Smartsheet has published The Future of Work Management 2023. Smartsheet intends this to be an annual report, which is the first. The report examines how work is managed, whether by formal or informal project managers. The report is based on a survey of 8,000 employees across the US, the UK, Australia and the DACH region. 96% of those surveyed indicated that they help to manage projects regardless of their formal role or training.

The report in summary

The report is eighteen pages in and begins with an introduction that looks at the state of project management with organisations. The bulk of the report is divided into three sections. Each section covers one of the key findings from the report:

• The middle work makes the project work.
• Let’s face the facts: Your team needs more support.
• Projects are only as strong as the processes they’re built on.

The report ends with a short conclusion that provides three actions for business leaders to consider. The statistics from the survey data are scattered throughout the report ensuring that the analysis is evidence-based. However, the survey did not seem to contain a qualitative element; thus, there are no quotes or deeper insights into the data points.

The key takeout from this report, according to Smartsheet, is that business leaders must understand how to move from a resource recession to a resource revolution. The answer? Technology helps execute projects successfully, but only if the people using it are trained, and it is appropriate for their work.

Praerit Garg, CPO and EVP of Engineering, Smartsheet, commented, “We are in a global resource recession, but the good news is that we have the tools to shift it into a resource revolution.

“The constraints that organizations face aren’t going away, but leaders have a unique opportunity to innovate to meet their teams where they are. Businesses need to empower and support their people by investing in training, mentorship and software that will help scale work and retain talent.”

The State of Project Management

The meat of the survey answers, and what the report bases its hypothesis on, is the introduction which lays out the state of project management in the organisations surveyed. In some ways, this is the most interesting section and provides common sense insights with hindsight.

The first finding of note is that more than 80% of respondents carry out project management sometimes despite not having the job title of project manager. The authors sensibly divert these managers of projects into three categories: Titled Project managers, Expected Project managers, and Citizen project managers.

With the advent of work management solutions, it appears that more and more people are given responsibilities that hitherto have been the domain of the first two categories. 65% of citizen project managers inherit the responsibility because there is a vacuum and no one else can fulfil the role. 45% said they manage projects because they were asked to.

The issue is global, with around 80% of respondents having to deal with project management and feeling burnt out by the resource recession, no matter what country or company size they work for.

Challenges of Project Management

91% of project managers face challenges regardless of their category. These challenges cannot be ignored as they negatively impact employees’ mental health and emotions.

• 58% are frustrated
• 31% are Burned out
• 27% are embarrassed
• 26% are angry
• 25% are apathetic

These emotions were extrapolated from the responses given by respondents. It is not believed that they were direct responses to a question. The common issues faced by respondents were:

• Had to work more hours or work late – 50%
• Duplicated work that had already been done – 37%
• Missed a deadline – 34%
• Faced consequences for another person’s responsibility -28%
• Had to throw out work that wasn’t needed or relevant – 27%
• Sent outdated or incorrect information to my boss, company leadership, or a client – 23%
• Had responsibilities on a project reduced or taken away – 21%
• Was removed entirely from a project – 13%

Enterprise Times asked Smartsheet to explain the emotional analysis.  Ben Canning, SVP of Product, Smartsheet, answered: “Folks want work that is meaningful and impactful. According to our data, when there aren’t established processes in place, 37% of employees reported wasting time doing work that was duplicative or unnecessary.

“23% reported that they did work that was out of date and didn’t reflect well on them or the business. Frustration and shame are natural responses to this. What’s key here is that many of these issues are not an individual’s direct fault.

“Responsibility lies across the organization and leadership for not providing the necessary support or tools needed to complete projects efficiently. In a situation where many employees are being asked to perform roles they are not trained for, with tools that aren’t fit for the task, it’s inevitable that emotions like anger and apathy would fester. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

“On the flip side, the data also showed us that when projects run smoothly, 56% of global respondents said that their work felt more satisfying. Ensuring that your team is set up for success has far-reaching implications.”

Removing duplicated work

One of the biggest concerns highlighted in the report is the amount of duplicated work. ET asked Canning about this.

