Companies are pushing harder than ever for growth and innovation, but a new global survey suggests many employees simply don’t have the bandwidth to deliver it. Korn Ferry’s third annual global workforce survey, which polled more than 16,000 professionals ranging from entry-level workers to CEOs across 11 major markets including the United States, United Kingdom, India, Germany, Japan and Australia, found that busyness at work is not translating into meaningful business results.
According to the research, 45 per cent of workers say they are too busy to produce meaningful results, often spending their days in meetings and working through long to-do lists that don’t directly support their company’s strategic goals.
“Activity is not the same as value,” said Roger Philby of Korn Ferry. “Organizations are great at measuring activities but find it much harder to connect the dots to value.”
AI Adding to Workloads, Not Easing Them
The survey also found that artificial intelligence has not solved the productivity problem many companies hoped it would. While executives may benefit from AI’s ability to quickly analyze and summarize information, workers tasked with using AI tools to produce deliverables often experience it differently. Fifty-two per cent of respondents said AI tools have actually increased their workload.
Korn Ferry suggests businesses should rethink how jobs are structured around what humans do best and what AI can effectively handle, rather than simply layering AI-related tasks onto existing responsibilities.
Employees Juggling Multiple Roles
The research also points to a pattern where restructuring or automation eliminates a specific role, but the tasks tied to that role don’t disappear — they get redistributed among remaining staff. Sixty-one per cent of respondents reported they are currently performing the responsibilities of more than one job.
Korn Ferry recommends that companies redesign roles to reflect this reality and compensate employees fairly when additional duties become a permanent part of their job.
Motivation Slipping, Managers Under Strain
Alongside rising workloads, the survey found that worker motivation has declined significantly, falling nine percentage points globally over the past year. Rather than being driven by the work itself, employees are increasingly staying with their employers because of compensation, job security and fair treatment. Korn Ferry’s research suggests employers need to do more to help staff understand how their individual contributions connect to broader business outcomes.
Managers appear to be feeling the pressure most acutely. The survey found that 49 per cent of managers describe themselves as exhausted, as they are asked to lead, coach and support employee well-being while also delivering results with limited resources. Korn Ferry argues that companies need to reduce manager workloads, properly train new managers, and build stronger pipelines for management roles.
Korn Ferry Global Workforce Survey: Key Findings
Rethinking Productivity Strategy
The overall takeaway from Korn Ferry’s research is that efficiency measures alone are unlikely to generate sustained growth. Cost-cutting can free up resources in the short term, but genuine innovation requires employees to have enough time and capacity to experiment, learn and occasionally fail.
For employers, the firm suggests the next opportunity for productivity gains may not come from asking employees to simply do more, but from redesigning work itself — removing low-value tasks and giving both employees and managers enough capacity to focus on work that meaningfully advances business goals.
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