Productivity – it’s the difference between paying someone (or being paid) to be busy or to. actually get stuff done. And as humans, our productivity can be an unpredictable and highly variable thing.
A few months ago, we found through our own survey that 84% of us procrastinate to some degree. But it’s not the only thing that affects our productivity in the workplace (or when working from home).
But perhaps the biggest challenge that has come to businesses and employees alike in recent times in Coronavirus and the subsequent lockdown. Millions of us are now working at home. Many managers are now managing remotely. Businesses are trying to stay productive with teams that were never designed to work remotely. What impact has coronavirus lockdown had on our productivity?
We asked 2,003 adults in the UK to find out.
A Summary of our Findings
Want the fast version? Here are some of the key numbers:
- 30% of us think we’ve been more productive (to some degree) since Coronavirus lockdown began in the UK
- Young people (those aged 16 to 24) are the likeliest to feel they’ve been less productive since lockdown began, with 40% of them saying so
For more context and detail around these productivity statistics, read on.
Lockdown Lethargy – How Lockdown has Impacted our Productivity
We surveyed 2,003 adults in the UK between 5th and 8th June 2020 to find out whether they consider themselves to have been more or less productive during lockdown when many of us are working from home (and some are also trying to juggle working with homeschooling).
In all, this is how people perceive their productivity to have been affected by Coronavirus.
Breakdown of Statistics by Age
Our perception of our own productivity since Coronavirus resulted in a nationwide lockdown differs by age too.
Lockdown Productivity by Region
There are also variances by region. Those in London and the North East are likeliest to consider themselves much more productive while residents of the East Midlands, Scotland and Yorkshire ae least likely.
Challenges for Employers and Zoom Wins!
Currently, there are 8.9 million workers furloughed. And many more are also on work from home, which presents its own challenges for employers who are not setup for remote working. Yes, there’s task management tools and video conferencing tools but no software can deal with the complexities of humans adapting to this complicated new normal.
That said, it’s a pretty stellar time to be a Zoom shareholder. A few statistics:
- The Zoom share price was $221 on 4th June 2020, up from just $68.80 on 2nd Jan 2020
- By the end of February 2020, Zoom had already signed up as many new users as it did in the whole of 2019 (and that’s before most countries entered lockdown)
So in a bid to keep productivity high and people in touch during the work from home and lockdown, the tools that help will probably emerge the biggest financial winners.
