Employees spend more than five hours a week feeling bored at work, according to a new survey.

The research by recruitment specialist Robert Half UK suggests that the main reasons for the problem include workers not finding their jobs interesting enough and not feeling challenged.

Phil Sheridan, senior managing director at Robert Half UK, said: "With the current skills shortage, managers need to focus efforts on keeping the role interesting to boost employee engagement and ultimately support higher retention.

"To ensure employees perform to the best of their ability and remain interested in their jobs, employers need to introduce greater variety by giving workers the opportunity to develop new skills or take on additional responsibilities.

"It's important to remember that employees who are more interested in their jobs are likely to make a greater contribution to the organisation and contribute to long-term success."

Employees in London and the South East are the most bored, with managers anticipating that their staff spend more than six hours a week uninterested in their jobs.

This is closely followed by the South West and Wales who are estimated to spend six hours a week bored at work.

For large companies with more than 500 employees, the amount of time that employees spend bored at work jumps to 7.1 hours, the equivalent of nearly a full working day.

In comparison, employees in medium-sized organisations with between 250 and 499 employees are estimated to spend just over half that amount of time (3.8 hours a week) uninterested in their work.

Managers highlighted the reasons that employees are most likely to be bored during the course of the week.

Over a third (35 per cent) of managers confessed that work was not interesting enough, that staff don't feel challenged (32 per cent) and that there is a lack of diversity on offer within the role (30 per cent).

One in three (30 per cent) said that there were too many meetings that were poorly executed.

What do you think? Email mark@moosemarketingandpr.co.uk 

Picture credit: pixabay