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SMEs spend over an hour on admin each week
B reathe , a HR software provider for SMEs , has announced the findings of its survey into the business impact of time spent on administrative tasks . The research polled 375 Senior Decision Makers ( SDMs ) at UK SMEs and found that , on average , an hour ( 62 minutes ) is spent on admin each week .
This equates to more than seven working days every year , meaning lost productivity costs £ 19 billion per year and time wasted on admin is negatively impacting company culture and the wellbeing of teams .
The research found that despite it taking up a significant chunk of time for all SMEs , only 45 % are using technology to manage their admin . Three in ten ( 31 %) medium businesses don ’ t use software to streamline their admin at all , despite dedicating an hour a week to it . For those who don ’ t use software , two thirds ( 65 %) claim it ’ s because they don ’ t see a need for such technology .
A quarter ( 23 %) found that day-today tasks have become more difficult working from home and admin associated with ongoing training and development was also hard to keep up with for 21 % of respondents . Yet , with the ONS finding an exacerbated mental health crisis in the UK due to the pandemic , businesses need to shift their focus away from admin and onto supporting their people more effectively .
With a real time crunch due to time spent on admin , only half of SMEs ( 53 %) introduced new measures to support their team ’ s wellbeing during the pandemic .
Using technology to streamline employee admin gives employers more time to spend evaluating their wellbeing strategies and creating support systems . Time otherwise spent wading through paperwork can be redirected to help those struggling with their mental health .
Other key findings include :
• Small businesses spent the most time focusing on admin ( 80 minutes ) each week while micro businesses spent nearly an hour ( 49 minutes )
• A total of 24 % reported that it was much harder to stay on top of holiday and sick leave while working from home
• Two in five ( 39 %) reported that providing support in regard to health and wellbeing was a major difficulty during the pandemic
• Only 16 % would rather spend that time focusing on employee culture while 38 % wanted to focus time spent on admin on employee development �
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