DITTON PARK, England -
- Work Related Stress Costs EU Businesses EUR20 Billion a Year(1)
CA (NASDAQ: CA), the world’s leading independent provider of IT management software, has released the results of a new independent survey: The 2009 ‘CA Web Stress Index’.
The study has revealed that British workers are suffering with unacceptable levels of ‘Web Stress’ resulting in frustration, lowered morale and lost productivity due to under-performing web applications. With estimates putting the cost of work-related stress in the EU at EUR20 billion a year(1) and business performance being more critical than ever in today’s economic climate, smart companies are those that are taking ‘Web Stress’ seriously.
The ‘Web Stress’ survey confirmed that web applications play an increasingly critical part of today’s job roles. 63% of workers say they rely on them more now than two years ago and nearly all respondents (98%) wouldn’t be able to do their job without them. However, 31% say that every day they have to cope with badly performing applications with an additional 40% claiming this happens on a weekly basis. Worryingly, 83% say they have no choice but to use some business applications even when they aren’t working properly, painting a bleak picture of idle employees and wasted time.
“Web applications are centre-stage in most organisations and pretty much everything we do at work is either reliant upon or influenced by them. They are business-critical so when they underperform, productivity and morale suffer and there are immediate consequences for the organisation,” said Kobi Korsah, Director, EMEA Product Marketing, at CA. “With an Application Performance Management solution* from CA, companies have 24×7, real-time, end-to-end monitoring of all transactions across their web application environment. This means potential problems are identified and resolved before they impact employees, customers and the business. Taking the right corrective action means that employee ‘Web Stress’ is kept to a minimum which in turn supports the bottom line - critical in today’s economic climate.”
Unmet online expectations result in ‘Web Stress’
In today’s Internet driven economy, end-user expectations are high - they expect web applications to be always available and instantly responsive. The research bore this out - 17% of workers will give an application just 10 seconds to respond before they move on to something else. By 20 seconds, 42% have run out of patience and by a minute, 70% will have exceeded their ‘Web Stress’ threshold and clicked away. When asked about how fast problems or errors should be fixed, respondents displayed equally high expectations. 11% said problems should be resolved within 10 minutes. This grew to 48% for within an hour and to 88% for in a day or less.
The cause of ‘Web Stress’ is when a web application underperforms and does not meet user expectations. This has a detrimental impact in the workplace and stirs up negative emotions. 81% say it results in wasted time and lost productivity, 60% admit it makes them angry and 47% say it is reducing their job satisfaction.
The costs to businesses of work-related stress like ‘Web Stress’ are widely reported as high staff turnover, sick leave and absenteeism, premature retirement, reduced work performance, poor time keeping and reduced productivity.
Alexander Kjerulf, “Chief Happiness Officer of the Happy at Work Project” commented: “Organisations expect staff to be efficient and productive at work, but when IT systems fail, employees get stressed and frustrated because they are prevented from carrying out even basic tasks. As a corporate speaker, author and consultant on ‘happiness at work’, I visit many companies around the globe and the one common issue that stands out is underperforming IT. Poor Web Applications are a major contributor which in turn results in employee stress, decreased productivity, absenteeism and high staff turnover. Individuals are ‘happy at work’ when they are efficient, capable and add-value. Increasingly, efficient and stable web applications are an essential tool without which we can’t do our jobs effectively.”
Other findings from the survey include: - 69% report that poor internal IT negatively affects their view of their employer - If the IT systems at work are inadequate, 47% won’t recommend their employer to others and 36% would consider leaving
For further information and materials from the survey, please visit www.ca.com/gb/mediaresourcecentre
About CA Wily Application Performance Management solutions
* With more than 1200 customers worldwide, CA Wily is the market-leading provider of Application Performance Management solutions. The CA Wily APM solution manages the performance and availability of critical Web applications and the end user experience. This enables organisations to measure the business value of each user’s online experience, proactively identify and prioritise problems based on business impact, and triage and resolve problems across complex and heterogeneous application environments before they affect users, customers and business. This means better customer service, more stable revenue streams and higher IT productivity. For further information on CA Wily APM, visit www.ca.com/apm
About the Survey
The 2009 CA Web Stress Index was carried out by an independent survey company, Redshift Research (www.redshiftresearch.com/). 1,000 knowledge workers were surveyed. Knowledge workers are defined as business professionals who used a PC for more than four hours a day for work. The survey was carried out in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and UK in May 2009 via an online questionnaire (200 per country).
About Alexander Kjerulf
Alex is the world’s leading expert on ‘happiness at work’. He has long known that happiness at work is the most important factor that contributes to good careers, happy lives and business success. He is a speaker, consultant and author, presenting and conducting workshops on happiness at work at businesses and conferences all over the world. His clients especially appreciate his unlimited energy, his dedication to happiness at work and his ability to keep his message simple and practical and fun. Alex has a masters degree in computer science from The University of Southern Denmark, and was a co-founder of Enterprise Systems.
For more information visit www.positivesharing.com
About CA
CA (NASDAQ: CA) is the world’s leading independent IT management software company. With CA’s Enterprise IT Management (EITM) vision and expertise, organizations can more effectively govern, manage and secure IT to optimize business performance and sustain competitive advantage. For more information, visit www.ca.com.
Contact Details: Simon Burberry and Jennifer Sneyd ca@chameleonpr.com +44(0)20-7680-5500
Source: CA
Contact Details: Simon Burberry and Jennifer Sneyd, ca at chameleonpr.com, +44(0)20-7680-5500
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