It's time for employers and employees alike to look at work as something other than just a forty-hour workweek and begin thinking more about pay for performance.
It is not unusual for employers to have expectations that all employees will report to work at the time designated each Monday through Friday (or whatever days their schedule calls for) and put in their forty hours. And most employees do.
In fact, a 2005 Microsoft study found that American workers spend an average of about 45 hours a week at work, while the Center for Work Life Policy found that the average professional workweek has expanded to 70-plus hours per week as employees move to top of the heap. Where there seems to be a major source of debate is whether or not these hard working employees are actually working every hour they are on the job.
According to the Microsoft study, 16 of the 45 hours are considered unproductive by employees because they are spent in too many worthless meetings. On the other hand in a recent America On Line (AOL) and Salary.com survey, they found employees work only three days a week while wasting the other two surfing the net.
The question then becomes are employees working longer because they are wasting so much time or are they wasting more time because they are working longer and harder?
Over half of the respondents to the AOL/Salary.com survey said they waste time when they are bored or feel they are underpaid. Further proof of how important employee engagement really is to an organization.
At the same time respondents to the Microsoft survey said aside from the wasted time spent in meetings, they also felt that unclear objectives and lack of team communication make them feel unproductive.
So what does this all mean to employers (as well as employees)?
First, today’s workers are changing. As they morph into the knowledge worker of tomorrow it is only natural that they will need more thinking time to review processes, analyze their work and determine the most productive way to get their job done.
In addition, the traditional ways of doing business may no longer be the most rewarding for employees or the most productive for businesses. Rethinking the 9-to-5 routine may be the only way for organizations to continue to thrive as new methods of working such as ROWE (Results-Only Work Environment) begin to become more prominent.
While it is still important that organizations and the employees who run them think creatively about how to increase employee productivity and improve employee engagement by making the routine non-routine, promoting teamwork and camaraderie, and providing encouragement and appreciation, it is necessary to think even further outside the box.
To ensure that employees give 100 percent employers need to look beyond the limiting walls of a forty-hour work week and begin to define jobs and careers that are shaped and paid for by accomplishing defined goals.
Think of it as building a structure that has an agreed to price and deadline for each step, and as these steps are completed the builder gets a paycheck. The foundation is laid correctly and on time, he receives his payment. The framing goes up in good order, he gets paid. And if the builder decides that he doesn’t want to work on a certain day, as long as the agreed to time frame is met, that is his choice.
The idea is to pay someone for the actual work done, not for socializing, playing games on the computer, or sitting in their cubicle for eight hours a day. Potentially this could mean employees have more work choices and input into how and when their work is completed, and therefore fewer reasons to waste time while at work.
