What Work Looks Like in 2022
Highlights from Asana’s Anatomy of Work Global Index 2022
Recently, Asana published the Anatomy of Work Global Index 2022, a comprehensive report on how “work” has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. Asana surveyed 10,624 workers from a variety of industries to learn what’s working (and not working) in their workplace. We’ve compiled some of the most interesting highlights and takeaways to help you learn about the changing corporate landscape.
Strategy Takes a Back Seat
Skilled work (defined as work that requires a specific knowledge or skill) rose 7% in the last year, while work about work (defined as “activities such as communicating about work, searching for information, switching between apps, managing shifting priorities, and chasing status updates) fell by 2%. The most drastic change, however, comes in the area of strategic work (time spent developing a plan of action to achieve a major goal). While 14% of work could be categorized as strategic in 2021, that number dropped to only 9% in 2022.
Where Does All The Time Go?
With “work about work” taking up more than half of a knowledge worker’s day, Asana looked more closely at where time was most frequently lost. What they found might not come as much of surprise. Over the course of the year, 129 hours are spent in unnecessary meetings. The same amount of time is also spent on duplicated work. That’s almost six and a half full work weeks that are spent either repeating a task, or sitting in a meeting room or on a Zoom call that a worker doesn’t belong on. In their report, Asana estimates that up to 257 hours could be saved every year with improved processes.
The Future of Work
To learn more about the effects that working from home, Asana spoke with Prof. Nicholas Bloom, who has studied remote work for more than 20 years. In his research, Prof. Bloom estimates that days spent working remotely have increased five-fold since the beginning of 2020, from 5% to 25%. What’s more is that people continue to desire more time to work remotely. Currently, only 44% of knowledge worker’s time is spent working remotely, but when surveyed, they would prefer to spend 52% of their weeks working remotely.
What does this mean for you?
Ultimately, there is no perfect balance for in-office vs. remote work. However, based on Asana’s findings, it seems like employees have adapted to the challenges that COVID-19 initially presented and are looking for less traditional work environments. However, a lack of face-to-face contact may result in increased check-in meetings with superiors, meaning less time put toward strategic and skilled work. Our recommendation is to give workers more autonomy and use strategic planning sessions to stay informed on their daily activities, vs. monotonous one-on-one calls.