Current international study by the OTRS Group shows that 38 percent require one hour or more of extra time every day when covering for out-of-office colleagues
Cupertino, CA. July 16, 2018 – Summertime means vacation time. But what is relaxing for one can mean more stress for another. A recent study by the OTRS Group shows that more than half of all employees (51 percent) have to cover for a colleague who is away from the office because of vacation or sickness several times a month. Almost a quarter (23 percent) indicate that this happens every week. In Brazil, over 34 percent say they have to jump in for a colleague every week, while in Germany this was 21 percent and in the USA only 14 percent.
The main challenge that coverage poses for 37 percent of respondents is getting the necessary background information on tasks. This is followed by understanding the task’s status (34 percent) and knowing who to contact in order to complete the task (25 percent). Again, there are country-specific differences: more than half of German respondents see the greatest difficulty as getting necessary background information when the colleague is not there. In the US and Brazil, on the other hand, the majority find that it is more problematic to understand the task’s status (36 and 42 percent, respectively).
Personnel coverage causes added stress for employees: 38 percent need at least one additional hour per day when a colleague is absent, and 11 percent need more than two hours. This was worst in Brazil with 31 percent reporting that they have to stay one to two hours longer per day to help with coverage (only 25 percent in Germany and the USA).
“As the study shows, the additional work time for an employee is significant if he has to cover for a colleague,” says André Mindermann, co-founder and CEO of OTRS Group. “Now that vacation season is ramping up, companies should prepare themselves for it. With ticket systems such as OTRS, all information and communication are clearly stored in a ticket, so the person covering understands the facts immediately. This eliminates the need for lavish task handovers and time-consuming information searches. This allows companies to remain efficient even during the holiday seasons. “
More information on how OTRS helps companies maintain efficiency, provide seamless service and save money during vacation season can be found here.
[1] The survey was conducted through Pollfish in July 2018 between 500 employees from US, Germany and Brazil.
About OTRS AG
OTRS AG is the manufacturer and the world’s largest provider of the service management suite, OTRS, and offers flexible solutions for process and communication management to companies of all sizes, saving them time and money. Among its customers are Lufthansa, Airbus, IBM, Porsche, Siemens, Bayer Pharma AG, BSI (Federal Office for Security in Information Technology), Max Planck Institute, Toyota, Huawei, Hapag Lloyd and Banco do Brazil (Bank of Brazil). More than 170,000 companies worldwide use OTRS, including over 40 percent of the DAX 30 companies. OTRS is available in 38 languages. The company consists of OTRS AG and its five subsidiaries OTRS Inc. (USA), OTRS S.A. de C.V. (Mexico), OTRS Asia Pte. Ltd. (Singapore), OTRS Asia Ltd. (Hong Kong) and OTRS do Brasil Soluções Ltda. (Brazil). OTRS AG is listed on the basic board of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. For more information, see www.otrs.com.