14th August 2026
One In Three UK Workers Say Their Organisation Is Making It Harder To Do a Good Job
Are we focusing on the wrong productivity problem?
We’ve never had more technology designed to make work easier.
AI is automating tasks. Organisations are investing heavily in digital transformation. Productivity has become a boardroom priority.
Yet new research suggests many employees feel work is becoming harder, not easier.
In Ipsos Karian and Box’s Work on What Matters Report, more than one in three UK workers (34%) say their organisation makes it harder to do a good job.
That should give every HR and employee experience leader pause.
Because while organisations continue to invest in new tools and transformation programmes, many employees are pointing to a much simpler issue: we’re not getting the basics of work right.
Slow systems. Clunky processes. Too many meetings. Conflicting priorities. Workloads that leave little time for meaningful work.
These aren’t minor frustrations. They’re everyday barriers that prevent people from performing at their best.
Productivity isn’t just about performance
When productivity stalls, organisations often look to leadership, culture or capability for answers.
Those things matter. But the research suggests they’re not always the place to start.
Employees consistently describe operational friction as the biggest obstacle to doing good work. They’re spending time navigating bureaucracy instead of adding value.
In fact, when employees were asked what would have the biggest impact on their productivity, the most common answer wasn’t better leadership or more training. It was better technology, tools and systems.
That’s an important distinction.
Many organisations are investing in the future of work while employees are still struggling with the fundamentals of today’s work.
Friction is the hidden productivity killer
Operational friction rarely feels like a strategic priority.
Launching a new transformation programme is more visible than simplifying an approval process. Rolling out AI attracts more attention than reducing unnecessary meetings.
But employees experience work through these day-to-day realities.
Every slow system, duplicated process and competing priority makes it harder to focus on the work that really matters.
Individually, these frustrations may seem small. Together, they create a working environment where even highly engaged employees find it difficult to be productive.
The challenge isn’t a lack of ambition. It’s that unnecessary complexity has become part of everyday work.
Better work creates a better employee experience
Removing friction doesn’t just improve productivity. It transforms how people feel about work.
Work on What Matters found that employees who say their organisation makes it easier to do a good job are significantly more positive across every key measure of employee experience.
They’re more motivated, more proud of where they work, and far more likely to recommend their organisation.
The advocacy gap alone is 54 percentage points.
That’s a reminder that employee experience isn’t built solely through culture initiatives or engagement campaigns. It’s shaped by whether people can actually get their work done without unnecessary obstacles.
Listen to what employees are already telling you
One of the clearest messages from the research is that employees already know what would make the biggest difference.
They’re asking for practical improvements that remove friction from everyday work:
- Better systems and technology
- Clearer priorities
- More realistic workloads
- Better communication
- Enough resource to do their jobs well
Leadership and culture remain essential. But if organisations want to unlock productivity, they can’t overlook the operational basics.
Sometimes the most effective way to improve performance isn’t introducing something new.
It’s removing the barriers that stop people doing their best work in the first place.
For HR and employee experience leaders, that’s a significant opportunity. The organisations that create the best employee experiences won’t simply adopt the newest technology, they’ll make work easier, simpler and more effective.
Explore all the insights on Productivity, and five other major themes in the world of work in Work on What Matters.
