For people spending most their working day on a computer, their typing speed has a direct impact on their productivity. The faster they type the more work gets done.
Let's explore what kind of productivity gain could be achieved by someone typing at 80 wpm v.s. someone hunting and pecking at 30 wpm.
Say Bill and Jacques work in the same company as support agents. They spend 8 hours a day on the computer answering customer questions.
Bill is a touch typer born and raised in the USA. Bill types at 80 wpm. Jacques, born and raised in Paris, France, never learned to type and his two-finger typing style makes him plateau at 30 wpm.
Jacques, the slow typer, answers 120 customer questions a day, i.e. one questions every 4 minutes. To answer a question, it takes 2 min and 30 sec of research for a solution then Jacques types it for 1 min and 30 sec in the computer.
How many more cases can Bill, the fast typer, answer per day?
- Bill types 80 wpm v.s. Jacques 30.
- Bill types 2.6 times faster than Bill: 80 wpm / 30 wpm = 2.6
- Bill takes 3'05” to answer one case v.s. 4 min for Jacques: 2'30 sec of research (constant) + 35 sec = 3'05” = 185 sec.
- Bill can process 155 cases per day v.s. 120 for Jacques: (8h*60*60)/(185sec)
- Bill answer 35 cases more than Jacques every day.