The Hidden Cost of App Switching at Work

Reducing the "Toggling Tax" in Digital Work Environments

How often do you switch between applications throughout your workday? For digital workers, this constant toggling has become second nature—pressing Alt-Tab is as habitual as breathing.

The proliferation of applications is a key factor behind this phenomenon. As business requirements evolve, new applications are introduced, and retiring old ones becomes a challenge for CIOs and managers. This results in a growing number of applications within organizations. Large companies may have thousands, while even smaller businesses can have dozens or hundreds. Consequently, employees spend significant time switching between these applications.

Consider a Fortune 500 consumer goods company we studied. Employees involved in a single supply-chain transaction switched about 350 times between 22 different applications and websites. This meant each employee toggled between apps and windows more than 3,600 times daily.

This frequent toggling is often accepted as the norm, despite its toll on time, effort, and focus. In our increasingly digital and remote work environments, these trends are likely to continue or worsen. Companies should recognize the hidden costs of this work style and explore more efficient alternatives.

Understanding the Toggling Tax

Switching between applications involves more than just pressing keys. Each switch requires users to reorient themselves to the new application's context and purpose, which takes time. For example, moving from an email to a spreadsheet necessitates adjusting to different interfaces and functionalities before resuming the task.

This readjustment, known as "context switching," is cognitively demanding. Studies in psychology and neuroscience reveal that excessive toggling increases cortisol (the stress hormone) production, slows us down, and hampers focus.

The research aimed to quantify the wasted time and energy from these moments. Using a work graph—a tool that maps how teams interact with applications—we measured the cognitive cost of switching. They studied 20 teams (137 users) across three Fortune 500 companies over five weeks, collecting data for 3,200 workdays. These teams, primarily in mid- or back-office roles, frequently toggled between apps. We found that each switch took just over two seconds on average, and users toggled nearly 1,200 times daily. This equates to almost four hours a week reorienting themselves after toggling, adding up to five work weeks, or 9% of their annual work time.

Assessing the Impact on Business

Is this a necessary cost of digital work, or is it a problem that needs addressing? We analyzed how employees worked and the time spent between toggles. After 65% of switches, users toggled again within 11 seconds, indicating that the time spent on applications is not much greater than the cost of switching. This constant refocusing fragments attention and depletes users, primarily due to poor work design and an excess of applications.

Employees often find no alternative to constantly switching between documents, websites, and apps. Most enterprise applications aren't designed to integrate seamlessly, leading to "swivel chair" roles where employees manually transfer data between systems. This pattern is ubiquitous across industries and organization sizes. However, managers and leaders can take steps to improve this situation.

Strategies for Managers

While not all toggles can be eliminated, there are steps managers can take:

1. Address the Root Cause: Instead of hiring more people to manage fragmented applications, focus on fixing the underlying issue. Fragmented IT applications lead to a poor work experience and reduced productivity.
   
   

2. Improve Work Design: Identify teams with high toggling rates and streamline their work by reducing the number of applications they use.
   
   

3. Rebalance Workloads: Employees frequently switching between applications are prone to boredom and distraction, increasing the risk of attrition. Distribute such tasks more evenly across the team.

Strategies for Leaders

C-suite executives have the authority to drive broader changes:

1. Rationalize Application Introduction: Involve hands-on users in every stage of software development to ensure new applications meet actual needs. For instance, a retail pharmacy chain replaced a mainframe system with a web-based one, only to find pharmacists preferred the mainframe for its speed and reliability.
   
   

2. Prioritize User Experience: Design applications to minimize toggling and digital distractions. User Centricity (UC) and User Experience (UX) teams should lead this process, considering a wide range of user personas.
   
   

3. Invest in Work Graphs: Similar to how consumer brands track customer interactions, companies should map employee journeys to identify and resolve digital workflow issues. Regular updates based on these insights can significantly improve work efficiency.

N.R. Narayana Murthy, founder of Infosys, emphasized the importance of retaining valuable employees: "Our assets walk out of the door each evening. We have to make sure that they come back the next morning."

In an era of high attrition, improving the employee experience is crucial. The toggling tax highlights the need for empathy and data-driven solutions to enhance how people work. By addressing these issues, companies can ensure their most valuable assets remain engaged and productive.