Retailers Losing £3.3bn A Year To Wasted Management Time

Retailers in the UK are losing more than £3.3bn* annually in middle managers’ wasted time, according to new YouGov research.

The fifth annual Feedback from the Field report, commissioned by workplace operations platform SafetyCulture, found that those in middle management roles in the retail industry spend, on average, an estimated 7.3** weeks every year picking up low-value or unnecessary tasks. 

Attending unnecessary meetings, dealing with email overload and correcting others’ mistakes are the top three tasks managers say take up most of their time and distract them from more important duties.

This unproductive time equates to an estimated £3.3bn*, taking into account managers’ wages and the size of the UK retail workforce.

Of the five frontline sectors studied, retail is one of the worst impacted by workplace inefficiency, second only to manufacturing which foots a bill for £4bn in wasted managers’ time every year. These are followed by construction (£2.4bn), transport & logistics (£1.9bn) and hospitality (£1.5bn). 

Alex Brooks-Sykes, SafetyCulture’s UK and Ireland Site Lead, said: “Most retail managers aren’t set up for success. Too many store managers are stuck firefighting daily issues or buried in POS systems instead of driving efficiency on the shop floor.“

Managers have a unique vantage point – they know the strategic plans of senior leadership and the realities on the frontline. This makes them a hugely valuable source of business insight, but one that's often overlooked.”

Much of the inefficiency problem lies in retail leaders’ approach to improvement programmes, according to the study. Around nine in ten managers (86%) have ideas that could improve their organisation, but only a third (34%) have actually had these ideas implemented – the lowest proportion of all sectors surveyed. One of the leading reasons for ideas being rejected is that “senior leadership aren’t receptive to ideas from managers” (35%).

Instead, retail managers say top-down improvement programmes in their organisation are “driven by people who don’t understand how the work is done” and “feel like a senior-level tick-box exercise”.

Where managers’ ideas are taken forward, they report positive impacts such as more efficient operations (60%) and reduced costs (48%).

Brooks-Sykes added: “Managers are full of ideas for improvement, but they need the right systems and tools to identify issues and make recommendations based on the data."

Real improvement starts with clear insights. What’s happening, why, and what can be done about it? With these insights, managers can go beyond fixing the symptoms to solve the root cause and ultimately improve the bottom line.”

SafetyCulture’s UK customers include Card Factory, Dunelm and JD Sports.

Read SafetyCulture’s Feedback from the Field report, The $90 Billion Opportunity.

*The cost of low-value tasks: This figure was calculated by YouGov based on the average local weekly wage, estimated average hours lost on low-value tasks as reported by survey respondents, and the estimated number of middle managers in the frontline industries surveyed. Local wage estimates were sourced from national statistical agencies, and the number of worker estimates were sourced from YouGov Profiles.

**Time wasted on low value tasks: This figure was calculated based on an 8 hour working day, 5 days per week.

Source : SafetyCulture

Image : Teamjackson / iStock / 1642478330

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