Resource Burn: 4 Things That Are Wasting Your Team’s Time

The biggest business inefficiencies and how to reduce them

Here are four of the most significant sources of business inefficiencies and how to prevent them.

1. Falling into social media black holes

Social media marketing is an essential part of most marketing plans for both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) audiences. A strong presence on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok is no longer optional for most companies.

However, businesses risk major inefficiencies when trying to harness the power of social media. Avoid these common missteps:

• Pursuing a presence everywhere: Too many businesses fall into the trap of thinking a successful social strategy means being active on every platform. Although it’s important to have a presence on multiple channels, not every platform delivers a direct benefit. For example, B2B companies in industries like industrial solvents or software-as-a-service (SaaS) don’t necessarily need TikTok or Instagram accounts, but they may benefit from creating a LinkedIn business profile.
• Buying engagement on social platforms: It’s become standard practice for many marketers to buy likes, boost posts and pay for new followers. However, this strategy wastes time and creates operational inefficiency, as you’re likely paying for bots that won’t meaningfully engage with your brand. Research shows roughly 20 percent of social media chatter may come from bots, which makes it difficult to gather accurate metrics and can hurt your credibility.
• Jumping on social trends: Companies often think they need to jump on every new social media trend to stay competitive. However, spreading your resources too thin on unhelpful platforms or fleeting trends can quickly drain your marketing budget and undermine your strategy.

How to fix it: Measuring data is the best way to avoid social media mistakes and reduce inefficiencies. Most businesses benefit from social media data analytics tools, which provide insight into engagement, follower behavior, shares and other key metrics.

With a clearer understanding of which channels and campaigns truly work for your business, you’ll stop overspending and start focusing your marketing team’s time and energy more effectively.

2. Using too many software tools

As with social channels, many executives assume it’s best to have as many software solutions as possible. The SaaS model allows companies to download new software quickly and easily. However, a glut of tools can create significant operational inefficiencies for the following reasons:

• Decision-makers don’t see the big picture. IT managers and chief information officers (CIOs) understand a company’s technology stack, but they may not always know what each department needs for daily use. Meanwhile, a department head might request a new tool without realizing an existing one already offers the same functionality.
• Multiple tools increase costs. While many software services have reasonable monthly subscription fees, costs proliferate when you subscribe to dozens of tools. According to Zylo’s 2025 SaaS Management Index, companies waste an average of $21 million annually on unused SaaS licenses, with more than half of all purchased licenses going to waste.
• Excessive software tools create logistical challenges. Adding too many tools and applications leads to complexity and maintenance issues. Each subscription requires management, including updates, renewals and security checks. Your IT team must also oversee accounts, manage permissions and track new and departing employees.
• The team probably won’t use every tool. When you have too many software platforms, some inevitably go underused. According to Zylo’s 2025 SaaS Management Index (cited above), organizations use only about 47 percent of their SaaS licenses in a given month, meaning many paid subscriptions provide little to no real value.

How to fix it: Stop the jumbled approach to SaaS integrations and create an efficient, centralized management system for your software tools. Implementing a SaaS management platform can help consolidate app administration, saving IT teams significant time during employee onboarding and offboarding. [Read our Pipedrive CRM review to learn about this company’s customizable, sales-oriented CRM.]

3. Holding too many meetings

Meetings are a hallmark of corporate life. Managers must communicate with teams and individual employees, teams must coordinate ongoing projects, and weekly company-wide meetings are standard.

However, meetings are often unproductive — and the more you have, the more likely it is that some are unnecessary. Excessive meetings represent one of the biggest operational inefficiencies, draining productivity and your profit-generating capacity. Microsoft’s 2025 Work Trend Index found that 50 percent of meetings occur during peak focus hours, and workers are interrupted roughly every two minutes (about 275 times per day) by meetings and messages, creating fragmented workdays and limited deep focus.

