An invisible force is grinding productivity to a halt in organisations everywhere. It’s not a lack of talent or a flawed strategy. It’s the cumulative weight of needless obstacles, tangled processes, and communication gaps that keep people from doing their most valuable work.

This is ‘workplace friction,’ and our latest research* reveals its scale: 93% of UK employees have experienced at least one significant friction factor at work. While business conversations are dominated by the downstream effects – burnout, disengagement, and turnover -leaders often miss the root causes of these issues.

To build a truly resilient, high-performing business, it’s time to look past the symptoms and attack the source. That means confronting friction head-on by understanding where it thrives most, starting at the very top.

The executive paradox

Conventional wisdom holds that the further down the org chart you go, the more you feel the pain of a given problem. But our research reveals that’s not the case for organisational friction. In reality, executives across the board report experiencing higher levels of friction than managers or individual workers.

This overload and overwhelm at the top limits leaders’ ability to recognise and respond to friction as a broader organisational challenge. The result is a critical blind spot. When leaders are overwhelmed, they can misdiagnose the problems their people are facing. For instance, 77% of executives believe their employees are resistant to change, but only 55% of workers feel the same. What leaders perceive as resistance is often just exhaustion from navigating a system that’s already too difficult. To clear the fog across the organisation, leaders must first acknowledge the friction clouding their own view.

Winning the technology battle

Technology should be the great friction-reducer. Instead, for many organisations, it has become a primary source of frustration. Our research found that a staggering 71% of UK employees believe their organisation uses too many technology platforms. This isn’t just an annoyance; it’s “tech bloat” that forces people to toggle between systems and navigate clunky integrations.

But the problem runs deeper than just quantity: half (50%) of employees report being hampered by outdated technology. Even when new tools are introduced, they often make things worse, as 64% of respondents agree that new technologies frequently decrease efficiency rather than improve it. This is a clear sign that current strategies are failing.

The goal isn’t to acquire more tools; it’s to choose the right ones and ensure they’re used effectively. Businesses must conduct a thorough audit of their tech stack and listen to what employees actually need. Ultimately, a unified, intuitive system can reduce complexity and free your people to focus on high-value work, not on fighting against tools.

 Moving beyond “change management” to “change leadership” 

In an era of constant transformation, the old, top-down models of “change management” are broken. They treat change as a finite project to be managed, not an ongoing reality to be led. The result is a workforce left confused and disconnected. A meagre 36% of respondents believe their organisation is good at rolling out new initiatives.

The core of this failure is a communication chasm. While 88% of executives rate their organisation’s communication about change as “good” or “very good,” only 46% of workers agree. Leaders think they’re being clear, but the message isn’t landing. It’s time to move from managing change to leading through it. This requires a modern approach built on radical transparency, two-way dialogue, and a single source of truth that’s accessible to everyone – not just those with a corporate email address. It’s an approach that builds the trust and resilience needed for the entire business to adapt together.

Creating clear career paths

What happens when an employee sees no path forward? They get stuck, and the business loses out on their full potential. This is a significant source of friction, with more than half (53%) of UK employees stating they could add more value to their organisation in a different role.

Often the problem is that people are trapped. The issue is systemic: our research shows that nearly one in five (19%) UK employers offers no formal internal career opportunities whatsoever, including neither job rotations nor mentorships. It’s little surprise that only 44% of employees report having a structured process for upskilling or reskilling at work.

This presents a missed opportunity. Businesses can unlock this latent potential by using technology to turn career plateaus into launchpads for growth, by mapping skills, illuminating pathways, and empowering employees to take control of their careers. This doesn’t just help retain top talent; it builds the agile, adaptable workforce required for the future.

The war on friction is not a campaign to be won, but a new operational standard to be set. As the pace of change accelerates, the divide will widen between organisations that allow complexity to fester and those that relentlessly clear the path for their people. The future belongs to those businesses which treat the reduction of friction not as a project, but as a core strategic principle, creating an environment where agility, innovation, and human potential are fully unleashed.

*Dayforce research