Leaders recognise admin overload, but UK employees still losing 15 hours a week to admin

• Nearly a third (31%) of UK office workers still report spending most of their average workday on admin outside of their core job
• UK employees report spending an average of 15 hours a week on five core admin tasks measured

London, 10 December 2025 - New research from Ricoh Europe reveals a widening disconnect in UK organisations. Leaders acknowledge that admin is draining productivity and admit manual processes expose businesses to unnecessary risk. But too few are taking action, as employees say the burden continues to pull them away from value-driving work.

UK employees and decision makers say that too much time is being taken up by low-value tasks. They share similar views on admin load, with 31% of each group saying that most of workers' average workday is spent on admin outside of their core job. In fact, employees report spending an average of around 15 hours a week¹ on the five core admin tasks measured – the equivalent of nearly two full working days lost to routine tasks including document management and manual processes like timesheets. Worryingly, only half (51%) of office workers say they spend most of their day on value-driving work.

The consequences extend beyond lost productivity. Inefficient document management is exposing UK organisations to compliance and operational risk. Four in five decision makers (80%) and 55% of office workers have seen someone make or nearly make a serious mistake because of outdated or incorrect information caused by inefficient systems or processes in the last five years. In the same time period, over three quarters (78%) of decision makers say their organisation has experienced or narrowly avoided a data or compliance breach linked to mismanaged or missing documents.

Daily frustrations compounding the problem

UK employees report facing a series of daily, avoidable frustrations with admin that quietly erode productivity, including re-entering the same information across multiple systems (39%), managing crowded inboxes (36%), searching for files across multiple systems or shared drives (32%), and manually updating reports (27%). These issues collectively drain time and morale.

The fallout is stark. Nearly a quarter (24%) say their admin burden is limiting their productivity and 19% say it limits creativity. Employees are clear on what reduced admin could unlock, including greater enjoyment of work through more creative tasks (31%), more value delivered (29%), as well as improvements in their ability to make stronger strategic decisions (27%), solve more customer/client issues (23%) and deliver projects faster (22%). 

An ongoing disconnect and lack of action 

Despite the impact, many employees in the UK feel the problem is not fully recognised. Over a quarter (27%) of office workers say decision makers underestimate how much time is lost to admin, only 21% feel admin workloads are fairly distributed and perhaps more worryingly, only a fifth (20%) believe their employer cares about their admin burden. Yet 66% of decision makers say new tools and systems have simplified workflows and reduced admin burdens in their organisation, and nearly half (44%)² believe automation tools that remove repetitive, manual tasks would have the biggest impact on their organisation. 

Chris Hopton, CEO of Ricoh UK and Northern Europe, said: “UK businesses are under more pressure than ever to do more with less, and the organisations thriving today are the ones embracing smarter, streamlined ways of working. When teams are freed from repetitive, manual tasks, they gain the space to focus on the creativity, problem-solving and customer relationships that power real productivity.”

“Process automation isn’t about replacing people; it’s about removing the barriers that hold them back. The companies leaning into automation now are building the agility and resilience they’ll need for long-term success.”

Learn more about Ricoh’s Managed Document Services here. 

Methodology 

Surveying 1,800 employees (aged 23+) who are purchasing decision makers, working in; HR, Finance or Facilities (equal split between those 3 departments; natural fallout company size & sector) across the UK, France, Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, Germany. (300 respondents respectively) in field 10.11.2025 - 17.11.2025. In addition, 6000 Office workers across the UK, Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, 11.11.2025 - 17.11.2025. The research was conducted by Opinion Matters. Opinion Matters abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society and follows the MRS code of conduct and ESOMAR principles. Opinion Matters is also a member of the British Polling Council.

[1] Overall figures are based on the unweighted mean daily time spent on five measured admin tasks (document and file management, manual company processes, chasing approvals, locating information and inbox management) in the UK. As tasks may occur concurrently, estimates assume these tasks are carried out sequentially and relate only to the tasks measured in this study.

[2] 44% of respondents selected ‘Automation tools to remove repetitive, manual tasks (e.g. invoices, expenses) and free up employees for higher-value work’ as one of the technology improvements that would have the biggest impact on their organisation’s business growth and employee productivity. From a list including: Automation tools to remove repetitive, manual tasks (e.g. invoices, expenses) and free up employees for higher-value work, AI-based intelligent document management to extract data from complex, unstructured documents (e.g. handwritten notes or images), Smarter, more integrated systems to eliminate duplication and speed up collaboration, Access to real-time data and insights to enable quicker, more informed decision making, Faster IT support to minimise downtime and disruption, and Tools that reduce approval bottlenecks and accelerate time-to-market.