Work management platform Asana has released its State of Work Innovation: Australia 2024 Report, an in-depth analysis around the evolution and future of work in Australia.
The research conducted by Asana’s Work Innovation Lab surveyed the behaviours and attitudes of more than 2000 professionals in Australia and found that today’s workers struggle with high workload, lack of clarity, and digital exhaustion. In detail, 52 per cent of workers feel their workload is so unmanageable that they’ve needed to take a day off at least once a month, and 55 per cent say their organisation’s leaders don’t do enough to help employees reduce digital exhaustion.
At 95 per cent, there is universal agreement among respondents that organisations need to do a better job innovating how employees communicate and collaborate, which the report says is an opportunity for organisations to look to work management platforms to increase efficiency and improve cross-functional collaboration.
“Professionals across Australia struggle with increasing workloads and a lack of effective tools and processes to thrive in an environment where hybrid and asynchronous work is the gold standard. At the same time, business leaders are challenged to improve productivity while continuing to innovate with transformative technologies like AI,” says Jo Gaines, General Manager, APAC, at Asana. “Organisations don’t need more tools – they need the right tools that are the connective glue which helps teams get clarity around priorities, show impact against company goals, and scale AI to improve business outcomes.”
Australian workers also feel friction in their daily tasks, with 46 per cent saying they dread meetings at work, with a ‘lack of clear purpose’ being the most cited reason for ineffective meetings. Lack of clarity in roles, responsibilities, or task ownership has been cited as the primary challenge in collaborations.. And with prevalent tool overload, 68 per cent stated that they prefer everyone in their organisation to use the same collaboration technologies at work for greater efficiency.
On the other hand, the report also noted that executives are excited about the power of AI to navigate business challenges, with 63 per cent of Australian leaders saying they are enthusiastic about generative AI in day-to-day work, with 66 per cent agreeing it will have a positive or very positive impact at work.
The report however emphasised that business leaders need to ensure that AI use guidelines and policies are clearly communicated as it found that while half of leaders report having an AI policy at their organisation, only 17 per cent of workers are aware of it. Moreso, while 70 per cent of business leaders say their organisation has allocated a budget for AI training and development, only 30 per cent of workers are aware of this.
“As organisations rapidly adopt AI, it’s more critical than ever that leaders define clear guidelines around how it can – and should – be used in the workplace,” Gaines said. “With so many Australian workers struggling with work overload and digital exhaustion, there is infinite potential to use AI to maximise resources, increase efficiency, and improve cross-functional collaboration. I’m excited as we continue to improve our AI capabilities to help more organisations across Australia work smarter.”
