Redoing work becoming more common as workplace communication falters

According to new research, over a third of Australian businesses are redoing work each week due to a lack of team alignment and communication breakdowns.

New research from Lucid Software has revealed that miscommunication, in particular, has emerged as a critical barrier to productivity.

According to its survey, over a fifth of respondents cited unclear project requirements or scope changes (23 per cent) and miscommunication with colleagues (22 per cent) as the top two reasons for redoing work. This, of course, affects overall workplace productivity as redoing work repeatedly no doubt takes up precious time, which could be going towards other job tasks.

Additionally, the impact of miscommunication on a person’s ability to complete work was found to be a regular issue, with 33 per cent of respondents noting this occurred weekly.

“In our survey, 24 per cent of Australian knowledge workers pointed to a lack of training and understanding as the biggest barrier to embracing Agile within teams. To truly unlock the potential of Agile, businesses must invest in education and development at all levels,” said Bryan Stallings, chief evangelist at Lucid Software.

“Through professional growth initiatives that emphasise people skills like collaboration and effective communication, teams can increase their agility, leading to greater efficiency and stronger alignment with overall business goals.”

Of those surveyed, 46 per cent agreed that improved communication and collaboration tools would shorten the process of forming team consensus.

The survey also found that in 43 per cent of Australian businesses, it can take up to three hours to form a team consensus around the work needed to progress business objectives. According to the research, this data suggests that although teams are meeting together, those discussions are not translating into efficient decision-making or clear action plans.

In terms of the communication breakdown, it was also covered in a recent HR Leader article that one in three Aussie workers are losing 40 hours a week per year strictly from poorly written emails. The Atlassian report also showed that 64 per cent noted they waste time struggling to interpret the written messages from their colleagues at least a few times a month, if not daily.

Without the desired concise, precise, and expressive writing that workers want, time-wasting becomes a commonality and can push stressed workers over the edge.