Failing technology leaves businesses counting the cost
Technology failures are causing UK workers to lose nine days a year on average, new research has claimed.
A survey from Ebuyer.com suggests that one in ten workers loses as much as 30 minutes a day due to technology not working as it should, with the average amount of time lost totalling just over 15 minutes.
Given that there will be 253 working days in 2018, it means more than nine days will be lost over the course of next year.
This is a particular problem for small businesses, who can ill-afford to lose valuable time when they could be driving sales, product development and business growth.
The amount of time lost also varied by sector, with those in legal settings waiting an average of 17 minutes and 10 seconds for any of their tech issues to be resolved.
Those in the IT industry lost around 17 minutes, while engineering and manufacturing workers lose an average of 16 minutes and 44 seconds.
Recruitment, marketing, advertising, accounting, banking, finance, property, construction and healthcare workers also saw it take longer than the national average to fix any issues.
As the use of technology increases, it is understandable that more issues may occur. Connectivity is the largest of these issues, with 44% of workers saying they had faced a tech problem in the last six months.
Computers crashing and printer issues were the other common hold-ups while 16% said they lost time in the workplace as their systems were hacked.
The study warned of the need to keep systems up-to-date and to ensure that staff are trained and aware of any threats the business may face.
Of course if something does go wrong, a business still has a range of options available to overcome financial or management difficulties.
Turnaround management services can help to review overheads, systems and business activity in order to develop a strategy to move the business forward.
Alternatively, an independent business review may shed some light on some new approaches that may have previously not been considered.
By Phil Smith