Definitive Guide to America’s
Most Broken Processes
Definitive Guide to America’s Most Broken Processes© Nintex. All rights reserved.

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Most businesses claim employees are their greatest
asset, but employee turnover rates tell a different tale.
According to data compiled by Compensation Force, turnover acrossindustries has steadily increased since 2011. And that rate is set to riseeven more in the next few years, as restless young workers survey a
job market that increasingly favors the applicant.1
However, actual turnover rates are only part of the story. For every
employee who leaves a company, there are many others looking
to get out. In a cross-industry survey of full-time employees, Nintex
found that a third of workers are currently looking for a new job.
No company wants to be a revolving door of talent. Beyond
the monetary costs, there are cultural and reputational impacts
associated with turnover. Once a company develops a reputation forhigh attrition, it starts to be viewed – both internally and externally –as a career path way station. An OK place to bide time while you searchfor something better.
1http://www.compensationforce.com/2017/04/2016-turnover-rates-by-industry.html

Definitive Guide to America’s Most Broken Processes© Nintex. All rights reserved.

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Many companies view losing good employees as inevitable –particularly when it comes to millennial employees, who are widely
seen as opportunistic and impatient for rapid career development.
But the employee retention crisis can’t be reduced to the naturaltendencies of restless workers. There’s another huge part ofthe equation: Broken corporate processes. From IT functions toadministrative tasks to onboarding strategies, companies must lookat the flawed internal processes that are sending good employees
out the door.

Methodology

To uncover and examine corporate America’s mostbroken processes, we conducted a survey of 1,000
U.S. full-time employees across industries anddepartments.2 The survey focused on answering
key questions:— What are the top broken corporate processes?
— Who do employees blame for these broken functions?
— How do broken processes impact employee
performance and morale?
— How can businesses improve internal functions?
2 All respondents work at companies with more than 500 employees and work on a computeror other mobile device for more than five hours a day.

Millennials
are More
LikelytoRegarding
Feelfor
Job
Employees
Whoare
Looking
Gender-Based
Differences
Growth-Related
Processes
areBrokenNew Jobs areProcesses
More Likely to…
Administrative

72% v. 58%
Promotion
processes
Feel IT processes are broken
are broken:
Women are slightly more likely thanmen to think there are broken admin
processes in their organizations.
26% v. 14%
Say printing is broken

Raise negotiation
processes are broken:

58%
Of these employees:

56%

51%

51%
of millennials

71%ofv.millennials
52%
39%
Feel onboarding processes are broken
46%
52% v. 41%
of Baby Boomersof Baby Boomers
Report that raise negotiation processes are broken
70% v. 44%
Feel admin processes are broken
57% v. 48%
Report that promotion processes are broken
55% v. 40%
raise negotiations are broken
25% v.Say 17%
Report that processes for reporting unethical behavior are broken
59% v. 47%
promotion processes are broken
17% v.Say 24%
Comfort starting advancement conversations with supervisor
38% v. 6%
Be somewhat/very unhappy at work

Employees looking
for new jobs
Employees overall

Definitive Guide to America’s Most Broken Processes© Nintex. All rights reserved.

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Our survey revealed several key findings:— Technology troubleshooting is America’s most broken
workplace process.
— The majority of employees surveyed point to broken internal
processes across IT, onboarding and administrative functions.
— Broken functions are particularly problematic in IT, which leads
non-IT employees to blame IT workers and engage in shadow IT.
— Just over half of those who cite broken administrative processes
do not feel their companies define and follow a process for
personal career advancement.
— Of employees surveyed who are actively looking for new jobs,
the vast majority (86 percent) say their company’s broken
processes are a factor behind their decision. Millennials are
particularly likely to be influenced by broken processes tolook for other work.
— Broken processes are actively impeding growth: 67 percent ofrespondents say their company’s broken processes prevent
them from maximizing their potential.

