There’s a paradox playing out across today’s organisations: teams are constantly busy, yet meaningful outcomes feel increasingly out of reach.
Even with rapid advancements in technology, many businesses are not seeing the productivity gains they expected. Instead, employees are overloaded with repetitive tasks, while leaders are left wondering why effort isn’t translating into impact – on performance, profit, or people.
The reality? Too much of the modern workday is tied up in workflows and routines that, while necessary, don’t always require the full attention of highly-skilled professionals. From navigating clunky processes to chasing approvals or formatting reports, we’ve built work environments where operational complexity gets in the way of strategic contribution.
The Cost of 'Busy' Work
Across industries, teams are under pressure to deliver more, yet much of their time is absorbed by low-value tasks.
According to Deloitte’s 2025 Human Capital Trends research, 41% of the average workday is spent on activity that doesn’t contribute to organisational value. Despite this, only 22% of respondents believe their organisation is effective at simplifying how work gets done.
The impact? Organisations are well aware of the problem – 82% recognise the importance of freeing up worker capacity – yet just 8% say they’re making great progress. This disconnect between awareness and action is costing businesses dearly.
In financial terms, organisations lose 20–30% of their revenue each year due to inefficiencies and poor work design. Multiplied across teams and geographies, that loss quickly compounds.
Admin is an Organisational Bottleneck
One of the biggest drains on productivity? The administrative burden. Skilled professionals are routinely pulled into tasks that don’t require their expertise – managing diaries, reworking reports, or pushing documents through multi-step sign-off chains.
This misalignment carries a high cost, not just financially but also in morale and engagement. Time spent on low-impact admin is time taken away from strategic thinking, innovation, and delivering real customer value leading to disengagement, higher turnover, and a disconnect between talent and business outcomes.
Ultimately, when work isn’t designed to unlock human potential, it risks burning out the workforce and undermining long-term organisational performance.
Breaking the Cycle: Shifting from Capacity Drain to Value Creation
To reclaim capacity and reinvest it where it counts, leading organisations are asking a different set of questions:
- Where are highly skilled people being pulled into tasks that divert them from their core contribution?
- What work is truly necessary and what has become process for process’s sake?
- Which tools or services can take on the burden so our teams can refocus on results?
This mindset shift – from seeing admin as a necessary evil to a solvable inefficiency – is what’s driving change.
3 Strategic Levers to Unlock value
1. Redesign for Impact
Simplify and streamline workflows to reduce friction and focus on outcomes. This might involve cutting unnecessary approval layers, clarifying decision ownership, or eliminating non-essential meetings. Deloitte’s research highlights that intentional work redesign can significantly boost organisational performance by enabling employees to focus on what truly matters.
2. Free Up Capacity with Targeted Support
Rather than throwing more tools at the problem, leading firms are turning to targeted support models – from outsourced admin support to AI-powered tools – that lift the load and let people focus on higher-value work.
3. Realign People to Purposeful Work
Once time is freed, reinvest it where it delivers the highest return: strategy, growth, customer engagement, innovation. Empowering people to do what they’re best at leads to better business outcomes and a more fulfilled workforce.
The Competitive Edge of Clarity
When organisations intentionally reduce complexity and create space for meaningful work, the impact is twofold:
- Competitive advantage and improved margins, and
- People empowered to grow and shine in their roles.
Because in today’s world of work, the greatest unlock isn’t more hours – it’s smarter focus.
About SmartPA
SmartPA is a leading provider of transformative business support services, disrupting the industry with our highly skilled teams and proprietary methodology, which is enabled by technology and supported by Generative AI.
We help organisations simplify admin and scale faster by combining process optimisation, simplification and cutting-edge technology.
We deliver measurable ROI and unlock potential by removing administrative burden, allowing our clients to focus on top-line growth while we deliver bottom-line impact through data-led decisions.
Find out more
Click here to find out more about how partnering with SmartPA can help accelerate growth within your organisation. Empower your leaders today by contacting us to discuss your requirements