It’s easy to assume staff who work longer hours are more loyal, engaged and productive. But studies conducted in both Australia and the US are disproving this myth. In fact, the research found encouraging staff to work the standard Award hours, can positively impact on the profitability of a business.
Australian workers contributing $71.2 billion in unpaid overtime
My Business magazine reported on an Australian study conducted last year that found our full-time workers average 42.25 hours each week. This is 4.25 hours above the standard 38 hour employment contract and equates to $71.2 billion worth of unpaid overtime each year.
Even part-time workers are providing, on average, one additional hour of unpaid work each week.
Unpaid overtime = Sacrificing personal time
While employers may wish they had more of these hard workers, the research also discovered that 34% of Australians reported a lack of work/life balance as a key reason for changing employers.
On the flip side, 62% of Australian workers said a good work/life balance was their primary reason for staying with their current employer.
The reason for these findings is simple. Unpaid overtime means workers are sacrificing time with their family and have less free time to engage in leisure activities, rest and recreation.
As a consequence, the most productive and dedicated members of your workforce are more likely to be presenting to work feeling tired, stressed and unhealthy.
If employers fail to act on these problems, their staff will find another employer who promises to provide more work/life balance.
Increased expectations that work will continue at home
If your organisation expects emails or business calls to be handled after hours, you are setting your staff up for chronic emotional stress and exhaustion. Rather than boosting efficiency, this practice will negatively impact on the health and well-being of your staff, resulting in lower productivity.
In fact research presented at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting in California last year found workers experienced significant increases in stress simply because they were expected to be available – even if there were no calls or emails to answer.
Setting up this expectation as part of the work culture means employees are unable to disconnect from work to fully participate in recreational activities. This leads to burn-out, mental health problems and staff turnover – all issues that reduce productivity.
To support these findings, research from the Australian Psychological Society found rising employee stress levels are costing Australian employers approx. $30 billion per year.
Here are 5 questions to help you critically evaluate your organisational culture, improve productivity and reduce unpaid overtime for your staff.
1. When you take into account the work performed at home as well as at the office, are you overworking your most loyal and conscientious staff?
2. Do you have the best systems in place to streamline workflow so staff can do the same amount of work in less time?
3. Could your staff perform their work faster with additional training?
4. Are your staffing levels appropriate or should you be hiring additional staff (maybe on a part-time or a casual basis initially)?
5. Are any of your leaders micro-managing their teams thereby increasing the length of their work day?
If you can’t answer these questions or you don’t know where to start, End2End Business Solutions can help you. We are your outsourced HR department – providing guidance so you can boost staff productivity and reduce staff turnover.
To begin the conversation, call 02 8977 4002 today.