By embracing professional services automation solutions, business owners can cut down on time-consuming administrative tasks and maximize their employees’ time.
The high cost of administrative tasks
It’s no secret that staff members spend a great deal of time on administrative duties: filling out spreadsheets, scheduling meetings and submitting invoices. The total amount of time employees dedicate each day to such jobs is fairly eye-popping, though. According to a 2016 Time Etc. survey of more than 1,000 U.S. employees, nearly 50 percent of the respondents stated that they spent as much as half of their workday just scheduling calls and meetings. Meanwhile, more than 90 percent of the survey participants reported spending only a quarter of each day tackling more creative and engaging business problems.
Other studies have come to similar conclusions. For instance, a 2015 survey conducted by Harris Poll discovered that, on average, employees only spent 46 percent of the workweek handling core job responsibilities. The rest of their time was devoted to meetings, administrative tasks, managing emails and other jobs.
The total cost to business productivity represented here is substantial. A 2017 study jointly published by Kronos Incorporated and Coleman Parkes Research revealed that U.S.-based businesses lose $687 billion each year due to unnecessary administrative tasks. Among the most commonly cited reasons for lost productivity was an over-reliance on manual processes (78 percent) and outdated technology (72 percent).
Removing the burden of manual tasks with PSA solutions
Clearly, if left unchecked, administrative jobs can be major thorns in sides of businesses. However, there is an opportunity here to increase employee engagement and productivity by eliminating time-consuming, menial tasks and providing staff members with more time to tackle their actual job responsibilities. Even more encouraging news is the fact that a slight decrease in administrative work can pay big dividends. According to the Kronos study, US businesses can save more than $1,500 per employee by scaling back the amount of administrative work they do by a single hour each week.
“A slight decrease in administrative work can pay big dividends.”
How can companies achieve this goal? By incorporating automation into their existing workflows.
Professional services automation tools streamline many internal processes that would otherwise require a great deal of manual entry and manpower to complete. For instance, billing and invoice management is an entirely necessary – but often time-consuming – administrative responsibility. Many aspects of revenue collection can be easily automated, from invoice generation and submission to payment processing and outstanding invoice alert processes. There’s no need to dedicate hours of administrative work to tackle all of these jobs, when an automated solution can effortlessly do it for you.
