Firms waste billions on unnecessary tasks

Voters hear a lot about waste during an election campaign when politicians are goading their opposite numbers.

But new research shows that businesses are just as bad with an estimated $56 billion per year lost through unnecessary administrative tasks across Australia and New Zealand.

New research by international workforce management provider Kronos found employees across both countries are overburdened with non-essential tasks that are impacting on productivity and creating losses of $3900 per year, per employee.

Peter Harte, Kronos managing director for the region, said this should be a wake-up call for organisations to make the changes necessary to unburden their workforce from outdated systems and unnecessary complexity.

"It's time to start conversations on what changes are required to drive improve productivity in order to deliver profitability and growth," he said.

He said clawing back just one hour of time wasted on non-essential tasks each week could save organisations billions of dollars.