How much are organisations losing from unnecessary tasks?

Organisations are losing an average of $15,138.03 per employee annually due to unnecessary tasks, according to a new report from Wrike.

Wrike's 2024 Impactful Work Report found that employees are spending 11.24 hours or 30% of their work week on unnecessary work.

The biggest time waster? Finding information from multiple systems because it isn’t all accessible through a single interface (2.4 hours)

Also a problem are:

• Having to find and send information to other people they work with because it isn't easily accessible to them (1.4 hours)
• Chasing other people they work with for status updates, approvals, etc. (1.5 hours)
• Doing work only to find actions weren't recorded correctly, so it isn't what should have been done (1.1 hours)
• Repeating work they've already done because the original work was lost (1 hour)
• Doing work only to find out someone else has also done the same thing, so they've duplicated one another's actions (1 hour)
• Repeating work they've already done because they can't demonstrate to superiors that it's been done (0.9 hour)

According to Wrike, the "whopping" $15,138.03 figure does not even account for low-impact work, or tasks that are necessary to complete but do not directly impact goals.

These kinds of tasks make up 46% of the tasks performed by employees across organisations, consuming 18.4 hours of work per week, the report found.

But the problem also extends to business decision-makers.

According to Wrike, only 57% of business decision-makers' work is considered high-impact. The remaining time is spent on low-impact activities, such as:

• Attending meetings, whether in person or over the phone or video
• Telling people they now have to complete an action and/or finding out whether they themselves need to complete an action
• Providing status updates to teams/individuals

Wrike has calculated that this equates to $7,016.82 in lost productivity per business leader each year, excluding the time spent setting up projects.

Paradox of increased workloads

The monetary costs of unnecessary tasks come as Wrike's report uncovers a paradox within the workplace: increased workloads are not translating to higher productivity.

The report, which surveyed 1,000 business leaders and 2,500 knowledge workers across various regions, highlights growing dissatisfaction as employees face escalating demands but less impactful results.

Knowledge workers reported a 31% increase in their workload over the past year, while business leaders saw an even larger increase of 46% for their teams.

Despite these growing demands, only 54% of work completed by knowledge workers is considered high-impact.

"So, knowledge workers are doing more, but they are achieving less as things stand. Despite good intentions, increasing the number of applications knowledge workers use on a daily basis has added to workloads instead of reducing them," the report read.

Efficiency measures, including the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, have been implemented across many organisations in recent years. However, Wrike's findings suggest these measures have not yet reached their full potential.

Business leaders believe AI assists with 32% of their workload, but knowledge workers report a much lower figure of 14%.

Source: Wrike's 2024 Impactful Work Report

According to Wrike, its findings underscore the need for businesses to align on goals, eliminate unnecessary work, automate low-impact work, and prioritise high-impact initiatives.

"Our research shows that businesses are at a critical juncture," said Thomas Scott, CEO of Wrike, in a statement.

"Organisations that take decisive action to prioritise impactful work, consolidate tools, and embrace automation will not only see increased efficiency but also happier, more engaged employees."