Underutilized Employees at Work: Signs & Win-Win Solutions

Here’s a workplace mystery you can 100% solve: Jack’s calendar is full, and so is his coffee mug, but somehow, his soul is… Hollowed out. Turns out, Jack is underutilized at work: he shows up, does the work, shuts down, and then silently screams in fluent boredom.

And the signs of underutilized employees are everywhere: endless back-to-back meetings, task stretching, finishing tasks early, then volunteering for random assignments, etc.

Productivity slows, morale dips and the office plant has more engagement than your team.

But hey—it happens to the best of us.

We’re not here to judge you but to offer you solutions.

One of those is Memtime. It’s like a digital time detective, silently tracking where your employees’ hours go or vanish. With Memtime, you can finally see who’s overworked, who’s bored and who’s perfect for that new project.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Grab a donut or a croissant (‘cause this will be a fun article), and let’s discuss sneaky signs your team is underused and how you can fix it without burdening all those bright minds you hired in the first place.

Let’s roll.

What is employee utilization?

Employee utilization shows how effectively an employee’s working hours are spent on productive, value-adding tasks. It’s usually measured as a percentage of employees’ total available time.

Simply put, it’s a metric that shows how busy your employees are. But you don’t want them to be busy; you want them to be busy doing the right things.

Why it matters

Well, technically speaking, the higher the utilization, the greater the efficiency, improved profitability, and a stronger ROI in your talent.

Low utilization can signal gaps between employee skills and assigned tasks, unclear role definitions, or improper workload distribution. Over time, this can lead to work stagnation, poor engagement, and higher turnover.

So, is it safe to say that the goal is to have consistently high utilization rates?

Not quite.

High utilization can be a red flag. If someone’s at 100% utilization all the time, they’re one task away from burning out. Plus, all those 90% industry-standard utilization rates are rigged, as they are based on inaccurate data.

Similarly, low utilization doesn’t mean laziness; it hides misalignment. You might have brilliant minds working on projects that don’t go well with their skills, challenge their potential, or move the business forward. So, you’re not just wasting their time but their talent.

Employee utilization is about finding the sweet spot, where people are engaged, challenged, and working at a sustainable pace.

What causes underutilization?

Underutilization doesn’t always look like doing nothing. More often, it looks like employees are doing less than they’re capable of.

It affects morale, retention, and the health of your business. By understanding the root causes, you can create a work culture where every employee feels seen and valued and can contribute at their highest level.

Here are a few common causes that lower employee productivity and engagement:

1. Employees don’t fit their roles. When there’s a mismatch between an employee’s skills and their current role, when someone is overqualified or not challenged by their tasks, they’ll feel unmotivated and not invested in the work.
2. There’s inefficient work allocation. If tasks are unevenly distributed across your team, with some team members overloaded and others left waiting for their next tasks, it leads to wasted potential and (understandably!) growing frustration.
3. There’s no visibility into how time is spent. When there’s no time tracking, gaps in work can go unnoticed. You can assume your team is fully utilized when in reality, some employees work only on low-impact tasks that don’t align with their strengths.
4. You’re micromanaging your team. Overly rigid work structures or micromanagement can destroy initiative and prevent people from stepping into more strategic roles.
5. Your employees are stuck in a meeting loophole. A calendar full of meetings can give the illusion of a busy schedule, but not all meetings are productive. When employees spend more time talking about work than actually doing it, they don’t have time to focus on their core responsibilities.
6. There are limited growth opportunities. If your employees don’t have opportunities for skill development or to grow, they will stagnate. Not because they’re unwilling to do the work but because there’s nowhere to go. 🤷

Signs of underutilized employees

Truth be told, underutilization can be tricky to spot.

Your employees can show up to meetings, hit deadlines, and go through the motions but underneath the surface, they are desperately trying to reach their full potential and failing.

Here are some common signs you should watch for:

• Some employees get consistently light workloads. If an employee rarely asks for support or finishes work far ahead of schedule, it could be a sign that their workload isn’t aligned with their capabilities.
• There’s a lack of initiative or engagement. Underutilized employees never go above and beyond. They contribute less in meetings, offer fewer ideas, or seem disinterested in projects. They are not apathetic per se; it’s just that their work doesn’t challenge them enough.
• Employees are available all the time. If someone is immediately replying to emails, takes on extra tasks, or is never too busy to chat, it’s a red flag.
• Your employees are visibly bored. When there’s no energy, enthusiasm, or team participation, it can be an indicator that someone feels disconnected from their work.
• Employees don’t wish to take on new responsibilities or grow their role. Stability can be good, as it’s comfortable, but periods without challenge or growth can lead to boredom and stagnation.

What to do about underutilization at work?

As mentioned before, underutilization isn’t always obvious, but the good news is that it’s fixable. 

If you take a proactive, strategic approach, you can help employees reach their hidden potential and boost team morale in the process.

Here are 5 practical, win-win solutions to mitigate underutilization.

#1 Track time transparently

For this purpose, choose Memtime.

Not because it’s our tool but because it’s private. Our app empowers your employees and helps them understand where their time is going.