How to fix it: The obvious answer is to be more discerning about the meetings you schedule. Many meetings can be replaced with emails, chat channels or internal communication apps. The right tools can reduce the need for face-to-face meetings, allowing your team to stay productive while staying connected. When meetings are necessary, make them more efficient by setting a clear agenda, defining specific goals and establishing an end time in advance.

4. Relying on ineffective outsourcing

Outsourcing business processes allows companies to delegate duties to contractors. When done right, outsourcing can lower costs, free up your team for high-value tasks and reduce hiring needs. However, too much outsourcing can cause problems and create operational inefficiencies, including the following:

• Decreased product quality: Overreliance on outsourcing can hurt overall service or product quality and create more work in the long run. Many companies end up revisiting outsourced projects to make fixes that an internal team could’ve handled from the start. In fact, Deloitte’s 2024 Global Outsourcing Survey found that 68 percent of executives have pulled previously outsourced work back in-house to regain control over quality and performance.
• Damaged reputation: Poor-quality work wastes current resources and can hurt future revenue if your brand’s reputation This inefficiency can have long-lasting effects on growth and customer trust.
• Oversight requirements: Someone has to manage the outsourcing process and contractors, monitoring projects, timelines and deliverables. You’ll need a clear outsourcing strategy, which many companies fail to factor directly into their operational costs.

How to fix it: Be discerning about what you outsource to avoid inefficiency. Focus your resources on completing core work in-house and partner with outsourcing providers that have a strong quality track record to ensure you’re not double-spending on rework. 

More ways to stop burning resources and wasting time

In addition to avoiding the operational inefficiencies outlined above, consider the following tips to improve overall efficiency:

• Break organizational silos. In a business context, a silo is a department that operates without much interaction with other departments. When departments are siloed, they end up focusing on the “small picture” instead of what’s best for the company. For example, say a shipping department with its own profit-and-loss statement wants to use a slower means of transportation to save money. If it doesn’t communicate with the sales department, the sales team can’t set the right shipping expectations, and customers may grow frustrated when their orders don’t arrive.
• Update old, clunky software. If your company still relies on older, legacy systems that require employees to continually reenter data or use workarounds to get things done, it’s time for an upgrade. The S. Government Accountability Office reports that federal agencies spend over 80 percent of their IT budgets maintaining legacy systems, showing how outdated technology can drain valuable resources.
• Increase managerial support. Some managers see themselves primarily as disciplinarians who report to the executive team. However, productivity and morale improve when managers actively support their teams, answering questions, identifying roadblocks and advocating for what their employees need to succeed. Holding leaders to this higher standard can improve manager-employee relationships and boost performance.
• Allocate tasks to the right people. Many companies ask salespeople to perform tedious tasks like creating expense reports, checking product availability or monitoring shipments. But their time is better spent generating revenue, especially if you sell high-ticket products. This misallocation is a major operational inefficiency. Instead, hire support staff to handle administrative work so your sales team can focus on selling.
• Centralize your customer information. If you have to access multiple systems to understand a customer’s account, you’re wasting time. CRM software can help. The best CRM software centralizes customer data, generates insightful reports and integrates with your accounting, marketing, shipping and inventory platforms.
• Hold everyone on a project accountable. Without accountability, projects can stall and lose direction. The solution? Assign a clear project lead and use project-management software so everyone knows their role and responsibilities. According to PMI’s 2025 Pulse of the Profession report, only 18 percent of project professionals demonstrate high business acumen, but those who do are far more likely to meet their goals (83 percent vs. 78 percent) and stay on budget (73 percent vs. 68 percent). The takeaway: When teams understand how their work connects to broader business outcomes, accountability and performance both improve.

Reducing operational inefficiency is a conscious choice

Making your business run more efficiently starts with awareness. Once you identify where time or money is being wasted, small changes can make a big difference. Concentrate on what’s not working and look for easier, faster ways to improve it. With a steady effort to streamline operations, you’ll boost productivity, lower costs and build a more engaged team that keeps your business moving forward.