According to A new report from work management platform Asana, 95% of workers believe that organisations need to innovate how teams collaborate and communicate. A lack of clarity in roles, responsibilities, and task ownership is identified as the top challenge for workers, leading to poor collaboration. This is a clear indication that businesses need to rethink their approach to team management and communication strategies.

The report also highlights the issue of digital exhaustion, with 55% of workers feeling that their organisation's leaders are not doing enough to alleviate it. Furthermore, 52% of workers feel overwhelmed by their workload to the point of needing to take a day off at least once a month.

Meetings at work are dreaded by 46% of workers, who cite a 'lack of clear purpose' as the main reason for ineffective meetings. This suggests a need for more focused and purpose-driven meetings to improve productivity and worker satisfaction.

Interestingly, the report reveals that 68% of those surveyed prefer everyone in their organisation to use the same collaboration technologies at work to increase efficiency. This highlights the importance of uniformity in the use of work management tools for better collaboration and productivity.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is also a topic of interest in the report. A significant 63% of Australian leaders are enthusiastic about generative AI in day-to-day work, with 66% agreeing it will have a positive or very positive impact at work. However, there seems to be a disconnect between leaders and workers when it comes to AI policy and budget allocation. While half of the leaders report having an AI policy at their organisation, only 17% of workers are aware of it. Similarly, 70% of leaders say their organisation has allocated a budget for AI training and development, but only 30% of workers are aware of this.

Jo Gaines, General Manager, APAC, at Asana, commented on the findings, "Professionals across Australia struggle with increasing workloads and a lack of effective tools and processes to thrive in an environment where hybrid and asynchronous work is the gold standard. At the same time, business leaders are challenged to improve productivity while continuing to innovate with transformative technologies like AI. Organisations don't need more tools - they need the right tools that are the connective glue which helps teams get clarity around priorities, show impact against company goals, and scale AI to improve business outcomes."

Gaines further added, "As organisations rapidly adopt AI, it's more critical than ever that leaders define clear guidelines around how it can - and should - be used in the workplace. With so many Australian workers struggling with work overload and digital exhaustion, there is infinite potential to use AI to maximise resources, increase efficiency, and improve cross-functional collaboration. I'm excited as we continue to improve our AI capabilities to help more organisations across Australia work smarter."