A global study is proof of office workers’ global dislike of cramming numbers into a spreadsheet.

The research study commissioned by Automation platform Automation Anywhere conducted by OnePoll revealed the top three tasks ‘hated’ by employees worldwide.

According to the report, data entry followed by managing email traffic and coordinating between IT systems while filing digital documents such as PDFs and spreadsheets in the right folder are the most hated tasks by office workers.

Disdain for admin tasks

Employees usually showed disdain towards administration-related tasks which are to be done manually and are repetitive. Almost 80 per cent of office workers in India and 51 per cent of workers worldwide expressed feel that admin work is an obstacle for their primary job. Sixty seven per cent of the Indian participants expressed their intention to resign in light of excessive workload due to the said tasks.

The disdain comes from a lack of productivity caused by additional workload due to admin tasks.

Ninety seven per cent of workers feel that they would be more productive in utilising their skills in light of automation.

Milan Sheth, Executive Vice President India, Middle East & Africa, Automation Anywhere, said, “Workers can focus on higher-value tasks if the mundane repetitive tasks can be automated.”

Outlook on automation

The report also portrayed employee outlook on automation while many employees showed excitement working in an office environment “liberated” by technology.

Ninety eight per cent of Indian office workers are curious to explore how automation can help them with their jobs, the report said.

Shelly Kramer, Principal Analyst, Futurum Research, said in the official release, “The PC age freed office workers from rigid processes, placing each of us in control of our own workflow. But there’s been a trade-off, and today, those tasks have become a significant burden. If you work in an office, likely your productivity and happiness are significantly undermined with having to be responsible for manual computer administration tasks that could easily be automated and eat into your day.”

Robot co-workers

Apart from anticipation of the future to come, working alongside AI bots along with human co-workers, employees looking for new jobs are often swayed by organisations relying on automation for managing mundane, repetitive manual tasks, according to the report. Ninety five per cent of office workers in India would be attracted towards working in a company that invests in automation for admin tasks.

More than 95 per cent of the participants are open to the idea of working alongside digital co-workers/software bots.

In 10 years, 62.20 per cent of Indian participants expect to work alongside software bots in addition to human colleagues.

The study surveyed more than 10,000 office workers in nearly a dozen countries.

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