Unveiling the unseen expenses lurking in inefficient processes

We hear the term ‘inefficiency’ all the time. But what are inefficient processes? How does it affect your business? And what is the price of inefficiencies on a larger scale?

In this article we’re examining the implications of an inefficient business process, what its results are, and what inefficiency means for visitor management.

What is inefficiency?

Inefficiency is the state of not achieving maximum productivity. Or said in a different way, inefficiency is failing to make the best use of your time and resources.

In a manufacturing process (or in any business process, really) the idea to eliminate inefficiencies is an attempt to create a seamless, zero waste, process.

Understanding inefficiency in this context means it is near impossible to get rid of inefficient processes because 99.9% efficiency (which is what most companies strive for) is still ineffective.

10 statistics on workplace inefficiencies you need to know

1. The average employee is only productive for 2 hours and 53 minutes per workday (Vouchercloud)
2. The average employee wastes 26% of their days on avoidable administrative chores, unnecessary tasks and outdated ways of working (OnePoll)
3. The average employee spends 60% of their time “work about work” like communicating tasks, searching for documentation, drafting documents and preparing meetings (Asana)
4. Employees waste 15% of their work time because of inefficient communication (Mitel)
5. The average employee is interrupted in their task every three minutes throughout the day (Gallup)
6. Over 50% of employees report being relatively unproductive at work (McKinsey)
7. Highly engaged teams are 21% more productive (Gallup)
8. But only 30% of employees say that they feel engaged at work, while 17% feel actively disengaged (Gallup)
9. Low engagement costs the world $8.8 trillion in lost productivity (Gallup)
10. 77% of employees say that being able to automate routine tasks would greatly improve their productivity (Slack)

The cost of inefficient processes

One of the questions you might be asking yourself when it comes to productivity and efficiency is probably what the cost of inefficiencies is. And with good reason.

Wasting money

When we talk about the cost of inefficient processes, financial loss is most likely the first thing that springs to mind, and with good reason. According to studies by IDC, inefficiency is costing companies anywhere from 20% to 30% of their revenue every year.

This financial loss stems from everything between workers spending too much time on non-revenue generating tasks and lost deals due to customer frustrations and inefficiency related to their needs.

Wasting time

Time is money as the old adage goes, and while financial losses may be the primary issue when it comes to inefficiency it cuts a little deeper than that. Because the issue isn’t just the fact that employees spend time being unproductive (like the 26% of their time they spend on avoidable administrative tasks), it’s also the fact that the time they actually are productive they are less efficient.

Reduced quality of work

Inefficiencies and bad processes have a direct impact on the quality of work you provide. When a task takes longer it is usually more error prone, and more errors usually leads to a dip in morale among workers, which in turn leads to more errors, and into a downward spiral.

Automation of certain tasks in your production, especially unnecessary tasks, is a way to alleviate this issue.

Increased risk

Risk comes in many forms, but whether it’s fines and legal action, increased employee turnover, reputational damage or security risks it will all be increased by working with inefficient processes.

How inefficient processes affect visitor management

Employees aren’t the only ones who are affected by inefficient processes. Everyone who engages with your company is affected, and as visitor management has historically been rather ineffective.

Visitors who arrive on site and have a hard time navigating will waste time finding out where to go and who to talk to. And even if they know who they’re there to see, they’ll still waste time waiting for the reception to notify their host to come down, waiting for access approval, or waiting in line to check in.

The time wasted is also money wasted. And depending on your visitor it might be quite a lot of money, especially if we’re talking about high level executives.

This example focuses only on the financial impact of inefficient processes in your visitor management, but the truth of the matter is that it affects so much more than the bottom line.

Visitor management doesn’t happen solely at the front desk or in the lobby. The visitor management process involves everything from facility management to compliance, legal, security, and even the average employee, because they’re all involved in one or more aspects of managing visitors.

So, an inefficient visitor management process will affect everything from your brand and employee retention to your relationships with partners or contractors, and even security.

This is also why we say most visitor management processes are ineffective. Because they involve multiple departments and employees communicating, which can lead to time wasted and more errors in one or all of the involved steps of the process.