Over one third (35%) of UK employees are spending more than six hours a week on unnecessary admin, and two fifths (21%) are spending over a day. Losing nearly a day per week of productive employee time could be costing businesses up to £4.6bn in salaries alone, according to new analysis by Applaud, the UK’s leading employee experience platform.
The growing admin burden is also leading to significant employee discontent, with over a third (40%) saying they’re frustrated by it. According to employees, a significant amount of the admin comes from HR-related systems, with over a third (34%) saying these platforms cause them headaches. Over half (53%) rate their employers HR systems as average or below average.
Ivan Harding, CEO and Co-Founder of Applaud comments, “Technology is meant to make people’s working lives easier, but something’s gone wrong along the way. To find that employees are effectively wasting a day a week on unnecessary admin is staggering. Many are talking about the potential benefits of a four day week, and it seems a large chunk of the UK’s employees are already doing that in terms of productive time.”
Slick, well-functioning technology has grown in importance hugely for employees in recent years, with over half (57%) saying that having good technology is now a key factor in their choice of employer. Two fifths (39%) said they would actually turn down a new role if they found the employer had a poor technology setup.
Harding concludes, “It’s clear that implementing technology can have huge benefits to businesses. But technology can be a huge double-edged sword if it isn’t fit for purpose or the implementation and change process isn’t managed well. Businesses have a big challenge, but also a big opportunity here to step back and find out what is really supporting employees and what is holding them back. Tackling this admin overload should be a big priority particularly in these difficult financial times.”