Employees are losing seven hours a week to tasks that fall outside their core job description. For HR leaders, that’s the kind of stat that keeps you up at night. It affects not just productivity and output but also chips away at morale, engagement, and retention.
It’s a clear red flag for the employee experience. When people spend their time filing expenses, processing invoices, booking travel or chasing approvals, they’re not doing the work they were hired to do.
Events are a perfect example. Over half (52%) of UK employees who organise team events do so outside their core job responsibilities. The biggest pain points? Venue sourcing (43%), managing budgets and approvals (43%), and arranging hotel accommodation (37%).
Over time, that disconnection from their core job erodes clarity, motivation and trust — the foundations of the employer-employee relationship. It also creates a real retention risk, as employees disengage from roles that no longer reflect the value they were promised. At Perk, we call this “shadow work”: the hidden workload that quietly pulls people away from their real jobs.
The hidden cost of admin
Our latest research, conducted by Forrester Consulting, reveals that 58% of employees say shadow work distracts them from meaningful work. These tasks contribute to a wider productivity problem, costing businesses $1.7 trillion annually.
This isn’t just “annoying admin”. It’s a systemic issue. Shadow work doesn’t stem from a lack of discipline or poor time management. It persists because many organisations have built workplaces full of friction — too many tools, too many steps, too many approvals, and not enough integration between the systems people rely on every day.
Often, employees take on this work simply to keep things moving. Sometimes it’s framed as being a “team player”. Sometimes it’s the silent fear of seeming unhelpful. Other times, people just do it because no one else will. But when this becomes the norm, shadow work begins to crowd out the work that matters, and the impact on people strategy can be severe.
The human toll
These tasks are draining your workforce. A total of 45% of employees say shadow work is a major contributor to burnout. “Corporate burnout” happens when people feel physically and emotionally drained by their job — leaving them feeling useless, powerless and empty.
Half of employees say shadow work has reduced their job satisfaction. HR leaders know that people perform best when they’re doing the work they’re good at. When days are spent chasing receipts and invoices instead of delivering impact, they don’t just lose productivity, they lose their connection to their role and the organisation behind it.
It’s worth stepping back and remembering why people come to work in the first place; to apply their expertise, to feel valued, and to know their contribution matters.
This is why shadow work isn’t just an operational issue; it’s a people strategy issue. When we asked what would most motivate them to stay longer with their current employer, employees ranked access to AI tools to reduce manual or repetitive tasks and automated systems ranked almost as highly as higher pay and increased flexibility. That should be a wake-up call for leaders: reducing shadow work isn’t a “nice-to-have”. It’s increasingly central to how employees judge whether a workplace is worth committing to.
The automation gap
Many businesses have already invested heavily in automation. Payroll now runs with minimal human input. IT can provision accounts in seconds. Customer records can be updated in real time with little human intervention. However, there is a paradox. The tasks that cause the most frustration — expense claims, travel bookings, supplier invoices and team events — remain among the least automated.
67% of business leaders say that they have already committed to investing in automation but where that investment goes matters. This is one of those workplace challenges where more technology and applications are not necessarily the answer.
Employees report using four different tools on average just to manage shadow work, yet only 7% say their organisation has a well-integrated tech stack. In other words, shadow work isn’t merely the sum of “manual tasks” themselves, it’s often created by fragmented workflows and systems that don’t talk to each other.
The good news is that closing the automation gap doesn’t require a major transformation. It requires a shift in focus, applying automation where it removes the most admin burden and restores the most time and energy back to employees.
How can HR lead the change?
If shadow work is quietly undermining the employee experience, HR has a central role to play in fixing it.
That starts with a shift in mindset. People don’t join companies to chase approvals or reconcile expenses — they join to do meaningful work, grow their careers and contribute value.
HR leaders are uniquely placed to identify where that value is being lost; where time is being wasted, productivity diluted, and energy spent on tasks that don’t align with the job itself. From there, HR can help shape decisions about the systems, tools and workflows that define daily working life.
By being part of the change, HR teams can protect the integrity of the employee experience, creating a workplace where people can do their best work, not simply keep up with the admin that surrounds it.
Felicia oversees a growing team of more than 1,800 employees across the US and Europe and is responsible for nurturing the company’s culture and talent as it continues to scale globally. Felicia joined Perk as a Strategic Account Manager in 2018 to grow the commercial teams. She discovered her passion for people development and transitioned to HR to lead Culture & Experience and Learning & Development. From navigating the pandemic without any layoffs to creating a workplace founded on belonging and successfully integrating teams from the recent acquisitions in Switzerland and the US. Her impact has seen Perk recognized in NewsWeek's Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces, as well as ranking in LinkedIn's Top Companies and the Sunday Times' Best Places to Work.
