The Most Neglected Cause of Turnover: Boredom At Work

On 20th August we hosted a webinar in which our CFO/COO Konrad Jakubiec and HR manager Katarzyna Adamczewska talked about causes and effects of boredom at work. They also explained possible solutions to this problem. In today’s article we’ll briefly present key points from the webinar.

What causes boredom at work

According to the Udemy Workplace Boredom Study, “43% of workers are bored” while “51% of bored workers [feel] this way for more than half of their work week.” Boredom at work can be caused by flawed work organisation – e.g. when tasks are inadequately assigned – and situations when employees’ competencies and potential are not realised.

We can also get bored at work when we do repetitive and tedious tasks. Because of the standardisation and the amount of these tasks employees and managers don’t have time to consider how to make their work more efficient. With no access to tools available on the market, employees have no chance of engaging in more ambitious tasks.

Everybody suffers consequences of boredom at work

It is not only employees who suffer consequences of boredom, but the whole company. Bored employees get frustrated with lack of opportunities for growth and eventually suffer from burnout. Moreover, as they just go through the motions, bored employees make more mistakes and their performance evaluation deteriorates due to decreased engagement.

Decreased engagement and increased errors translate to general work quality decline in the company and reduced company growth. According to the Udemy study, “bored workers are 2 times more likely to leave a company”, therefore turnover and associated costs increase. That creates a negative company image and ruins the company’s reputation among current and potential clients and further results in the loss of potential profits.

How to fight boredom at work

Incorrect work organization requires changing approaches to team management and task assignment. As Udemy reports, “80% [of workers] agreed learning new skills would make them more engaged.” Creating prospects and opportunities for growth gives employees the sense that their potential is being realised.

Repetitive, tedious tasks require the use of available tools such as automation. Assigning some tasks to robots releases time which employees can dedicate to creative projects. Robots don’t make errors, which boosts KPIs. They easily handle increasing volumes, reducing overtime. Robotization and automation provide unique reskilling opportunities – as tedious tasks which need to be completed are taken off employees’ hands, more opportunities to invent time in development arise.

Watch Konrad and Katarzyna briefly explain the problem of boredom at work.

If you want to learn more about how robots can help your company, read the description of processes robotised by Digital Teammates. The description is a concise source of information about business purposes of robots and contains examples of already automated processes. You will learn what robots’ work looks like step by step and what assignments they are capable of completing. We hope that these examples will help you identify processes which can be automated to benefit you and your company.

You can download the description here.