9 to 5, 8 to 6, 7 to 7

9 to 5, 8 to 6, 7 to 7: has overtime extended your working day?

• Over one quarter (29 per cent) of organisations in New Zealand increased overtime in the last year;
• Of these, and for non-award staff, 52 per cent said overtime was unpaid.

Only 6 per cent of New Zealand employers managed to decrease overtime and extra hours in their organisation in the last 12 months, with 29 per cent instead increasing overtime, according to findings in the recently released 2015 Hays Salary Guide.

As revealed in the Guide, of the 29 per cent of organisations in New Zealand that increased overtime, 32 per cent did so by five hours or less per week. A further 38 per cent said overtime was up five to 10 hours per week, and 8 per cent said overtime was up by more than 10 hours each week. Employers also reported increasing overtime at month end and year end.

52 per cent of employers said their non-award employees were not paid for these additional hours. Only 48 per cent said employees were paid for overtime.

“Many New Zealanders work more hours than they are paid for,” says Jason Walker, Managing Director of Hays in New Zealand. “Professionals in highly-skilled roles, often on a salary, and often in professional services, tend to undertake a lot of this overtime.

“A massive 76 per cent of employers expect their levels of business activity to increase in the year ahead, and with certain skills in short supply it’s no wonder that overtime rates are going up not down.

“But increasing the workloads of existing staff can cause employee stress and burnout. For many organisations, rather than ask existing staff to do more there could be a good business case for adding a permanent or temporary member to the team to help relieve pressure on existing staff.

“We also advise employers to consider if overworked and stressed employees can really perform at their best,” says Jason.

The Hays Salary Guide includes salary and recruiting trends for over 1,000 roles in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington. It is based on a survey of 451 New Zealand employers, representing 374,007 employees.

Get your copy of the 2015 Hays Salary Guide by visiting www.hays.net.nz/salary-guide, contacting your local Hays office or downloading The Hays Salary Guide 2015 iPhone app from iTunes.

Hays, the world’s leading recruiting experts in qualified, professional and skilled people.

ENDS

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