New research from the CIPD finds that long hours, stress and poor work-life balance is damaging attempts to improve the job quality amongst UK employers.
A total of 5,136 people were surveyed for the UK Working Lives Survey, which is an assessment of job quality over categories ranging from pay and benefits, contracts and employment terms and job design to health and wellbeing.
Identifying poor work-life balance as a problem, 60 per cent of those surveyed stated that say they work longer hours than they wish to, with 24 per cent stating that they overwork by at least ten hours a week - and find it difficult to relax in their leisure time because they are thinking about work.
The report also highlights serious fears about the workloads and the effect it can have on the health of employees - with 66 per cent saying they have experienced anxiety and sleep problems in the last 12 months.
Peter Cheese - Chief Executive of the CIPD - said that the survey showed that work could sometimes be inclusive, putting too many demands on much of people’s personal time.
He stated:
“At its best, work gives people purpose, a sense of identity and achievement, and allows them to contribute to society. But, as our research shows, work can sometimes be all-encompassing, demands too much of people’s precious personal time and takes too much out of them. It’s disappointing to see so many workers report they have a poor work-life balance and it is an issue which must be addressed by employers. They need to be offering all staff a wide range of flexible working arrangements and actively promoting their take-up.”
He added:
“As co-chair of the Flexible Working Task Force, we are working with the government and other business groups to bring flexible working to the masses and help reset the work-life balance. Not only will this help to improve people’s quality of life, but it will make their performance at work more sustainable over the long-term.”
Louise Aston - Health and Wellbeing Director at Business in the Community - approved the call by the CIPD for employers to offer improved flexible working practices, but stated that it is only one part of the solution to addressing the problem of UK job quality.
She said:
“More and more people are using their annual leave or time at home to work and alarmingly, according to our research, only one in four organisations are taking any steps to discourage this. A seismic cultural shift is needed across the board because the trend towards people working longer and harder than ever before looks set to get worse. Long term, this causes burnout, is unsustainable and has a significant impact on recruitment and retention.”
The CIPD is also urging employers to fulfill their statutory duty of carrying out a comprehensive health and safety risk assessment and to provide effective training for line managers in people management practices.
