Reasons Why Working Less Hours Can Increase Productivity of Employees

The need of productivity from the employees is increasing gradually with the growth in the competition among various businesses. Boosting the productivity of employees requires the businesses to look after the benefits and happiness of the employees. This is why most organization turn towards rewards and incentives to make the employees feel happy about themselves which in turn can increase their productivity.

However, all these incentives and rewards only increase the productivity of the employees for a short period and after that, everything gets back to normal. This is where one of the most debated topics of reducing working hours to increase the productivity comes in the mind of people. 

While most of the organizations have 40-42 hours a week as the average working time, it’s often observed that employees generally tend to work more than that. A study by the International Labor Organization has found out that more than 22% of the employees surveyed through time sheet free software work more than the average work time.

These figures suggest that employees get very less time to spend on themselves or on their families, which makes them less productive. There are also studies that suggest the longer a human work the less the productive it gets. This is why many progressive and developed countries, like Sweden and Germany, have moved on from the 40-48 hours a week working model to 32-36 hours a week model that are tracked through various time sheets free software. 

The results gained after shortening the working hours have provided positive results to support the claim of the researchers. Here are some of the reasons why shortening the work hours actually helps increase the productivity of the employees:

Improved well-being

Giving your employees more time to spend as they wish helps in reduction of their stress levels and improves their overall physical and mental well-being. This makes sure that employees make time for all the things that are important for them, which keeps them happy and satisfied. Working less would also mean that people would move away from the current trend of living to work, work to earn and earn to consume.

More time to spend with friends and family

Spending fewer hours in the office means, your employees will be able to spend more time with the people they care for. This helps them be happy most of the time that in turn increases the productivity of the employees. Strong and valuable relationships with friends and family also let people build a stronger society, which has greater productivity.

Better employees

The people who tend to work 40 hours or more in a week tend to gradually lose their productivity with the increase in working hours, while the people working less than 36 hours tend to be amore productive hour for hour. This happens because the employees working for fewer hours a week don’t need to push themselves to get through the time. The people working fewer hours are also very less prone to diseases and take much lesser holidays than their counterparts.