“

Two-thirds of employees
say their company’s broken
processes prevent them frommaximizing their potential

Definitive Guide to America’s Most Broken Processes

Millennials Struggle With Basic IT Tasks

21% of millennials have trouble printing documents
compared to just 11% of Baby Boomers
24% of millennials have trouble resetting theirpassword compared to 18% of Baby Boomers© Nintex. All rights reserved.

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Corporate America’s Top 5
Most Broken Processes

1.

Technology
troubleshooting

2.

Access to tools and documentsthat enable good job performance

3.

Annual performance reviews

4.

Promotions

5.

Definitive Guide
Corporate
America’s
to America’s
Most Broken
MostProcesses
Broken Processes– and How to Fix Them

Employee onboarding© Nintex. All rights reserved.

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Breaking Down the Broken
Processes, by Category

Our survey divided broken processes into four categories: IT, onboarding, administrativeand document management/sales. Of these categories, document management/sales isthe only area in which fewer than half of employees observe broken functions.

62%
observe broken IT processes
within their organization.

58%
observe broken employee onboarding
processes within their organization.

Top Broken IT Processes:

Top Broken Onboarding Processes:

59% Technology troubleshooting

55% Access to tools and documents that enable good job performance

43% Equipment onboarding for new hires

46% Process-based onboarding (e.g. company emergency procedures)

42% Requesting a new computer or other technology device

43% Onboarding-related paperwork

36% App troubleshooting

36% Hiring

23% Password resets

34% Becoming a part of the company culture

19% Deprovisioning of employees who’ve left the company

33% Being introduced to colleagues

19% Printing documents

19% Healthcare enrollment

Definitive Guide to America’s Most Broken Processes© Nintex. All rights reserved.

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54%
observe broken administrative
processes within their organization.

39%
observe broken document management/
sales processes within their organization.

Top Broken Administrative Processes

Top Broken Document Management/Sales Processes

57% Annual performance review system

49% Locating documents

53% Promotions

43% Document sharing

47% Raise negotiations

43% Document approval requests

37% System for identifying and recommending problem fixes at company level

41% Pulling and finding data on sales (number of closed sales, etc.)

34% System for identifying and recommending problem fixes on my team

34% Completing and filing new client paperwork

28% Submitting expenses

33% Document versioning

27% Taking PTO

27% Getting sales contracts signed, negotiated and approved

25% Taking a sick day

23% Communicating sales results to the company

21% Reporting unethical employee/colleague behavior

19% Referring potential new business

9% Getting paid on time

15% Recommending a new business line or product to management teamDefinitive Guide
Corporate
America’s
to America’s
Most Broken
MostProcesses
Broken Processes– and How to Fix Them

© Nintex. All rights reserved.

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Accountability for Broken Processes

Now that the most broken corporate processes are on
the table, a key question emerges: Who do employees
blame? Colleagues? Their supervisor? Or the CEO? The
answer depends on which department’s processes
you’re looking at, according to our study.
When it comes to broken IT processes like technology
troubleshooting, a significant majority of respondents are quick toblame IT staffers rather than corporate higher-ups: 73 percent ofrespondents directly blame IT staff for IT-related issues. However,perception of accountability is more concentrated around thedepartment’s leadership, with 43 percent blaming the IT director/
CIO versus the 30 percent who hold IT workers accountable. Only
13 percent of total respondents blame their company’s CEO for
IT shortcomings. Yet specifically among the IT workers surveyed,
one quarter assign responsibility for broken IT processes to theircompany’s CEO.

Definitive Guide to America’s Most Broken Processes© Nintex. All rights reserved.

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Although accountability centers around IT workers for IT issues, thatis not the case for HR as it relates to employee onboarding: Only 53
percent of respondents hold HR workers accountable for onboarding
failings. Compared to IT, a much larger percentage (20 percent) holdthe CEO accountable.
Perceived accountability for broken administrative and document
management/sales processes is more evenly dispersed. In terms ofadministrative processes – such as promotions, raise negotiations
and the annual performance review system – blame is evenly spreadamong CEOs (34 percent), HR directors (29 percent) and directsupervisors (26 percent). There is a similar distribution for broken
document management/sales processes, with blame distributed
across sales directors (28 percent), CEOs (25 percent), IT directors(15 percent) and direct supervisors (15 percent).

