According to a recent survey by BusinessProcessGuidance.com, which surveyed 286 senior executives, the workload for knowledge workers is increasing faster than the efficiency with which they can get work done.

The key findings of the report  titled, "Closing the Knowledge Worker Productivity Gap," included not only the findings that knowledge workers have more to do but the nature of the work itself is also much more complex than it was three years ago.

And increase in workload by 25 percent to 50 percent was reported by a majority of respondents. However, their efficiency has increased 0 percent to 25 percent in the last three years.

 Companies across the economic spectrum are affected by this trend as 54 percent of respondents were from companies with $1 billion or more in revenue. This has exposed businesses to risk.

The number two reason for the workload increase was the struggling economy and the fact that there are fewer people to do the work. The number and complexity of the business processes they have to manage to get their work done was the number one reason. Increased number and complexity of regulatory requirements and software applications were the other top factors.

Nearly every industry has knowledge workers, and is especially critical in companies that are already complex and highly-regulated. These workers do work such as processing mortgage loans in banks, processing claims in health insurance and providing customer service in contact centers  As the gap widens between the amount and complexity of their work and their ability to get it done, this is a serious sign that people doing some of the highest-value work in business need help.

According to Tom Koulopoulos, CEO of DelphiGroup, a US high-tech consulting and advisory firm, knowledge workers face complexity on multiple levels at process, policy, application, and more.

"A solution is needed to help them navigate all of these levels in real time, so they can keep up with the workload and comply with all the corporate and regulatory requirements."

 Koulopoulos added that without a solution, "companies are at risk of having their core business processes deteriorate substantially over time."

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