The Stepstone Group
Frustration at work: employees spend more than eight hours a week on unnecessary tasks and meetings

Press release

Frustration at work: employees spend more than eight hours a week on unnecessary tasks and meetings

• New study: Full-time employees on average spend more than one full working day per week on activities that they consider to be of little use.
• Almost half of the respondents see potential for optimization in the use of their own abilities.
• Employees want better communication, simpler processes and modern technology.
   

DÜSSELDORF, November 4, 2024 — More than one working day per week is lost in Germany due to inefficient job activities. This is the result of a recent Stepstone survey of 5,800 employees: on average, the full-time employees surveyed spend 8.7 hours of their working week on unproductive activities such as unnecessary meetings or repetitive tasks. More than half of them say that overly complex processes affect their own work performance (58 percent).
 

“If people cannot use their time at work meaningfully, it is a waste of precious time and valuable resources — especially while, given the demographic change, more people are leaving the labor market than are entering it,” says Dr. Tobias Zimmermann, labor market expert at The Stepstone Group.
 

A more efficient workplace: with clear communication and AI

From the employees’ point of view, several factors play a role in improving performance at work: 46 percent would like clearer communication from their manager, 37 percent simpler processes. In addition, more training and development opportunities (30 percent) and investment in better technologies and tools (25 percent) would support a more effective working day.
 

“Modern technologies can help to take over repetitive tasks so that people can devote themselves to meaningful and productive activities that match their skills,” says Dr. Tobias Zimmermann. “Companies that focus on automation, provide their employees with education and training, and thus create better jobs, not only become more productive, but also more attractive employers. This makes them well prepared for the great labor shortage.”
 

Willingness to switch jobs high – until skills and job match

For employees, feeling left behind can lead to a lack of motivation at work — as can the feeling of not being able to use their skills effectively. Almost half (45 percent) of respondents said they were dissatisfied with how their talents were being used in their jobs. A third of these people (32 percent) suspect that they could achieve more elsewhere. The proportion is particularly high in customer service (46 percent) and IT (46 percent), for example.

The result: almost half of all respondents are dissatisfied with their employer — 68 percent of which are actively looking for a new job. “We need everyone in the right job. To achieve this, job requirements and employee skills must match as closely as possible. Artificial intelligence is increasingly making strides in this regard as a supplement to the complex recruiting process: for example, it helps to simplify processes and check at an early stage whether job ads match the CVs and skills of candidates,” says Dr. Tobias Zimmermann.

About the study
The study series “Hiring Trends Index” is a quarterly study by The Stepstone Group. For this study, 5,800 German employees, 700 of them working part-time, and 600 recruiters were surveyed online between September 16 and 30, 2024. The current survey examined, among other things, employees’ willingness to look for a new job, the factors that are decisive in this process, the situation at their own workplace, and the reasons for the chosen working time model. The results for employees are representative of the German working population in terms of age, gender and education.

About The Stepstone Group 
The Stepstone Group is a leading global digital recruitment platform that connects companies with the right talent and helps people find the right job. AI-driven job marketplaces and programmatic-powered marketing solutions connect more than 130 million job applications with around 140,000 employers every year. In 2023, The Stepstone Group generated revenue of around €1 billion. The Stepstone Group operates in more than 30 countries – including Stepstone in Germany, Appcast in the USA and Totaljobs in the UK. The company is headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany and employs around 4,000 people worldwide. For more information: www.thestepstonegroup.com/en/

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