['Nameless Tasks' Reality Survey Exhausting Back Offices] About half of HR staff experience work interruptions '3 or more times a day'. 'Invisible inefficiencies' born from interactions, confirmations, and reminders with employees
A survey by SmartHR on 216 IS/HR staff revealed that about half experience work interruptions three or more times daily due to 'nameless tasks' like responding to employee inquiries, exposing deep-rooted inefficiencies.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: April 7, 2026 at 20:00
- 🔍 Collected: April 7, 2026 at 11:31
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 20, 2026 at 22:20 (322h 48m after Collected)
SmartHR, Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and CEO: Masato Serizawa), which operates the cloud human resources and labor software "SmartHR," conducted a survey on year-end and New Year security measures targeting 216 information system staff members working at companies with 500 or fewer employees.
■ Background of the Survey
In recent years, DX in the HR and labor domain has accelerated in many companies, and paperless procedures and cloud computing are becoming the standard. However, in actual workplaces, there is still the issue that the operational burden on the administrative department is not reduced even after the system is introduced. One of the factors attracting attention is the existence of "nameless tasks" in HR and labor, such as "interactions with employees" and "announcements and reminders," which are difficult to define as formal duties.
Especially as improving productivity alongside the decline in the working population becomes a pressing issue, not only during large-scale events like year-end tax adjustments, but also in routine requests for correcting application details, aligning understanding, inquiries from employees about employment regulations and company systems, and communicating information to non-desk workers who do not have PCs, the "lack of connection" of information causes stagnation in the entire organization. While the procedures themselves have been digitized, the communication that occurs before and after still relies on analog methods, creating structural inefficiencies that steal the time of both the administrative department and employees.
Given this current situation, in order to search for a new form of internal communication towards transforming into an "autonomous organization" where all employees can access the necessary information themselves and perform their duties autonomously, this survey was conducted with the aim of objectively grasping the reality of "nameless tasks" in HR and labor and the impact they have on organizational productivity and governance.
■ Summary of Survey Results
- About half of HR staff experience work interruptions "3 or more times a day"
It was found that "nameless tasks" such as responding to inquiries and sending reminders disrupt primary duties and lower productivity.
- 88% of inquiries are "matters that could have been resolved by looking at the manual, etc."
HR staff presume "it's too much trouble to look it up," while employees' true feeling is that "the written content is hard to understand."
- During busy seasons, about 60% of staff spend "1 hour or more a day" interacting with employees
During busy periods like year-end tax adjustments, interactions such as "confirming defects" and "requesting corrections" become the biggest cause of exhaustion, even more than data entry work.
- "Wall of communication" with employees who do not have a PC, 69% request verbal communication/relaying to site managers
Time lags and security risks caused by "the telephone game" are issues, concentrating the burden on middle management at the site.
■ Survey Overview
- Survey name: "Nameless Tasks" Reality Survey (December 2025)
- Survey period: December 19 - 22, 2025
- Survey method: Internet survey
- Valid responses: Managers, executives, and company employees (men and women aged 20-69) working for corporations with 51 or more employees that have introduced labor management systems.
■ Background of the Survey
In recent years, DX in the HR and labor domain has accelerated in many companies, and paperless procedures and cloud computing are becoming the standard. However, in actual workplaces, there is still the issue that the operational burden on the administrative department is not reduced even after the system is introduced. One of the factors attracting attention is the existence of "nameless tasks" in HR and labor, such as "interactions with employees" and "announcements and reminders," which are difficult to define as formal duties.
Especially as improving productivity alongside the decline in the working population becomes a pressing issue, not only during large-scale events like year-end tax adjustments, but also in routine requests for correcting application details, aligning understanding, inquiries from employees about employment regulations and company systems, and communicating information to non-desk workers who do not have PCs, the "lack of connection" of information causes stagnation in the entire organization. While the procedures themselves have been digitized, the communication that occurs before and after still relies on analog methods, creating structural inefficiencies that steal the time of both the administrative department and employees.
Given this current situation, in order to search for a new form of internal communication towards transforming into an "autonomous organization" where all employees can access the necessary information themselves and perform their duties autonomously, this survey was conducted with the aim of objectively grasping the reality of "nameless tasks" in HR and labor and the impact they have on organizational productivity and governance.
■ Summary of Survey Results
- About half of HR staff experience work interruptions "3 or more times a day"
It was found that "nameless tasks" such as responding to inquiries and sending reminders disrupt primary duties and lower productivity.
- 88% of inquiries are "matters that could have been resolved by looking at the manual, etc."
HR staff presume "it's too much trouble to look it up," while employees' true feeling is that "the written content is hard to understand."
- During busy seasons, about 60% of staff spend "1 hour or more a day" interacting with employees
During busy periods like year-end tax adjustments, interactions such as "confirming defects" and "requesting corrections" become the biggest cause of exhaustion, even more than data entry work.
- "Wall of communication" with employees who do not have a PC, 69% request verbal communication/relaying to site managers
Time lags and security risks caused by "the telephone game" are issues, concentrating the burden on middle management at the site.
■ Survey Overview
- Survey name: "Nameless Tasks" Reality Survey (December 2025)
- Survey period: December 19 - 22, 2025
- Survey method: Internet survey
- Valid responses: Managers, executives, and company employees (men and women aged 20-69) working for corporations with 51 or more employees that have introduced labor management systems.