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According to a new report by Wrike, work complexities have created gaps in information resulting from the surge in applications and data processed and the pace of work today. Just as CERN identified Dark Matter as the “invisible” content that makes up 95% of the mass of the universe, modern work complexities have generated a significant body of work that teams can’t immediately see, but that has a powerful influence on the projects in play around it. 

This is called the Dark Matter of Work, and it lives in synchronous applications and unstructured work, as well as the gaps between systems and applications that aren’t integrated. The result of Dark Matter is a low level of visibility amongst employees and leaders that costs organizations millions of dollars in wasted time, delayed or canceled projects, and employee churn. 

Employees spend 89 working days a year and five days of personal time on wasted work or work that isn’t accounted for, including duplicate work, unproductive meetings, and information tracking. Per year, for a team of 3,200 employees (average surveyed), $52 million is lost due to wasted time.

Additionally, 65% of business leaders encounter problems with projects at least every week that could be avoided with real-time insight into project status. These delays cost organizations $8.2 million annually. 

Finally, nearly 80% of employees work at cross purposes with colleagues, and 57% of employees say their employer doesn’t understand how hard they work. This has led to a $427,000 loss due to employee churn.

A single source of truth is essential to shedding light on the Dark Matter of Work, and the organization that has full visibility into these workflows, applications, and data they create, will be in the best position to harness that Dark Matter.

From March to April 2022, Sapio Research surveyed 804 business function leaders and 2,003 knowledge workers in IT, marketing or project management functions, or in creative, marketing, PR and advertising agencies, or professional services firms, in the U.S. and U.K. In both cases, individuals employed by companies with more than 1,000 employees were targeted.

Read the full report by Wrike.