UK’s £44bn IT downtime problem is draining productivity, new data shows
As the newly appointed chancellor John Healey makes boosting UK productivity one of the government’s biggest economic priorities, new research suggests one of Britain’s most expensive productivity drains has been hiding in plain sight.
Research from Managed247 estimates that IT downtime is now costing the UK economy £44bn every year, despite workplace technology becoming more reliable than ever before.
The nationwide study of 2,000 UK employees examined how often workers experience IT issues, how much working time they lose as a result and the knock-on effect on business productivity.
Key findings
- IT downtime now costs the UK economy an estimated £44bn every year, up from £35bn in 2018.
- The average UK employee loses 93 working hours a year to IT issues, equivalent to more than 12 working days.
- Four in five UK employees experience IT downtime every year.
- Internet and connectivity failures have overtaken software problems as the biggest cause of lost productivity.
- More than three quarters (77%) of workers receive no IT or digital training from their employer.
The findings reveal a striking contradiction. While employees report fewer software failures, outdated systems and major technical issues than they did in 2018, the financial cost of downtime has increased by almost £9bn.
Across the UK, four in five employees (80%) say they have experienced IT downtime during the past 12 months. On average, workers lose 93 hours every year, the equivalent of more than 12 working days, waiting for systems to recover, internet connections to return or technical issues to be resolved.
The internet has become the weakest link in Britain’s workplaces
Compared with 2018, lengthy software crashes, outdated hardware and poorly maintained systems are becoming less common. Confidence in workplace technology has also improved, with more employees saying the IT they rely on is modern, reliable and fit for purpose.
Internet and connectivity failures have overtaken software issues as the biggest cause of lost working time, reflecting the growing dependence on cloud computing, Microsoft 365, video conferencing and remote working. When the internet goes down, entire teams can be left unable to work.
The findings suggest Britain’s biggest workplace technology challenge is no longer replacing ageing systems. It is ensuring the digital infrastructure businesses rely on every minute of the working day is resilient enough to keep people productive.
Wales loses nearly 24 minutes every working day to IT downtime
While IT downtime remains a nationwide issue, the research found significant regional differences.
Employees in Wales lose the most working time to IT problems, with those affected reporting an average of almost 24 minutes every working day lost to technical issues. Once one of the UK’s strongest performing regions, Wales has seen downtime increase since 2018.
By contrast, South England has made the biggest improvement over the same period, reducing the average time lost each day and recording the lowest levels of disruption among the regions surveyed.
In Scotland, progress has largely stalled. Workers continue to lose almost the same amount of time to IT issues as they did eight years ago, while the proportion experiencing customer complaints linked to technology problems is higher than anywhere else in the UK.
Meanwhile, employees in North England report growing confidence in workplace technology, although they remain slightly more likely than workers in the South to experience IT issues during the year.
The findings suggest that while businesses across the UK are investing in better technology, the benefits are not being felt equally, with some regions still facing significantly greater disruption than others.
77% of workers receive no IT training from their employer
The research also uncovered a persistent digital skills gap.
More than three quarters of employees (77%) say they have received no IT or digital training from their employer during the past year. The figure has changed little since 2018, suggesting many organisations continue to invest in technology without giving staff the skills to get the most from it.
Without basic digital training, employees are less able to resolve simple technical issues themselves, placing greater pressure on IT teams and extending the time businesses spend offline.
John Pepper, CEO and founder at Managed247, said: “Technology has become the backbone of almost every business, so even small disruptions now have much bigger consequences than they did a few years ago.
What’s striking is that businesses are experiencing fewer traditional IT failures, yet downtime is costing more than ever. That’s because organisations are far more dependent on technology than they were in 2018. If your internet connection goes down or staff lose access to cloud systems, productivity can grind to a halt almost instantly.
Businesses have invested heavily in digital transformation, AI and cloud technology, but resilience has to keep pace. Reliable connectivity, modern infrastructure and well-trained employees are no longer nice to have. They’re essential for keeping businesses moving.”
As businesses continue to embrace AI, automation and cloud-based technology, the findings suggest that reducing IT downtime could unlock billions of pounds in lost productivity across the UK economy.