Connectivity becomes the weakest link in Britain’s workplaces

With all eyes on the latest UK government as to how it will propel growth across the country and solve productivity problems that has plagued the nation for decades, research from Managed247 is warning that IT downtime is costing the UK economy £44bn every year, despite workplace technology becoming more reliable than ever before.

The research surveyed 2,000 UK employees about their experiences of workplace technology, how often workers experience IT issues, how much working time they lose as a result and the knock-on effect on business productivity, including the frequency, causes and impact of IT downtime.

The estimated annual economic cost was calculated using respondents’ reported working hours lost to IT issues, alongside UK employment and earnings data to estimate the national productivity impact. And as businesses continue to embrace artificial intelligence (AI), automation and cloud-based technology, the findings suggested that reducing IT downtime could unlock billions of pounds in lost productivity across the UK economy.

Worryingly, the overall findings suggested Britain’s biggest workplace technology challenge is no longer replacing ageing systems – instead, it was ensuring the digital infrastructure businesses rely on every minute of the working day is resilient enough to keep people productive.

The findings revealed what Managed247 said was a striking contradiction. While employees report fewer software failures, outdated systems and major technical issues than they did in 2018, the financial cost of downtime has increased by almost £9bn. Crucially, from a technology perspective, internet and connectivity failures have overtaken software problems as the biggest cause of lost productivity.

Moreover, internet and connectivity failures have overtaken software issues as the biggest cause of lost working time, reflecting the growing dependence on cloud computing, Microsoft 365, video conferencing and remote working, said Managed247. Put simply, when the internet goes down, entire teams can be left unable to work.

Connection failures were found to be the fastest-growing main cause of lost time – 19% to 24% since the last survey of its kind – and the only major cause to worsen in the research period. Comments from the survey observed that the dropped connection was a top productivity killer.

Compared with 2018, the report showed that lengthy software crashes, outdated hardware and poorly maintained systems are becoming less common. Confidence in workplace technology was also found to have improved, with more employees saying the IT they rely on is modern, reliable and fit for purpose.

Across the UK, four in five employees (80%) said they have experienced IT downtime during the past 12 months. On average, workers lose 93 hours every year – the equivalent of more than 12 working days – waiting for systems to recover, internet connections to return or technical issues to be resolved.

And the cost of such IT downtime has soared over the recent past – £44bn now compared with £35bn in 2018 – with the average UK employee losing 93 working hours a year to IT issues, equivalent to more than 12 working days. Four in five UK employees experience IT downtime every year, yet more than three-quarters (77%) of workers receive no IT or digital training from their employer.

While IT downtime remains an issue across the UK, the research found significant regional differences. That is, the findings suggest that while businesses across the UK are investing in better technology, the benefits are not being felt equally, with some regions still facing significantly greater disruption than others.

Employees in Wales lose the most working time to IT problems, with those affected reporting an average of almost 24 minutes every working day lost to technical issues with downtime increasing since 2018.

In Scotland, progress has largely stalled. Workers continue to lose almost the same amount of time to IT issues as they did eight years ago, while the proportion experiencing customer complaints linked to technology problems is higher than anywhere else in the UK.

By contrast, South England has made the biggest improvement over the same period, reducing the average time lost each day and recording the lowest levels of disruption among the regions surveyed. Employees in North England report growing confidence in workplace technology, although they remain slightly more likely than workers in the south to experience IT issues during the year.

The research also uncovered a persistent digital skills gap. More than three-quarters of employees (77%) said they have received no IT or digital training from their employer during the past year. The figure has changed little since 2018, suggesting many organisations continue to invest in technology without giving staff the skills to get the most from it.

Managed247 warned that without basic digital training, employees are less able to resolve simple technical issues themselves, placing greater pressure on IT teams and extending the time businesses spend offline.

Commenting on the trends revealed in the survey, Managed247 CEO and founder John Pepper noted that technology has now become the backbone of almost every business, so even small disruptions now have much bigger consequences than they did a few years ago.

“What’s striking is that businesses are experiencing fewer traditional IT failures, yet downtime is costing more than ever,” he said. “That’s because organisations are far more dependent on technology than they were in 2018. If your internet connection goes down or staff lose access to cloud systems, productivity can grind to a halt almost instantly.

“Businesses have invested heavily in digital transformation, AI and cloud technology, but resilience has to keep pace. Reliable connectivity, modern infrastructure and well-trained employees are no longer nice to have – they’re essential for keeping businesses moving.”