Training people to use new technology, putting new processes in place, doing things differently in general all have an overhead attached to them so let’s just check it’s not all in vain…

Let’s assume your business has 25 knowledge workers employed – across sales, marketing and finance perhaps. Let’s look at some figures and assume a 50 week working year.

How long does each sales person spend researching their clients, manually without using the power of Google Alerts?

1 hour per week saved for 10 people

How long does each marketer spend researching the competitive landscape, without using the power of RSS.

1 hour per week saved for 10 people

How many hours are wasted through poor filing in a non-centralised filing system and poor back up facilities?

1 hour per week saved for 25 people

How many DAYS are wasted in commuting and travelling time going to the office and to meetings when working from home, using conferencing technology and skype would more than adequately do the job?

5 days per year saved for 25 people (very conservative)

How many hours are wasted through poorly joined up processes and double entry of data into separate systems?

1 hour per day saved for 25 people

How many hours are wasted by people not using shortcuts and properly understanding the tools that they have available to them?

0.5 hours per day saved for 25 people

I’m sure the list could go on – and yes I’m sure every line is open to interpretation – but go with me for this example. Adding up those wasted hours over a year comes to an amazing 12,625 hours per year – which is an unbelieveable 25% of the total working time available. If we then go onto monetize those hours – assuming a fully allocated $40/hour for a knowledge worker (conservative?) this business is wasting $505,000 per year in employee productivity.

Have a think about your business right now and monetize your productivity. If you think you need help – this employee productivity resource could be what you are looking for.

Related articles

• Calculating the Optimal Workday Length (lifehack.org)
• Screwing Off Increases Productivity! (outsidethebeltway.com)
• All-nighters considered harmful (coldacid.net)
• How you feel can impact your day! (magsadkjournal.blogspot.com)
• Are you overdoing the work hours? (billbennettnz.wordpress.com)