Taking on more work than usual? You are not alone

A ‘resource recession’ impacting all Australian industries is leading to more workers picking up the slack for projects beyond the requirements of their job description, a new report has found.

According to a new future of work management report produced by Smartsheet, the number of employees without specific project management skills or ‘citizen project managers’ are on the rise.

The survey interviewed 8,000 employed adults aged 18-74, who work at companies with a minimum of 50 employees. It found that of the Australian workers surveyed, more than four in five respondents (83%) said projects were led by employees who did not have a formal project management title or role.

One in five (18%) people reported that they managed projects despite the function not being within the scope of their title or job description and 50% of this group — referred to as citizen project managers — felt ‘somewhat unprepared’ for the first project they managed. Another 17% reported being ‘mostly’ or ‘completely unprepared’.

Smartsheet’s Nigel Mendonca said the trend was indicative of under-resourced workplaces looking to their existing employees to fill the capability gaps companies could not fill due to a labour shortage.

“Australia’s talent shortage means more employees are expected to assume additional work that they are not trained or qualified for,” Mendonca said, urging workplaces to take a more proactive approach to using technology to help manage their staff and offer foundational project support.

A total of 45% of Australian respondents to the survey said their company did not appropriate staff projects, and 31% said projects were understaffed

Meanwhile, 45% of those surveyed said they felt their workplace adequately invested in tools and processes to meet common project management challenges.

Mendonca, who is Asia Pacific vice president of the work management enterprise platform, said senior leaders of organisations needed to recognise support for ‘middle work’ (or tasks and processes that make up a project) was critical to avoiding burnout. There was a clear connection between effectively managed projects and staff job satisfaction, he added.

“Instead of accepting burnout and poor business outcomes, leaders have a unique opportunity to transform the way work is done for the better by thinking innovatively when it comes to project and process management,” Mendonca said.

Almost half (45%) of Australian workers said that when projects ran smoothly their stress was lower.

About 73% of workers said they expected their company to ask project teams to accomplish more with less in the near future, and over half of project professionals expect deadlines to stay the same moving forward (54%).

The survey was conducted by Wakefield Research last September, and interviewed workers from the United States, UK, Australia, and DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland).

This article was first published by The Mandarin.