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

• Over a quarter (26%) of office workers still report spending most of their average workday on admin outside of their core job
• Across the six markets surveyed, employees spend an average of 15 hours a week on five core admin tasks measured

Ricoh, London/Wallisellen, January 20, 2026 – New research from Ricoh Europe reveals a widening disconnect in European 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.

Across the region, employees and decision makers say that too much time is being taken up by low-value tasks. Over a quarter of decision makers (28%) believe their employees spend most of the average workday on admin outside of their core job, closely reflecting 26% of workers who say the same. Across the six core markets surveyed, employees spend an average of around 15 hours a week  on the five core admin tasks measured – the equivalent of nearly two working days lost to routine tasks including document management and manual processes like timesheets. Worryingly, only 43% 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 organisations to compliance and operational risk. More than half of decision makers (60%) and 44% of office workers have seen someone make or nearly make a serious mistake because of outdated or incorrect information caused by inefficient systems or processes in the last five years.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, 62% 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

Employees report facing a series of daily, avoidable frustrations with admin that quietly erode productivity, including re-entering the same information across multiple systems (35%), managing crowded inboxes (33%), searching for files across multiple systems or shared drives (32%), and manually updating reports (26%). These issues can collectively drain time and morale.

The fallout is stark. Nearly a quarter (23%) 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 (29%), more value delivered (27%), as well as improvements in their ability to make stronger strategic decisions, solve more customer/client issues and deliver projects faster (21%). 

An ongoing disconnect and lack of action 

Despite the impact, many employees feel the problem is not fully recognised. A quarter (25%) of office workers say decision makers underestimate how much time is lost to admin, 23% feel admin workloads are unfairly distributed and perhaps more worryingly, only 18% believe their employer cares about their admin burden. Yet 61% of decision makers agree new tools and systems have simplified workflows and reduced admin burdens in their organisation, and nearly half (44%)  believe automation tools that remove repetitive, manual tasks would have the biggest impact on their organisation. 

Jason Spry, Process Automation Commercial Director, Ricoh Europe, said: “It’s clear there are major disconnects in organisations across Europe. Employees say they’re spending a significant amount of time on admin. Decision makers believe they are too. But workers don’t think leaders are aware, or if they are, that they are taking no action to address this. Meanwhile, a huge proportion of decision makers see the value of automation for simplifying admin, yet the time still being wasted shows that action simply isn’t being taken. 

“The admin burden story keeps reappearing in different forms because little is changing. These tasks remain a huge time drain. Businesses need to act. The benefits are too significant to ignore, from improving employee wellbeing to unlocking productivity and freeing up people’s time to focus on the value-add work that drives growth. And beyond productivity, effective automation strengthens governance and reduces compliance risk, by ensuring information is handled consistently and accurately. Something as simple as automating document management should be an easy win.”

Learn more about Ricoh’s Business Solutions here: Transition to a digital workplace | Ricoh Business Solutions | Ricoh Switzerland

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.