Is Your Team Overworked, Underutilized, or Blocked?
Brittany Rittershaus
Is Your Team Overworked, Underutilized, or Blocked? A Workload & Productivity Survey Can Tell You.
Start the Year with Clarity
January is a natural reset point, marked by new goals, priorities, and fresh expectations. But many organizations launch into the new year without fully understanding how their employees experience their day-to-day work.
- Are teams overloaded?
- Are people underutilized?
- Are inefficiencies slowing progress?
A Workload & Productivity Survey brings these realities into focus, helping leaders make better decisions and build healthier, more productive workplaces.
Why Workload & Productivity Surveys Matter
1. They Reveal Barriers That Slow Performance
Employees often encounter productivity obstacles that aren’t always visible from the leadership level. Inefficient or outdated technology can slow their progress, while confusing workflows create unnecessary complexity. Some employees struggle with unclear roles or expectations, and others face collaboration challenges that make it difficult to move work forward. In many cases, people spend a surprising amount of time on redundant administrative tasks that drain energy from higher-value work.
A well-designed survey brings these hidden barriers to the surface, giving leaders the insights they need to remove friction, improve efficiency, and ensure teams are supported in doing their best work.
2. They Identify Teams Overloaded and at Risk for Burnout
Leaders also benefit from understanding where their teams may be edging toward overload or burnout. While these pressures aren’t always obvious from a high level, employees often feel them acutely in the form of long hours, competing priorities, or constant workarounds to keep up. When workload becomes imbalanced, or expectations stretch beyond what a team can realistically deliver, the risk of burnout grows quietly but quickly. A Workload & Productivity Survey helps illuminate where those pressure points exist, revealing which teams may be stretched too thin, and where support, resources, or clearer prioritization could make an immediate difference.
3. They Help Align Resources with Real Productivity Needs
When leaders gain a clearer understanding of how work actually gets done, they’re better equipped to align resources with what employees truly need to be successful. Survey insights often reveal where staffing may be insufficient, where technology upgrades could eliminate time-consuming workarounds, or where teams would benefit from additional training or clearer priorities. Instead of relying on assumptions, leaders can make informed decisions that direct support to the right places at the right time. The result is a more focused, better-equipped workforce—one that feels supported and empowered to do meaningful, high-value work.
What You Learn from a Workload & Productivity Survey
Organizations frequently uncover insights like:
- Employees spending too much time on low-value tasks
- Workload spikes not aligned with capacity
- Teams feeling unclear on expectations or priorities
- Individuals who feel underutilized or disengaged
- Process inefficiencies that are costing time and energy
- Where communication or collaboration challenges exist
Together, these findings create far more than a list of issues — they form a clear, actionable roadmap for improving both performance and wellbeing.
When leaders understand where time is being lost, where confusion or misalignment exists, and where employees feel either stretched too thin or not utilized enough, they gain the visibility needed to redesign workflows, rebalance priorities, and strengthen support systems. This data helps organizations make targeted improvements that reduce friction, elevate employee experience, and ultimately create a healthier, more productive environment for everyone.
Teams perform at their best when workload is manageable; expectations are clear, and barriers are removed. A Workload & Productivity Survey creates the visibility leaders need to support employees, protect wellbeing, and drive results.
If you think a Workload & Productivity Survey can uncover barriers for your team, MRA is here to help. With custom analysis and reporting, recommendations tailored to your organization, and guidance for prioritizing actions to drive performance, we’ll find insights that strengthen teams and fuel productivity.
