Construction Sector ‘Losing Money Due To Paperwork’

For every employee in the UK construction sector, an average of £1,500 is spent every year just working on physical paperwork and ensuring everything is in order.

ShowHouse reported on the findings of a study by software company Re-flow, which revealed that construction workers spend an average of 90 hours per year, per employee carrying out paperwork.

This includes 40 hours just reading paperwork, 38 hours filling in forms and even 14 hours searching for mislaid documents.

The company based its assertion that it’s costing £1,500 a year on the average weekly salary in the sector of £607. All of this adds up to the construction sector being the least productive per person in the UK when it comes to paperwork and admin.

Completing paperwork manually also throws up other issues. For instance, the firm found that 10 per cent find it stressful trying to decipher other people’s handwriting, while 19 per cent get worried about losing important forms.

Mike Saunders, managing director of Re-flow, said that most workers have the answer with them all the time – their smartphone.

“We’ve reached a critical mass of people able to bypass paper processes and adopt a digital solution that will save themselves time and reduce stress,” he asserted.

For employers, it will help to deal with productivity gaps and limit their exposure to risk, Mr Saunders added .

With the latest figures for UK construction’s performance indicating that the sector is experiencing a slowdown, it could be beneficial for businesses to look for ways to reduce this substantial amount of admin time and make their processes more efficient by operating digitally.

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