and plans with them.
The report by
S
m
a
r
p
also reported that
91%
think that their leaders lack communication skills. These are some likely factors that hinder the productivity of knowledge workers.
View less