Member Article

Managers spend over two months a year on activities unrelated to their core role

Managers in UK mid-market organisations are wasting over a fifth of the year on non-core activities, according to new research from The Access Group, one of the UK’s leading providers of business software. With mid-market businesses employing two thirds of the UK’s private sector workers, according to an ONS survey*, it reveals a growing productivity crisis in the engine room of the UK economy.

While managers are increasingly spending time on non-core tasks, the picture is only marginally less serious for employees as a whole, with 16% of their time also being spent on tasks not central to their role. The research reveals that mid-market organisations are suffering more as the productivity challenge increases as businesses grow. For example, small business employees are spending an average of 26 days a year on non-core tasks; this jumps up the bigger the business, as growing mid-market organisations (with between 300-500 employees) spend nearly twice as much time on unproductive tasks, at 43 days a year.

The fact that productivity challenges expand as businesses grow appears to be a symptom of the growing complexity in teams and the need to share more information within and between them. As mid-market businesses grow, they’re more likely to request data more frequently (62%, versus the average 53%), for example daily as opposed to weekly. The problem is that just a third (35%) of mid-market employees said they have access to the information they need from a shared folder or system, with nearly half (47%) instead having to request the documents and information they need from others.

While technology should provide a solution to this challenge, proliferating systems in growing businesses appear to be contributing to the problem. Over two thirds (65%) of mid-market firms are using more than five software systems, and a fifth (20%) are using over ten. The majority of software systems (3 out of 4) used by mid-sized organisations are on separate platforms, and 30% aren’t integrated at all, meaning information is not easily shared.

Chris Marjara, CMO, The Access Group commented: “Mid-market organisations are the engine room of the UK economy, responsible for nearly two thirds of private sector employment. But with scale comes complexity, and productivity appears to be suffering as organisations expand. In fact, across the board decision makers at these mid-market organisations are recognising the problem, with 94% saying they ‘need to improve productivity’.

“It’s evident Britain needs a new way of thinking about productivity. This means casting aside siloed initiatives, and adopting a more holistic, people plus technology approach. Businesses must solve current problems and empower workers with integrated, intelligent solutions that give them the freedom to do more of the work that creates value – whether that’s spending more time in the classroom in education, creating greater emphasis on patient care in health, or increased output in manufacturing”.

*ONS survey: Small and medium-size enterprises (SME) count, employment and turnover 2010-2017: According to the Office for National Statistics, in the private sector, mid-market companies employ 60% of the British workforce.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Access Group .