The renewed focus on productivity is key to unlocking business growth in the UK. But it isn’t a lack of skills or investment holding the UK back – it’s the hidden cost of how we work.

Our new research commissioned to Forrester shows UK employees lose an average of nine hours a week to manual, low-value admin tasks. This is two hours a week more than the average across six major economies, and costs the UK an estimated £95 billion a year in lost productivity. This ‘shadow work’ – from booking business travel to filing expenses – quietly drains focus and morale and distracts talent in UK businesses from doing their actual jobs.

As we debate tax cuts and spending, we should also be focusing on tackling the UK’s automation gap. Only 4% of expense systems and 5% of invoice processes are fully automated, yet 74% of UK business leaders say they’re planning to invest in automation to free up their people for higher-value work. If we want to reverse the UK’s productivity problem, investing in smarter systems that remove shadow work could be one of the fastest routes to success.