Employees spending less time in the office, with lesser overtime

The number of hours in the average workday spent by the average employee has dropped with no compromise in productivity levels in the past year.
By: | August 3, 2023
Topics: Employee Experience | Health and Wellness

In a post-Covid-19 era, the average workday has changed, with fewer people taking on overtime shifts and the average workday shrinking by 37 minutes in the past year, leading to a fall in time spent at work from more than 10.5 hrs to 10 at the end of the second quarter of 2022. Productivity, however, has not slipped despite the shorter work hours, reported Bloomberg.

This was something found by workforce-analytics firm ActivTrak in a study released, which analysed 38 million hours worked by 134,000 employees across multiple industries like financial services, healthcare, insurance, and professional services globally.

“What we’re seeing here is truly an efficiency gain,” said Gabriela Mauch, Vice-President of the ActivTrak Productivity Lab. “Shorter workdays may mean that companies are listening to workers’ cry for help as it relates to burnout.”

READ MORE: South Koreans spend more time at work despite reduced work hours

The number of overutilised employees, or those frequently working outside regular business hours, has also fallen from 32% the previous year to 28%, which indicates a possible change for the better for the mental, physical, and financial health of employees.

Nonetheless, almost a third of the respondents continue to work for more than 10 hrs a day, according to the study.