Self-Handling of IT, Most Popular Methods

76%

Conducting personalresearch online

64%

Asking a colleague
who doesn’t work in IT

19%

Asking someone
outside the company“

Only 53 percent of respondents
hold HR workers accountablefor onboarding failings

Definitive Guide to America’s Most Broken Processes© Nintex. All rights reserved.

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The IT Promptness Problem –and its Consequences

For all of the broken processes our study uncovered,
there’s one that emerged across demographics: a lackof prompt IT service.
Of those surveyed who point to broken IT processes, a mere 16
percent say their IT department is extremely prompt in handlingservice requests, while more than one-quarter say their department
is either not very prompt or not prompt at all.

IT Promptness: In-office vs. Remote IT Teams
In-office IT

Remote IT24%

7%of employees reportvery prompt serviceof employees reportvery prompt service

The absence of prompt IT service directly leads employees to engage
in shadow IT – a practice that inherently places company data at risk.
In fact, 40 percent of respondents say they’ve used unsanctioned
devices or apps as a direct result of unresolved IT issues.

Definitive Guide to America’s Most Broken Processes© Nintex. All rights reserved.

10Millennials – individuals between the ages of 18 and 35 – are much
more likely than their older colleagues to engage in shadow IT
when they don’t receive proper IT service: 46 percent of millennials
have used an unsanctioned app or device in the absence of IT
issues resolution compared to 23 percent of baby boomers. But
ironically enough, the biggest culprits of shadow IT are IT employees
themselves, 60 percent of whom have used unsanctioned apps or
devices because of unresolved IT problems.

“Broken processes play a significant rolein my decision to look for other jobs”(Departmental breakdown)

58% IT
41% HR“IT is extremely prompt in handling service requests”
43%

16%

of IT workers agreeof overall
respondents agree

Definitive Guide to America’s Most Broken Processes

37% Finance and Sales
32% Customer relations
29% Operations© Nintex. All rights reserved.

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The Career
Advancement Conundrum

Nothing fuels turnover like the absence of aclear career path. When employees can’t envisiona trajectory of advancement at their current
employer, they begin looking for greener pastures.
Our research identified a close relationship between broken
administrative processes – including annual performance reviews,
promotions, and raise negotiations – and a perceived lack of careeradvancement potential. Among surveyed employees who cited
broken administrative processes within their organization, morethan half do not feel their company defines and follows a process
for personal career advancement – and a mere 13 percent feel that
this process is “very clearly” defined.
How can employees have faith in their career growth at a company
where they can’t trust that the annual performance review system
works properly?

Definitive Guide
Corporate
America’s
to America’s
Most Broken
MostProcesses
Broken Processes– and How to Fix Them

© Nintex. All rights reserved.

12Unclear internal company messaging about career advancement
does more than confuse employees; it also creates a communicative
gulf between employees and their direct supervisors – often
leading to mounting discomfort and resentment. The less clear an
employee says their company’s process for career advancement is,
the more uncomfortable they are starting an advancement-related
conversation with their direct supervisor.

Clarity of process

Comfort talking careerwith supervisor

Somewhat clear

79%

Not very clear

56%

Not at all clear

34%

A lack of clarity about company-level processes for advancement
also appears to fuel a sense that the employee’s direct supervisor
is to blame for broken administrative processes.

Clarity of process

Definitive Guide
Corporate
America’s
to America’s
Most Broken
MostProcesses
Broken Processes– and How to Fix Them

Blame supervisor for
broken processes

Very clear

21%

Somewhat clear

26%

Not at all clear

32%© Nintex. All rights reserved.

