UK businesses losing 13bn a year to wasted managers' time - YouGov

"British businesses are wasting more than £13 billion a year in lost productivity as middle managers spend weeks dealing with avoidable, low-value work, according to new research by YouGov. The findings - published in the fifth annual Feedback from the Field report by workplace operations platform SafetyCulture - reveal that middle managers lose an average of 7.3 weeks a year to unnecessary or repetitive tasks, including unproductive meetings, email overload, and correcting others' mistakes. The cost of that inefficiency is staggering: when managers' wages are combined with the scale of the UK's frontline workforce, the total wasted time amounts to £13.2 billion annually, the report estimates."

"Middle managers are the backbone of operational success, yet too often they're held back by inefficiencies and admin overload. When equipped with the right tools and visibility, they can be the catalysts for real, sustainable improvement. The reality is they're one of the most underused sources of insight in any business. They're close enough to see where things break down and experienced enough to understand how those issues hit the bottom line."

"Nearly nine in ten managers (88%) said they had ideas to improve their organisation, but fewer than half (43%) said their ideas were ever implemented. More than a third (37%) blamed senior leadership for being "unreceptive" to suggestions from below."

British middle managers spend an average of 7.3 weeks per year on avoidable, low-value tasks such as unproductive meetings, email overload, and correcting others' mistakes. That lost managerial time, multiplied across the UK's frontline workforce, equates to roughly £13.2 billion of annual productivity loss. Manufacturing is most affected, followed by retail, construction, transport and logistics, and hospitality. Around 88% of managers report ideas to improve operations, but fewer than half see implementation and over a third view senior leadership as unreceptive. Improved tools and visibility could redirect management effort toward operational improvements.

Read at Business Matters