Let’s face it: very few people like admin work, if anyone. 26% of employees say they lose time every day to admin tasks. It adds up to an average of 15 hours lost per week overall. And this certainly holds true for HR admin work, too.
It’s not just the time lost, though. It’s also the mental space HR admin tasks take up and the stress they create. This leaves your team with less time and energy to complete the actual job you hired them to do, as well as no space to be creative.
Fewer than half of employees (46%) say that they spend their whole working day on tasks that drive value. Ouch.
So, how can you reduce the HR admin burden for your team in 2026? Here are some tips:
Evaluate your software stack
One of the big reasons employees suffer from HR admin burden is having to switch between multiple apps to complete tasks. It slows them down and can lead to confusion, with them not knowing what to do where.
Aim to only use software that actually improves your employees’ working lives and does as much as it can. Ideally, you also want something that’s user-friendly.
Sometimes, more software isn’t the answer, despite the temptation.
A friend recently told me her employer has changed the software they use where she works, and everyone hates it. She said it’s so difficult to use, everyone just goes back to doing things the old way. You don’t want to fall into that trap.
Use specialist software
While you don’t want to use too many apps, you do want things that do what they do well.
For instance, Workrowd can help you manage your employee initiatives and feedback all in one place. So employees know where to find out about what’s happening, they can join employee groups, you can organize mentoring, and more.
Your HR teams, meanwhile, can rely on automated feedback surveys to find out what employees really think about your employee experience. You can trigger these at specific milestones or when you want information on transition periods.
Workrowd then analyzes the data automatically, giving you information faster, and meaning you can make decisions and changes faster.
Better software, happier HR teams. And employees. All with a lower HR admin burden. Get in touch today to book your free demo.
Get your training in (and do refreshers)
Sometimes, no matter how great a tool is, it’s still confusing to use without training.
My favourite writing software, Scrivener, has a steep learning curve. Had I not done a training course on how to use it, I wouldn’t have understood how to use it or completed any of my 25 published books using it.
Scrivener cost me less than $50 and the training was free.
If you’re investing in software that’s several hundred, or even thousands, of dollars a month, it makes sense to spend money on the training too, doesn’t it?
Not everyone will be part of the sales calls that walk decision makers through how to use a software.
Likewise, what’s second nature to one person won’t be to another.
And, let’s be honest: most employees aren’t going to read through the knowledge base unless they have to. At which point they’re probably already stuck and have been trying to figure something out on their own for a while.
So instead of taking that risk, give them the training upfront. Just a couple of hours in an afternoon could be the difference between your new software seriously adding to your HR admin burden or saving you time and money.
Outsource
Sometimes, hiring a freelancer can free up your team to do more higher value tasks. Freelancers are often specialists in their fields, which means they may be able to get a task done faster and at a fraction of the cost.
Whatever the task, there’s a freelancer who specializes in it. A quick post on LinkedIn, or a search on there, will give you plenty of options to choose from whatever industry you’re in.
For instance, if you’ve just merged two companies and you’re looking to merge HubSpot accounts too, there are businesses or freelancers who can do this so that your marketing and sales teams can continue to fill your pipeline rather than merging duplicate accounts and deleting old leads.
Sometimes it’s better to pay upfront to save your team ongoing HR admin work moving forward.
Automate!
Over a quarter of employees have to manually update reports. Surely, in 2026, there’s a way around that?
You can set up automations to fill in reports to speed up the process for employees who have to update internal data.
If you wanted to go even further, you could get AI to analyze the results to spot trends, then predict what this means going forward and how it compares to previous results.
When used strategically, AI can be a key partner in reducing your HR admin burden.
Listen to your employees
If someone tells you that your tech stack isn’t working, pay attention. It either means that they haven’t had adequate training, or you need to re-evaluate your current tools to find something that actually reduces your HR admin load and makes their working lives better.
Unfortunately, there’s a clear disconnect between how employees feel and what employers think.
44% of decision makers think automation tools will have the biggest impact on their organization, but just 18% of employees feel their employer cares about their admin burden, and 23% of employees feel admin workloads are unfairly distributed.
No software can solve those kinds of issues.
It doesn’t matter how much shiny tech you have, if you don’t actually pay attention to what your employees say, you may not actually be solving the problem by investing in more software.
(Want to find out what employees think? Why not send a survey with Workrowd?)
Conclusion
Admin is an inevitable part of any role, and HR is no exception. While AI can help with some tasks, there are others it simply can’t do (yet).
If you want to truly support your employees, find ways to streamline HR admin tasks and don’t add to the admin burden by overcomplicating things with too much software or inadequate training.
Look at the HR admin burden across your teams, too. Does it unfairly land on the shoulders of your most junior employees? Or maybe your managers spend too much time on admin? It should be spread equally across teams so that everyone has the same amount of time to complete the job you hired them to do.
Want to find reduce your HR admin burden across your employee experience? Workrowd can help. With personalized dashboards for every employee, plus your HR teams, everyone always has the information that’s most important for them right at their fingertips.
Plus, with automated event and program invites, reminders, surveys, and more, repetitive HR admin tasks take care of themselves. You even get employee feedback analyzed and visualized for you without lifting a finger. Save your team time in 2026; get in touch to book your free Workrowd demo and find out more.
