The study, Work fragmentation – how much is too much? found that the traditional working day for Australian professional workers has permanently changed due largely to improved access to technology.
Portable technologies including; laptops, mobile phones and PDAs, are shifting workplace culture and practice and respondents to KPMG’s survey agreed that fragmentation – identified as work/life mix – will increase. This is due to better use of technology, combined with a desire for less time travelling to and from work.
KPMG’s study identified four worker ‘groups’ defined by the amount of fragmentation in their lives. The traditional worker, described by KPMG as a ‘two worlds worker’ (67%) experienced low fragmentation and defined their working day by working standard hours and rarely worked outside those hours. While that group dominated the survey respondents, there were also a number of workers (14.5%) who experienced moderate fragmentation by spreading their hours across the day to ensure they had the flexibility to fit other commitments around work. This group was described by KPMG as ‘distributed schedulers’. The third group, ‘frequent dividers’ (5.5%), experienced high fragmentation and worked in short bursts, merging work/personal and travel time. The gender divide between these groups was slight, with less than 10% difference in gender.
The final group, 'fully blended workers'(13%) had very little division between work and personal time and worked long hours. They are predominantly male (76%), under 35 years old (81%) and work full time (92%).
“Personal technologies are starting to play an increasingly important role for workers with fragmented schedules with 57% of ‘fully blended workers’ using their own equipment to complete work and 70% of ‘frequent dividers’ doing the same,” said KPMG partner and head of IT Advisory, Ian Hancock.
“Reliance on multiple technologies to complete work became increasingly important as the level of fragmentation increased. This suggests employers may need to offer further technological support for employees who conduct work outside the office,” he added.
KPMG's study Work fragmentation – how much is too much? noted that many organisations provide employees with guidance on what technology to use during work hours but little guidance is provided on when to use technology.
“Technology is advancing at a rapid pace and organisations need to ensure that their policies keep up. There is a ‘sweet spot’ where work fragmentation increases productivity, and a ‘tipping point’ where it doesn’t. The ‘sweet spot’ will vary between organisations but is usually found within the space that lies between: technology that overturns traditional notions of time, distance and place, and, technology use that intrudes on personal time causing overwork. The challenge for employers is to identify both and structure their workplace accordingly," said Ian Hancock.