Spotlight On Productivity: Unpaid Overtime Is Soaring Since Advent Of COVID-19

The amount of unpaid overtime that workers around the world are doing has soared in the past year, with the average amount of “free time” worked increasing by almost two hours per person per week since COVID-19 hit, reveals a new study by the ADP® Research Institute, People at Work 2021: A Global Workforce View.

Globally, the average amount of free overtime being worked each week is now 9.2 hours per person – up from 7.3 hours pre-pandemic[1], according to the findings of the survey of more than 32,000 workers in 17 countries. This can range from working over breaks and starting early or staying late, to regularly putting in extra work for no additional pay.

One in ten workers (10%) globally are now giving away in excess of 20 hours per week for free to their employers – a proportion that has doubled in the last year from one in twenty (5%) before the pandemic. Given the demanding nature of their jobs, essential workers are putting in more unpaid overtime than non-essential workers – at 10.1 hours per week on average, compared to 8.1 hours.

The report explores whether the effects of the pandemic have impacted employees’ attitudes towards the current world of work and what they expect and hope for from the workplace of the future.

Workers in India putting in more unpaid hours than global average

In India, workers believe that they work an extra 11.1 hours per week for free. More than 82% of the respondents surveyed in India believe they have been underpaid at some point in time. Additionally, close to 40% of the respondents are working longer hours during normal working weeks and almost 39% are increasing efforts to network and develop contacts within the organization.

The pandemic has also made individuals more digitally savvy and close to 50% of the respondents started using mobile applications or tools to manage their finances Over half (52%) of the respondents also aim at becoming certified in new technologies to be successful in new jobs that will be created due to the pandemic.

Rahul Goyal, Managing Director – India & South East Asia of ADP, a global leader in payroll and HCM solutions, commented: “Workers are now routinely clocking up what amounts to more than a working day’s-worth of unpaid overtime every single week.”

The arrival of COVID-19 has spurred many people to work harder than ever

“Essential workers may have been struggling to keep up with the extra workload COVID-19 has created. Non-essential workers may be going the extra mile due to concerns about their job security, to compensate when colleagues have lost their jobs, or because the boundaries between work and home life have been blurred when working remotely.”

Solving this growing issue is not straightforward; it requires a major cultural shift within companies to change the status quo and attitudes towards overwork, starting with a commitment from leadership.

Mr. Goyal says that HR departments should also be part of the solution. "The concerning rise in workers putting in extra hours highlights the need for HR departments to take a leading role in addressing this issue. At the end of the day, they are the cornerstone of workplace culture and employee wellbeing.

“An important factor is efficient and accurate reporting. HR managers have an opportunity to be proactive on monitoring and reporting on the time and attendance of employees with greater transparency. But it’s very difficult to do this when there are disparate systems being used across a company and manual inputs are not well recorded. Using digital tools that are integrated with existing business processes helps to streamline the reporting process."

WFH vs. on-site – or a mixture of both: what’s best for productivity?

Globally, those working from home (WFH) estimate they are putting in more unpaid overtime than those based in the workplace or on-site, at 9.4 hours per week on average, compared to 8.7 hours. However, those taking a hybrid approach, combining home working for part of the week and on-site working the rest of the time, believe they are doing the most of all, at 9.8 hours.

Despite the adjustments of working away from the office, those working remotely are no more likely than their colleagues on-site to report that maintaining productivity is a major challenge. Indeed, they are marginally less likely to say so, at 10% compared to 13%. In fact, those adopting hybrid working arrangements find maintaining productivity most challenging of all (15% describe it as a major challenge).

“These findings reject the idea some employers had that working from home is an excuse to relax – far from it. Having been forced into this remote working experiment and seen how much effort staff members are putting in, businesses may be more likely to allow greater flexibility around working structures to continue going forward,” says Mr Goyal. “However, employers and workers considering a hybrid working model post-pandemic should not simply assume it will deliver the ‘best of both worlds’.”

“There are still many questions around the extent to which working from home will remain the norm, for all or part of the week, and what that might mean for productivity, team building, staff development and career progression, as well as office space requirements. Our findings around the relative productivity of different ways of working suggest that there are no easy answers to that conundrum.”