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Unsurprisingly, unclear advancement-related processes send
workers out the door: 63 percent of employees who say processes
for advancement are not clearly defined are looking for new jobs.
By contrast, companies that clearly define a path for advancement
within one’s role have a much greater likelihood of retaining
employees past the elusive five-year mark.

The Link Between Defined Advancement
Processes and Supervisor Relations

Clarity of process

Employees who expect
to stay beyond 5 years

Very clearly defined46%

Somewhat clearly defined36%

Not very clearly defined22%

Not at all clearly defined

10%“

63% of employees who say processes
for advancement are not clearly
defined are looking for new jobs

Definitive Guide
Corporate
America’s
to America’s
Most Broken
MostProcesses
Broken Processes– and How to Fix Them

© Nintex. All rights reserved.

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Punching in and Phoning out: The Toll of Broken
Processes on Employee Productivity and Morale

A third of employees are currently looking for otherjobs. And it’s not just millennials who are looking to get
out the door: Gen X-ers – those between the ages of 36
to 51 – are almost as likely to be actively hunting.
The overwhelming number of active job-seekers (86 percent) say
their company’s broken processes are a factor behind their decision.
Compared to the overall survey group, active job-seekers are notably
more likely to point to specific processes as being broken, from IT (72percent vs. 58 percent) to onboarding (71 percent vs. 52 percent) toadministrative processes (70 percent vs. 44 percent).
Beyond fueling attrition, broken processes prevent employees fromfeeling they can grow in their roles. Over two-thirds of respondents
say their company’s broken processes prevent them from maximizing
their potential, with 25 percent strongly feeling that broken processes
preclude them from achieving their potential. Given these findings, it’s
not surprising that the majority of respondents – 53 percent – don’t
see themselves staying at their current company longer than five years.

Active Job Hunters, by Generation
36%

20%

35%

Millennials

Baby Boomers

Gen X

Definitive Guide to America’s Most Broken Processes© Nintex. All rights reserved.

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Repairing Broken Processes:
Four Top-Down Action Items

Technology can help eliminate broken corporate
processes, but this work can’t happen in silos
or overnight.
Broken processes are often deeply embedded in corporate culture,making them challenging to pinpoint and eliminate. Companies thatperpetuate these broken processes will face an inevitable sequenceof events: Employees will feel limited in their roles. The wi’ll actively
look for other jobs. And they will leave. Meanwhile, the company willcontinuously shell out money to recruit and onboard new hires, only
to have the cycle begin again.

Definitive Guide
Corporate
America’s
to America’s
Most Broken
MostProcesses
Broken Processes– and How to Fix Them

© Nintex. All rights reserved.

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That’s not a pretty picture. The good news: Employers can makesignificant strides toward stopping the cycle of attrition byproactively addressing broken processes. Based on our researchand expertise, we’ve identified four areas where companies can start:

Gender-Based
Differences
Regarding
Employees Who
are Looking
forAdministrative
Processes
New Jobs are More Likely to…

More closely tie IT to line of business workers
Only half of employees blame HR for onboarding issues andless than a third of respondents hold sales teams accountablefor broken sales processes. Yet when it comes to IT problems,roughly three-quarters of employees turn a critical eye to the IT
department. This finding suggests that workers perceive IT as its
own entity, separately accountable from the rest of the company
in a way that HR and sales are not.
To ameliorate problems like a lack of prompt IT service anddifficulties requesting new devices, companies need to firstclose the gap between IT and the rest of the business. This
begins by ensuring IT decision makers have a seat at the table
at high-level business discussions and are more connected toline of business employees.
To forge these connections, businesses must examine theirinternal workflows with an eye toward identifying and repairing
the sources of disconnect between IT and the rest of the business.
Workflow analytics tools can go a long way toward providing
companies with actionable data to better tie IT to the line ofbusiness. With clear lines of sight into automated processes
within the enterprise, everyone can see which workflows areworking well – and should be replicated and repeated in otherareas – and which ones need to be optimized for better results.

