Smartsheet’s Inaugural Future of Work Management Report Uncovers Resource Recession Across Global and UK Organisations, Need for Support and Technology to Initiate Resource Revolution
January 24 2023 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
Data reveals one in four workers say projects
are run by colleagues who do not have a project manager title or
role, with over half of these workers being junior staff, and over
eight in ten having no formal project management training
Smartsheet (NYSE:SMAR), the enterprise platform for modern work
management, today released its first annual Future of Work
Management Report which surveyed thousands of global employees
about project and process management at their workplaces. The
results show that 96% of respondents manage projects regardless of
their role or formal project management training, indicating a
global resource recession where traditional roles are no longer
what drive work. The survey revealed an opportunity for leaders
to move from a resource recession to a resource revolution by
focusing on their people and implementing the right technology.
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230124005144/en/
Smartsheet’s inaugural Future of Work
Management Report reveals new insights about global resource
recession. (Graphic: Business Wire)
In a slowly reopening world under macroeconomic pressure,
Smartsheet’s survey shows that many organisations—regardless of
industry or geographic location—are functioning with limited
personnel, technology and support, requiring employees to take on
additional work without proper training or experience. Over
one-fourth (26%) of UK respondents manage projects despite the
function not being within the scope of their job title or job
description. These “citizen project managers” tend to skew more
junior than their titled counterparts, with 55% of citizen project
managers being frontline, support or admin staff. Alternatively,
over half of titled project managers are mid to upper-level
management (60%).
“With deadlines becoming tighter, expectations higher, and
resources becoming more constrained, we’re going to continue to see
more project-based work. In this environment, many employees are
being left to fill in gaps without proper training or experience,”
said Ben Canning, SVP of Product, Smartsheet. “The way work is
conducted in the UK and how employees interact with their teams has
shifted dramatically already over the last few years, and yet more
change is needed. For organisations to fully embrace the resource
revolution they need to focus less on individual projects and more
on implementing scalable and repeatable processes to set their
teams up for success over the long run.”
In order to shift from a resource recession to a resource
revolution, the report found three key takeaways:
- Support is sacred, and teams need more of it Although
the people doing the work recognise—and actively push for—support,
the report found that UK company leaders (C-level) are far more
likely than others in their organisations to say that they are
already investing in the tools and processes needed to solve
project complications (55%). These leaders are also far less likely
to admit that project teams are understaffed (24% versus 49% of
non-C-level employees saying that their teams are understaffed).
With so many doing project-based work today, there’s a greater need
for foundational project support, with regards to both resources
and tools, and senior leaders must recognize that, too.
- The “middle work” is most critical to a project’s success
and to avoiding employee burnout The middle work, or the tasks
and processes that make up a project, is where the project moves
forward, but it can also be where it breaks down. Nearly
three-quarters of UK employees in the survey expect their company
to ask project teams to accomplish even more with less in the near
future (74%), and nearly half of UK project professionals expect
deadlines to stay the same moving forward (49%). This shows that
things aren’t slowing down, regardless of whether teams have the
resources or tools to be successful. In order to overcome these
challenges, teams need to focus less on deadlines and more on the
middle work that will take the project from start to finish. Report
data shows that irrespective of deadlines, there is a clear
connection between effectively managed projects and job
satisfaction, with over half (61%) of UK employees reporting that
when projects run smoothly stress is lower.
- Repeated work is wasted work Projects are only as good
as the processes they’re built on. Since the middle work is so
critical, the best way to ensure the success of projects is to take
learnings and turn those lessons into scalable, repeatable
processes. The report showed that when projects have an experienced
project manager, UK respondents felt that work quality was higher
(60%), more efficient (52%), within budget (45%) and that there was
greater collaboration between teams (34%).
To read the full Future of Work Management 2023 report and
insights for you and your company, click here.
About Smartsheet
Smartsheet (NYSE: SMAR) is the enterprise platform for modern
work management. By aligning people and technology so organisations
can move faster and drive innovation, Smartsheet enables its
millions of users to achieve more. Visit www.smartsheet.com to
learn more.
Report Methodology
The Smartsheet Future of Work Management Report survey was
conducted in September 2022 by Wakefield Research among 8,000
employed adults aged 18-74, who work at companies with a minimum of
50 employees, evenly distributed among the following markets:
United States, UK, Australia, and DACH (Germany, Austria,
Switzerland). All respondents self-reported that they engage, in
some capacity, in project-based work, as defined as “projects that
have a beginning and an end.” These project professionals—who
represent about 60% of the adult employed audience who work in
companies with 50+ employees—span a wide range of industries from
IT and business services, to healthcare and pharma, to banking and
finance, and construction and manufacturing and a wide range of
titles and levels within their organisations.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230124005144/en/
Chrissy Vaughn pr@smartsheet.com
Smartsheet (NYSE:SMAR)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
Smartsheet (NYSE:SMAR)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024