UK businesses are using more IT tools and apps than a year ago, but usage is lacking compared to counterparts in France and Germany.
Just under half of UK workers (46%) saw an increase in tools used, compared to 71% and 60% in France and Germany respectively.
This is according to the Wrike Digital Work Report 2016, an independent survey about digital working culture and its impact on the lives of office workers in the UK, France and Germany.
Digital technology: a blessing or a curse?
There were differing opinions on whether digital technologies were helpful or unhelpful in the workplace. Of those who said app usage had increased in the past year, 68% said their stress levels had risen in that time. One in 10 (10%) said their stress levels had gone down.
Just half of UK respondents said digital technologies help in performing tasks by making work easier and more efficient, rising to 77% and 64% in France and Germany respectively.
Slightly over a fifth (22%) of UK workers said apps had a detrimental effect on performing tasks.
The survey found that productivity levels among UK workers in the past year had risen by 26%, compared to 53% in France and 47% in Germany. It suggests low app adoption, or rather a failure to embrace digital ways of working, may explain part of this.
Email: a productivity zapper?
Email was still the most widely used IT tool, but it's also seen as one of the biggest causes of stress.
A third (37%) of UK respondents said email has curbed their productivity. Email was followed by ineffective meetings, too many tasks and too much admin in the things that most affect productivity.
One of our columnists, Perry Timms, has long thought that social tools should take email's crown.
The Wrike survey was conducted by OnePoll in August 2016 among 3,000 office workers, with 1,000 respondents each in the UK, France and Germany.
