Getting on for half of the accountancy sector’s time is not spent on productive work, although productivity levels are in line with international averages, shows research from Oxford-based iOpener Institute
The survey suggests that UK accountants spend 57.6% of their day on task, just below the international average of 58.8%, with the accountancy sector working just marginally higher than average with 58.8% time on task. However, the researchers claim that for 40% of the time, accountants are not working as hard as they could be.
But accountants scored substantially better than other sectors with estate agencies, utilities and biotech ranked at the bottom end of the table with scores around the 53% mark. The most productive workers are employed in food services, retail and healthcare, illustrating the disparity between types of jobs and careers, as they work at 66.7% output.
But accountants are not enjoying their jobs, with 64.3% of the sample stating that they were not happy at work, while only a third felt ‘energised’ at work.
Productivity is measured by people’s ‘time on task’ at work. This indicator shows the time that business people are actively producing outputs that are key to their role, or otherwise put, the outputs that make a tangible contribution to their organisation achieving its core business goals.
‘While the industry can take encouragement from scoring above the cross-industry average, there is still potential for further improvement. In particular, productivity in the sector suffers when it comes to training and developing new recruits, and this results in significant lost income for firms,’ said Jessica Pryce-Jones, director of the iOpener Institute.
The research found even greater differences when comparing countries, with Mexico reportedly having the highest productivity (73.2% of time on task) and Portugal the lowest (43.3%).
The iOpener Institute analysed over 30,000 management and employee interviews, tracking the key components of ‘happiness at work’, alongside productivity measures. This tallies with the prime minister’s mission to measure the happiness level of UK people.
Find out how productive each sector is at http://www.iopenerinstitute.com/media/98927/productivity_report_final.pdf