72% v. 58%
Feel IT processes are broken
Women are slightly more likely thanmen to think there are broken admin
processes in their organizations.
26% v. 14%
Say printing is broken

56%

51%

Of these employees:

71% v. 52%
Feel onboarding processes are broken
52% v. 41%
Report that raise negotiation processes are broken
70% v. 44%
Feel admin processes are broken
57% v. 48%
Report that promotion processes are broken
55% v. 40%
raise negotiations are broken
25% v.Say 17%
Report that processes for reporting unethical behavior are broken
59% v. 47%
17% v.Say 24%
promotion processes are broken
Comfort starting advancement conversations with supervisor
38% v. 6%
Be somewhat/very unhappy at work

Employees looking
for new jobs
Employees overall

Definitive Guide to America’s Most Broken Processes© Nintex. All rights reserved.

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Eliminate paper from the onboarding process
Company onboarding processes aren’t working, as 58 percent
of our survey respondents revealed. And there’s one common
denominator among some of the most frequently-identified
broken onboarding processes: Paper.
From onboarding paperwork to job performance documents
to healthcare enrollment forms, these are all processes in which
paper is partially to blame for wasted time and money. Whether
you’re a government department or a health technology
company, pursuing paperless processes has proven resultsin cutting costs and driving efficiency. 3

Identify processes that can be streamlined and automatedOne of the main reasons an internal process becomes broken isthat it’s handled manually – and manual handling quickly leads
to inconsistencies and confusion. Want a new computer? Catchyour IT person at the water cooler! Need to request a sick day? Just
put a sticky note on HR’s desk!
With many of the broken processes we highlighted, there
are opportunities for streamlining and automation to playtransformative roles. From automating simple processes like
submitting PTO requests to more sophisticated ones likedelineating a workflow for annual performance reviews, process
and content-centric automation tools can help drive businesses
toward more efficient, collaborative and optimized workflows.

3 https://www.nintex.com/resources/case-studies/abu-dhabi-case-study;
https://www.nintex.com/resources/case-studies/dms-health-technologies-operations-case-study

Definitive Guide
Corporate
America’s
to America’s
Most Broken
MostProcesses
Broken Processes– and How to Fix Them

© Nintex. All rights reserved.

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Clearly define a process for advancement
Without clearly defined processes for advancement, companies
can’t expect to have happy employees. Among employees
who say their company’s processes for advancement are“not very clearly” or “not at all clearly” defined, only 10 and 4
percent, respectively, rank themselves as “very happy” at work.
Comparatively, 61 percent of employees with clearly definedadvancement processes are very happy on the job. That stark
contrast speaks for itself.
To clearly define a process for advancement, companies mustevaluate and evolve the administrative processes that are tied
to career progress – namely, annual performance reviews,
promotions and raise negotiations. Without first fixing thesefunctions, enterprises will not be able to provide employees aclear path for growth and continued success.

Definitive Guide
Corporate
America’s
to America’s
Most Broken
MostProcesses
Broken Processes– and How to Fix Them

Millennials are More Likely to Feel Job
Growth-Related Processes are Broken

Promotion processes
are broken:

58%
of millennials
46%
of Baby Boomers

Raise negotiation
processes are broken:

51%
of millennials
39%of Baby Boomers© Nintex. All rights reserved.

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About Nintex
Nintex is the recognized global leader in workflow and content automation (WCA) with morethan 7,500 enterprise clients and 1,700 partners in 90 countries who have built and publishedmillions of workflow applications. With its unmatched breadth of capability and platform
support delivered by unique architectural capabilities, Nintex empowers the line of businessand IT departments to quickly automate hundreds of manual processes to progress on thejourney to digital transformation. Nintex Workflow Cloud®, the company’s cloud platform,
connects with all content repositories, systems of record, and people to consistently fuelsuccessful business outcomes. Visit www.nintex.com to learn more.

Definitive Guide to America’s Most Broken Processes© Nintex. All rights reserved.

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