As many companies continue to operate within tight budgets amid a slow economic recovery, more Canadian employees find themselves with larger workloads. But a growing number of experts are warning that workers can only take so much and that if companies want more productive and engaged staff, they need to adopt a more progressive approach to work volumes.
People can certainly do more with less, but not indefinitely, said Nora Spinks, CEO of the Vanier Institute of the Family, an independent research and educational non-profit that focuses on the well-being of Canadian families. “That lasts for a while—until grievances start to be filed, people get sick and somebody has a heart attack,” Spinks said, speaking at a Toronto seminar. Then, eventually, employees start doing less with less, she added.
Studies confirm that Canadian employees have indeed been doing more over the past decade. In 2012, 68% of men and 54% of women said they worked more than 45 hours a week, according to a national work/life balance survey conducted by professors at Carleton University and Western University. In 2001, 55% of men and 39% of women worked more than 45 hours a week. And just over half of surveyed employees said they take work home on evenings and weekends.
A 2012 survey of more than 1,000 North American employees found that only 20% of respondents take a lunch break, while 39% eat lunch at their desks. Another 28% said they rarely take any breaks, according to the survey, which was conducted by Right Management.
And while people have been working more and forgoing breaks, their stress levels have been rising, according to the academic work/life report, which polled about 25,000 Canadians. Fifty-seven percent of employees reported high stress levels in 2011, compared with 54% in 2001 and 44% in 1991.
Absenteesim has spiked, too. Seventy-seven percent of employees were absent in 2012, seven percentage points higher from 2001, the work/life report shows. The main reasons were health problems (63%) and emotional, mental or physical fatigue (45%). Thirty percent missed work due to childcare, 10% due to eldercare and 8% because their organization didn’t give them a vacation day.
So what can companies do to manage work volumes if it is in their financial interest to have employees who are not overwhelmed with their jobs?
Get information
The first step would be to gather data about how busy staff members are, according to Spinks. “Leaders don’t have the information to determine whether workloads are appropriate,” she said, explaining that many people simply don’t record their overtime. That’s why companies need to include questions about workloads in their performance reviews, Spinks explained.
And, she said, when workers say they’re struggling, employers need to find out whether the reason is job misfit, insufficient skills, high volume of work or personal demands such as family care, which is an issue for a growing number of Canadians.
Focus on results
Another step employers should take is to focus on results rather than job descriptions, hours spent on tasks and adherence to a strict schedule, Spinks said.
This also means being less rigid about hierarchy and allowing each project to be managed by the team member who has the most appropriate skills, rather than the highest ranking, Spinks explained.
Dan Pontefract, Vancouver-based author of Flat Army: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization, agrees that strict hierarchy could be harmful. “Direction and guidance is one thing, but unilateral close-mindedness just for the sake of it […] is disheartening,” Pontefract writes in his book. “Command-and-control leadership is still pervasive, yet employees are itching to break free from not being able to help, not being empowered to sort out problems on their own and not being able to offer ideas that might actually improve the organization itself.”
Understand gen Y and I
Additionally, managers need to be cognizant of generational differences. Generation Y and the one after, generation I, are often misunderstood by employers for being more independent, more prone to questioning established work practices and less willing to follow a firm schedule, Spinks said.
“Stop beating them up for not being like the last generation,” she explained. “We jump to conclusions too quickly that if somebody leaves at three o’clock, they’re not committed—when, in fact, they’re accessible and available 14 hours a day.”
Managers also need to be aware that young people have different communication preferences, Spinks added. They often find email slow and archaic, favouring instant messaging, which allows them to have multiple conversations at the same time.
Lighten up
Finally, organizations should let go of the notion that “if you’re not stressed and strained, you’re not working hard enough,” Spinks said. If laughter is floating out of cubicles and other spaces, this isn’t a sign that people are slacking off, she explained.
Also, managers should expect optimum, not maximum, performance, she said. “Think about […] an elastic band—how stretched are your people? What happens to that elastic band if it’s stretched for too long?”
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