Survey Finds DX and Tool Adoption Face a “Retention Wall,” with Turnover Intent Reaching 77.9% Among Workers Burdened by Non-Core Tasks

Synergy Marketing Inc. conducted the “2026 Survey on the Work Environment of Marketing and PR Practitioners,” targeting 1,000 business professionals across Japan engaged in marketing, public relations, sales promotion, sales, and retail operations. The survey found that while companies continue to promote DX and tool utilization, the operational practices needed to sustain results are not taking root on the front line, revealing a “retention wall” that may affect employee retention. Among respondents whose non-core tasks accounted for 70% or more of their work, 77.9% expressed an intention to leave their jobs due to the work environment. Among those who reported problems with tool handovers, 42.2% expressed turnover intent, far above the 6.4% among those without such issues. In addition, employees with one to less than three years of experience showed the highest level of turnover intent due to the work environment, at 67.8%, suggesting elevated risk just as they are beginning to become core contributors. The report notes that the growth of non-core tasks such as operation, configuration, error handling, and manual research is not merely a productivity issue. These tasks reduce the time available for core work such as planning and strategy development. Combined with handover burdens, operational black boxes, dependence on specific individuals, and isolation caused by difficulty seeking advice, these factors may structurally hinder both continuous operations and employee retention. Key handover issues included “the previous person also could not fully use the tool, leaving it hollowed out” at 28.7%, “no manuals at all” at 25.7%, and “functions or settings with unclear purposes remain” at 22.7%. Such issues are seen not only as operational burdens but also as structural factors that increase the risk of turnover among successors. The report proposes three practical guidelines: first, visualize the proportion of working time spent on non-core tasks such as operation, configuration, and error handling; second, make “ease of retention” a standard for operational design by reducing complexity and dependence on specific individuals; and third, reclaim time for customer-facing work by reallocating efficiency gains to customer understanding, strategy development, and hypothesis testing. Synergy Marketing emphasizes that simply adding functions or systems is not enough to sustain the benefits of DX and tool utilization. Companies need to examine whether their front-line operations have become difficult to continue and address structural issues such as workload pressure, handover burdens, and isolation. The full report is available for free download and includes cross-tabulations by years of experience, non-core task ratio, and handover issues, as well as structural analysis of how workload pressure, isolation, and personalization lead to retention risk. Related online seminars will also be held, covering topics such as “The Real Reason CRM and Data Utilization Do Not Progress Is Non-Core Work” and “Why the Front Line Does Not Get Easier Even After Introducing AI.” The survey targeted business professionals across Japan engaged in marketing, PR, sales promotion, sales, and retail operations. It collected 1,000 valid responses through online research from December 25 to December 26, 2025. In this report, non-core tasks refer to work that does not directly generate corporate profit but is necessary to support business operations, such as operation, configuration, and error handling.