Canning replied, “Work gets duplicated when tasks are not clearly tracked, and there is no work management system in place, leading to multiple people jumping to do the same task. Additionally, we’ve seen that if there is a lack of integration between departments and tools, work can also be repeated because it can’t be easily shared. 

“Our data shows that, on average, 37% of workers find themselves duplicating work, but invariably it’s the citizen project managers (42%) who are most likely to do so, alongside those with no formal project management training (42%) and those who don’t use formal project management software (40%).

“Conversely, only 33% of titled project managers, and only 35% who use formal project management software, have duplicated work. This clearly shows that inexperienced, potentially unqualified staff without the right tools are in far more danger of repeated efforts and wasted time, leading to the negative emotions and outcomes our respondents report.

“To avoid the frustration and time suck of repeated work, organizations need to invest in a fully integrated work management system to help teams create repeatable and scalable processes, regardless of their level of experience.”

One might have expected organisations to have deployed project management or task management tools, but only 11% of citizen project managers have access to such tools. Even worse, only 35% of project managers report having the right tools. Good news for Smartsheet and competitors as they look to expand into new organisations.

Key findings

The authors argue that Middle Work, the work that is done to complete tasks, is where many of the pain points occur. With project management and without technology to ease processes, time spent on much middle work is often wasted, as seen from the responses above, which led to different emotional states. Technology and training can help improve this state.

Praerit Garg, CPO and EVP of Engineering, Smartsheet, stated, “We are in a global resource recession, but the good news is that we have the tools to shift it into a resource revolution. The constraints that organizations face aren’t going away, but leaders have a unique opportunity to innovate to meet their teams where they are. Businesses need to empower and support their people by investing in training, mentorship and software that will help scale work and retain talent.” 

In summary, organisations need to consider removing such waste and inefficiency from their organisations. To do that requires technology that helps citizen project managers to manage projects effectively, which does not appear to be happening.

There is also a disconnect between execs and employees. 60% of business leaders believe they are investing in tools, but only 38% of individual contributors say they are. The question is whether the tools are being purchased for the “project managers” or the citizen project managers. A deeper dive into a qualitative survey may have highlighted more insights.

The third finding highlights the third important aspect of efficiency, process. Organisations need to have the right technology. Organisations need to have the right people with the right training in technology.  Finally, they need to have the right processes in place with people who understand those processes and technology aligned to them to work well.

The report highlights that people learn through experience, with 94% of project professionals relying on learnings from other projects to do their job effectively. However, only 85% can access those learnings for future projects.

Enterprise Times: What does this mean

The Future of Work Management is easy to read, with several useful takeouts for business leaders. However, it falls short of being a comprehensive look at how projects are managed and by whom, preferring to dip into the findings rather than provide a coherent thread through the report. The links between the data points, insights, and actions are not always explained clearly. The key imperatives, in conclusion, are worthy. There is nothing new that many others haven’t said.

The three imperatives highlighted are:

• Instead of fixating on deadlines, focus on making the middle work run as smoothly as possible.
  • Yet Canning chooses to focus on deadlines, and the connection between doing middle work smoothly and completing deadlines is not evidenced in the report.
• Get clear about the needs of your people — time, tools, and resources — and deliver the necessary support to your team.
  • More could be added, tools are important, training on both tools and processes are also critical However the wellbeing of staff is also increasingly important and noted in the report
• Prioritize visibility so that you can learn from past projects and build strong processes that automate and scale your efforts.
  • While visibility is mentioned in the report, there is little analysis of what it means and how it can help organisations and people. Certainly, there are benefits to seeing work from the past, present and future (though forecasting is not mentioned). There is also no mention of transparency in the report.

Canning concluded, “With deadlines becoming tighter, expectations higher, and resources becoming more constrained, we’re going to continue to see more project-based work. Employees are being left to fill in gaps without proper training or experience. For organizations to fully embrace the resource revolution they need to focus less on individual projects and more on implementing scalable and repeatable processes to set their teams up for success over the long run.”

Overall a good report, but one that could have been deeper and more insightful using qualitative and secondary research. Ultimately, it is clear that organisations need to improve how they manage work. It is not necessarily implementing project management methodologies across the workforce, but work management practices suited to each function would be a good start.  Hopefully, the Future of Work Management 2024 will show a marked improvement in the state of project management.