76% Indian Employees Say Their Team Is Pulled In Too Many Directions: Atlassian Report

Atlassian Corp., a provider of team collaboration and productivity software, has released its report that shows 76% of Indian knowledge workers agree that their team is constantly pulled in too many directions. Employees are spending so much time planning and talking about work that it prevents them from actually doing work that matters.

The survey covered 5,000 knowledge workers, including from India, and 100 Fortune 500 executives. Of the executives, 93% said teams could deliver similar outcomes in half the time if they collaborated more effectively, and they estimated that only 24% of their teams are doing mission-critical work. According to the research, 25 billion work hours are lost to ineffective collaboration each year within Fortune 500 companies.

Team Pain Points

According to the report, teams are facing challenges because they are spread across too many goals. Of the Indian knowledge workers, 82% agreed that progress would be easier if they had fewer, more specific goals.

Of the Indian respondents, 68% also agreed that artificial intelligence is important, but they don't get how to use it in their day-to-day work.

Employees are overwhelmed by notifications and meetings. Around 83% of Indian knowledge workers said it’s more important to quickly respond to messages than it is to make progress on top priorities, and 77% admitted they are overwhelmed by the number of notifications and messages they receive each day.

Of the Indian respondents, 66% also find it hard to track down information despite knowing a lot of people at their job. Around 63% have worked on a project and only later found out that another team was working on the same thing. Another 63% said that teams at their company plan and track work in different ways, which makes it hard to collaborate.

Focus Areas

According to the report, in India, when teams put processes in place to identify their top priority work, they are 7.5 times more likely to be effective, 7.5 times more likely to be productive and 9.8 times more likely to be adaptable.

Globally, teams who make the most of their time are 1.6 times less likely to engage in productivity theatre—acting busy to appear productive without making progress on tasks—and 1.6 times more likely to plan and track work in consistent ways across teams.

In India, when teams make information self-serve, they are also 5.4 times more likely to be effective, 5.6 times more likely to be productive and 6.8 times more likely to be adaptable, the report showed.

“Modern teams are more global, online and overwhelmed than ever before. We know that great teamwork isn’t a product of great software alone. Our results show that high-performing teams build the right foundations for teamwork by making time to improve their processes, practices and tools,” said Annie Dean, global head of Team Anywhere, Atlassian.