The new research, by international telecommunications company, Movius.ai, analysed new business activity data from the Office of National Statistics combined with a survey of over 1,000 senior managers in different professional services sectors. The study reveals the extent to which insurance companies are not accurately recording and charging for all of their time.
According to the research findings, a significant 21.6% of billable hours worked by staff are not accounted or charged for. This results in approximately £222.1 billion in lost turnover for insurance services firms in each year – and a massive £437 billion worth of lost billable hours for all professional services firms overall.
The study further highlights that potential yearly lost income from lost billable hours is around £30.1 million a year for the average insurance firm – significantly higher than the benchmark loss (of approximately £617,075) for a typical professional services firm.
Moreover, the research reveals that 15.7% of full-time workers in England and Wales work more than the 48 hours-a-week maximum working hours set under the Working Time Directive. This suggests that frequent unrecorded overtime resulting from unrecorded billable time may also be a factor that incentivises some staff to work later into the day, which can adversely affect their mental health and productivity at work over time.
Commenting on the significance of the research findings, John Clear, Vice President Sales at Movius.ai, stated, "The lack of sufficient time recording, management, and billing of hours worked by staff in insurance firms is having a large impact on the profitability of companies and the mental wellbeing of their staff. A big part of the problem is that time sheets make it difficult to record time, as they rely on employees remembering everything they have done and effectively guessing the length of tasks, such as voice calls."
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