A comparative study across manufacturing in Australia, the UK and US has found that as many as 50% of workers have seen their co-workers skipping vital process steps – and feel that quality is dropping as a result.
The Resilience Nation report, published by compliance specialists Ideagen, spoke to 4,000 manufacturing and industrial workers and found that over half of had seen their colleagues pass over an essential process in production.
A further 41% said that they knew their colleagues hid mistakes while 45% said that the reason for corner cutting was apathy. A third said that safety was also compromised by the actions of co-workers.
“Workers are facing growing pressures in and out of the workplace. People are being asked to deliver more at work when their resilience is being challenged by economic and political headwinds,” said Ideagen CEO Ben Dorks.
“Ultimately, this is having a detrimental impact on business productivity, workplace health and safety and the quality of work produced, as well as further reducing the resilience of the nation at large.
“People are optimistic that emerging tech and AI will ultimately lighten the load – but they’re not yet feeling the benefits. It’s a gap that now, more than ever, business leaders must look to close and support their workforce to ensure their staff remain safe and compliance needs are met across the business.”
Australians lead the study, with as many as a fifth of the manufacturing workforce reporting a fall in resilience.
The study found that issues like ‘quiet quitting’ – where workers perform the bare minimum – and overwork were major issues.
“Overall, the industry average reveals that 17% of workers feel less personally resilient than last year, 6% higher than the overall average and not helped by the results in the UK (19%) and Australia (20%),” said Dorks.
“External pressures are affecting daily work life and personal resilience among manufacturing and logistics workers.
“Rising costs of living impacted the biggest proportion in the sector (39%), closely followed by inflation rates, supply chain challenges and energy prices.”
(Originally published by Industry Update Manufacturing Magazine on January 16, 2025. )
