European business leaders recognize that administrative tasks and manual processes expose companies to unnecessary risks, but few take action to change the situation. In fact, employees say this overload continues to distract them from work that truly generates value. These are some of the conclusions of a new report carried out by Ricoh in six European countries: Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Italy.
Tasks outside their main function
In these six markets, employees and decision makers agree that too much time is spent on low-value tasks. Regarding data from Spain, one in five decision makers (19%) consider that their employees spend the majority of their working day on administrative tasks outside their main job, a view reinforced by an even larger proportion of employees (29%), who think the same.
According to the study, in Spain employees dedicate an average of about 16 hours a week to five administrative tasks, which is equivalent to almost two working days lost in routine tasks such as document management and manual processes. It is especially worrying that only 43% of employees say they dedicate most of their days to tasks that generate real value for the organization.
The consequences go beyond loss of productivity. Inefficient document management exposes organizations to operational and compliance risks. More than half of decision makers (61%) and 51% of office workers have witnessed serious errors, or the potential to make them, due to outdated or incorrect information caused by inefficient systems or processes in the last five years. In the same period, 67% of decision makers say their organization has experienced or has been close to experiencing a data or compliance breach related to poor document management that directly affects employees’ daily work.
The five administrative tasks that frustrate the most daily
Spanish employees say they face a number of daily, avoidable management frustrations that quietly undermine productivity, such as having to re-enter the same information into multiple systems (30%), managing overflowing email inboxes (29%), searching for files on multiple systems or shared drives (32%), and updating reports manually (27%). All of these issues negatively impact employee time, efficiency, and motivation.
The consequences are serious. A quarter of employees (25%) say their administrative burden limits their productivity and 20% believe it also limits their creativity. In addition, employees are clear about what a reduction in this burden would mean: greater enjoyment of work thanks to more creative tasks (28%), greater contribution of value (28%), as well as improvements in their ability to make stronger strategic decisions (25%), solve more customer problems (21%) and speed up project delivery (21%).
Lack of action
Despite the impact, many employees feel that the problem is not fully recognized. 27% of respondents say that decision makers underestimate the time employees waste on administrative tasks, 18% believe that the administrative burden is distributed unfairly and, perhaps most worryingly, only 24% believe that their employer really cares about their employees’ administrative burden. However, 62% of decision makers believe that new tools and systems have simplified workflows and reduced administrative burden, and more than half (53%)(2) believe that automation tools that eliminate repetitive manual tasks would have the greatest positive impact for both the organization and employees.
Spanish employees say they face a series of daily and avoidable frustrations with management
Josep Costa, head of Automation solutions at Ricoh Spain, states: “Spain and Europe do not have a problem with talent or commitment, but with how people’s time is used. When qualified employees dedicate two days a week to repetitive administrative tasks, not only is productivity lost: innovation is slowed, decision-making is weakened and operational risks increase. Automation is no longer a question of efficiency, but of competitiveness and resilience. Organizations that act now will unleash the true potential of their employees and will be better prepared to grow in a solid and sustainable way.”
Based on the results of the Ricoh report, administrative overload continues to reappear in different forms because little is changing. These tasks continue to be a huge waste of time for employees. “Businesses must act. The benefits are too significant to ignore, from improving employee well-being to boosting productivity and freeing up time for people to focus on value-added work that drives growth. And beyond productivity, effective automation strengthens governance and reduces the risk of non-compliance by ensuring that information is managed consistently and accurately. Something as simple as automating document management should be an easy win,” concludes Costa.
