Admin Tasks a Negative Effect on Productivity - Survey

Increasing office administrative tasks are having a negative impact on staff productivity, according to a new survey.

The survey, released by Canon Australia, revealed that 63 per cent of respondents thought administration tasks were making them less productive in their roles.

It also shows that more than half of the 1,005 people surveyed said that their current job had “too much” administration associated with it, with 39 per cent of people expecting it to increase further over the next year.

Canon Australia said that the administration tasks referred to in the survey include activities such as faxing, photocopying, scanning, filing, data entry, invoice processing and securing document approvals.

Canon Business Services assistant general manager, Jeremy Plint, said that administration serves a vital role in organisations, ensuring that they are compliant and can operate efficiently.

“However, as the research shows, many workers have seen an increase in administration in their roles and it is taking them away from the core functions of their job,” Plint said.

The survey results also revealed that while 49 per cent of respondents put the increase down to the nature of their role being manual and time-consuming, 27 per cent associated it with increased regulation within the business to keep hold of documents.

A further 23 per cent said they have seen an increase in the number of processes implemented by their workplace, which is adding to these administration tasks.

When asked what they think can be done to help deal with the growth of administration, 35 per cent of respondents said they would like to see better use of technology to automate these jobs while 27 per cent said that they want to employ better processes within the business to manage this.

Plint said that businesses need to better understand their current processes, requirements adn painpoints in order to boost productivity.

“Identifying those that can be automated through smart technology implementations and effective workflows,” he said.

“This will help to alleviate employees of excessive administrative tasks, and focus on the work that matters to them to make more efficient use of their time.”