Underused front-line middle managers cost Australian businesses $15.5bn annually

Less than two in three (62 per cent) middle managers have had their ideas implemented, despite 98 per cent saying their ideas could improve their organisation, a new report finds.

For its report, Feedback from the Field, global tech company SafetyCulture collected survey responses from 3,028 middle managers aged 18 years and above in Australia, the US, the UK, and Ireland. These results were collected between 28 August and 9 September 2025 and explored where frontline businesses — in the construction, manufacturing, retail, hospitality, transport and logistics, and energy and resources industries — lost time, money, and focus.

Financial burden

Based on its results, SafetyCulture found that these middle managers spent 6.5 weeks every year doing “low-value admin” and unnecessary, manual tasks — time that cost frontline Australian businesses $15.5 billion annually.

The survey revealed that the construction industry had the highest incidence of misused middle managers, with an estimated $4.5 billion in wasted time. This was followed by manufacturing ($3.8 billion), hospitality ($2.6 billion), retail ($2.5 billion), transport and logistics ($1.5 billion) and energy and resources ($772 million).

Some middle managers left disempowered

Nearly all (98 per cent) middle managers reported having ideas that they think can improve their organisation; however, less than two in three (62 per cent) reported that their ideas were approved, the research revealed. The tech company also found that one in three (33 per cent) managers who had their ideas rejected felt disempowered, while 31 per cent lost trust in senior leadership.

Thirty-five per cent of middle managers reported that senior leadership were not receptive to their ideas, and 45 per cent of managers said that when processes did not change, they remained wasteful or inefficient, the study found.

The report stressed that amid rising costs and skilled labour shortages, businesses must better utilise middle managers to plug inefficiencies. Tasks such as emails, managing staff rosters, and data entry duplication across systems were some "low-value tasks” that took middle managers away from more important duties.

Creating an innovative work culture

SafetyCulture global head of sales Phil Goldie, said that middle managers are crucial in keeping people, processes and performance aligned within the workplace, however many are stuck on admin instead of driving improvement.

Goldie said that insight from middle managers is invaluable because they witness workplace problems firsthand and often possess the skills to resolve them. He added that leaders must create a culture that “listens, acts, and closes the loop on feedback” so that inefficiencies can be removed, and can be turned into profits.

“When we free them up to focus on what really matters, businesses see the results immediately in the form of smoother operations, stronger teams, and better customer outcomes,” he concluded.