Introducing Memtime to your team practically can’t backfire because our app automatically tracks time spent across tasks, tools, and documents, giving your team a data-backed view of how their work hours are actually being used.

Memtime isn’t about surveillance or monitoring but about clarity without judgment.

All you need to do is turn on your computer and start working on tasks, and Memtime will capture them all for you.

No screenshots. No Start/Stop timers required. Just an automatic time tracking app that runs quietly in the background, capturing user activity and automatically recording time spent on different apps. 

Once all your activity is captured, you can review and log it as time entries.

Here are key Memtime features that make our tool stand out:

• Memtime tracks your activity, displaying the program name, details, and the time you spent using it.
• It arranges your captured activities in a chronological timeline, the Memory Aid. You can zoom in and out and see your work in 1–60 minute intervals.

• You decide which activities to log as time entries and assign them to projects and tasks in your project management software.
• Memtime integrates with 100+ tools, providing a two-way sync: you can import projects (and tasks) into Memtime and then export time entries back to those projects and software.
• Your time tracking data is visible only to you and stored locally offline on your computer. No one else has access to it.
• Memtime is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

And what does Memtime get you, the manager?

Well, you don’t have to rely on guesswork anymore; you’ll be able to spot patterns and see who's overloaded, who's underbooked, and where low-impact tasks are draining time. You’ll be able to redistribute workloads and ensure employees are engaged in the work that matters most.

You can create a Memtime account in less than 10 seconds so you can download and install the app. Just click the button below to get started.

If you want to get access to Memtime’s full potential, you should use it across teams. Our team can walk you through everything Memtime has to offer and show you how to introduce time tracking when you suspect your team might be underutilized so you can get strong adoption from the start.

#2 Ensure roles are aligned with strengths

People thrive when their work reflects what they’re naturally good at and what they enjoy. When they don’t enjoy the role, they’ll feel disengaged or underutilized. That’s why it’s essential you align roles with your employees’ strengths and interests.

Here’s how you can do it:

• Have 1:1s regularly to ask team members what kind of work they feel confident doing and where they’d like to grow.
• For each team member, look for tasks that are completed with ease, energy, and high quality; such tasks are often tied to someone’s strengths (Memtime can help you spot these tasks 😉).
• Think about whether your team members are doing work that aligns with their abilities and interests or if there are mismatches causing frustration.
• Create opportunities for your team to grow by offering new projects that align with their aspirations. Doing this move will improve team engagement and boost their skills at the same time.

#3 Distribute work more effectively

Underutilization suggests someone isn’t busy, but it can also mean work isn’t distributed properly, so it doesn’t make the most of your team’s time and talent.

Some team members may be buried in tasks while others are left waiting for the next project. The key is to create visibility into who’s doing what, so you can distribute work more effectively.

Here’s how to balance workloads:

• Use a time tracking tool like Memtime. Since Memtime automatically records how a user’s time is spent across apps and tasks, you can get real-time insight into where your team’s energy is going so you can spot underused capacity.
• Make progress more transparent. Use project management tools like Asana, ClickUp, or Jira (that integrate with Memtime) to track projects and tasks.
• Have regular check-ins. Schedule weekly syncs or 10-minute capacity check-ins to discuss workload imbalances (before they cause delays and stress).
• Be flexible when distributing tasks. Adjust roles and assignments as needed based on current workload and team member strengths.

#4 Encourage open communication

You will not resolve underutilization if your team is silent and won’t speak up when they’re feeling unchallenged, overlooked, or unsure about their workload. It’s your job to create an environment where open, honest dialogue is welcome and expected.

Here’s how you can do so:

• Don’t wait for team members to bring up concerns, ask them things like: Do you feel challenged in your role? Is there work you’d like to be doing more of?
• Encourage feedback in both directions and have regular conversations about what’s working and what isn’t.
• Make it clear that speaking up won’t be seen as complaining or weakness; it’s a sign of engagement and accountability.
• If someone opens up about being underused or disengaged, take it seriously; reassign a project or offer them a new challenge.

#5 Eliminate low-value work

Dozens of weekly meetings, repetitive admin tasks, and scattered to-do lists all take up hours of your team’s time without contributing much to real progress. When employees are bogged down in low-value work, it’s no wonder they feel underutilized (even if their calendars seem full). 

Your job? Identify and eliminate low-value tasks to free up space for projects and tasks that matter. Here’s how you can do so:

• Question every recurring meeting. Does it have a clear purpose? Could it be shortened or replaced with an email update?
• Look for ways to streamline processes and give your team autonomy to find ways to streamline their work days.
• Empower employees to decline unnecessary meeting invites and suggest they block focused time (or try time chunking) for deep work.

Wrapping up

Yes, underutilization is sneaky. It can hide behind polite nods in meetings, completed tasks, and clean inboxes. But now you’ve got the clues, the tools (cough, Memtime!), and solutions to reduce it.

So, go ahead, one step at a time, and apply all the tips from our list. You’ll get better engagement and smarter workload distribution. And if you need a sidekick, Memtime is just a download away. 🙂