Rising overtime impacts the physical, mental and financial health of employees
What is the cost of rising overtime on workers?
It impacts the physical, mental and financial health of employees, particularly if it becomes excessive, according to Nick Deligiannis, Managing Director of Hays in Australia & New Zealand.
“This ultimately leads to rising turnover. If an organisation then becomes known for lengthy overtime, it’ll also lead to heightened candidate attraction challenges,” he added.
“To counter this, employers could consider whether a new permanent team member is required to relieve the pressure on existing staff.”
Alternatively, a temporary candidate could be brought in to assist at times of peak workloads.
Deligiannis’ comments come as overtime increased in 31% of organisations over the past year, with 57% of non-award staff unpaid for their extra hours, according to recruiting experts Hays.
Of the more than 3,400 organisations surveyed as part of the annual Hays Salary Guide, just 8% managed to decrease overtime over the past 12 months.
Moreover, research involving more than 1,600 professionals across Australia, with 43% saying they work up to 2.5 hours of overtime on average each week.
A further 29% work between 2.5 and 5 hours per week, while 18% work 6 to 10 hours. The final 10 per cent work more than 11 hours of overtime on average every week.
Moreover, 27% of those who are currently looking or planning to look for a new job in the next 12 months cite poor work-life balance as a motivating factor.
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Deligiannis added that over the past year we’ve seen skill shortages intensify while business activity has increased.
“This has led some employers to turn to their existing team to ensure expanding workloads are completed on time,” he said.
“It’s also important to offer genuine work-life balance initiatives so that employees can focus on their health and wellbeing after periods of lengthy overtime.”
