Study shows UK businesses waste £14 billion a year on ineffective research

The study, conducted by InsightBee, the cloud based knowledge platform, found that companies in the UK waste over £14 billion a year on research that does not yield effective business insights. The survey also revealed that more than one billion hours are lost each year to the sourcing of ineffective research.

The business case for streamlining the research process is supported by the fact that nearly two-third’s (62 per cent) of employees feel as though the research they find is unreliable and their time spent researching is wasted.

The scale of employee dissatisfaction illustrates the need for businesses to alter their approach to research, not just to improve productivity, but also to support greater staff wellbeing.

InsightBee sourced data from the ONS and used statistics based on 2,863,000 people in the professional, scientific and technical sector.

Commenting on the release of the research today, Manoj Madhusudanan, Managing Director of InsightBee, said that the research highlights a real problem for UK businesses.

“This research shows that the amount of hours and revenue being wasted by businesses is a real problem in the UK,” Madhusudanan said. “Businesses are being held back as a result of sourcing research that does not provide any meaningful insight into their marketplace, clients or even their fiercest competitors.”