Page 25 - MiddleEast-business

23

The costs of overwork are well
known. Chronic stress leads to
Employers - Benefits of hiring
chronic health issues. Although Employees - Benefits of working
part-time employees
these may go unnoticed at first, they part-time
can add up to hours of missed work,
• Higher productivity –
and if left unattended, resulting in employees achieve more in • Higher motivation
more severe consequences, such less time • Increased concentration level
as heart attack, burnout (recently
classified by The World Health • Overall greater agility as the • Greater agility - for those who
1
Organization as a disease ) or result of more agile workers choose to work on multiple part-
at worst, suicide. The traditional time projects and shift between
benefits offered by an employer • Lower staff turnover a variety of roles
may not be enough to offset these
• Effective and inexpensive
effects. Some lucky employees may • Flexible leisure time - not only
personnel solution in case of
manage to leave before their body on Saturdays/Sundays
sickness or leave of absence
screams for help – for another job,
(instead of temporary • Ability to spend time with family
their own business, a sabbatical
staffing) while working
year or extended travel – but the
majority cannot break from routine. • Less costs due to illness • Overall improved happiness
It’s therefore up to an employer to
set the standard for a healthy work • Higher staff morale
culture.
In many companies, the cultural Lesson learned:
norm is to never slow down, in order
to keep up with the pace of work. Building a resilient and highly agile
Presenteeism is common - up to of adapting business processes human resource culture through
70% of employees claim they come requires human capital. And the arrangements such as part-time
into work even when they are sick more agile the personnel in place, employment is the number one
and up to 30% don’t want to sacrifice the higher the chances of surviving way to prepare for the changes that
2
their paid time off to illness . Most a crisis and succeeding on the will inevitably knock on employers’
organisations don’t encourage market. Part-time employees are doors, asking for overnight
breaks. Employers typically offer already used to adapting to new adaptation.
their full-time employees 30 to situations on a daily basis, whether
It’s about entrepreneurs and
60 minutes’ break a day – though balancing multiple projects or
organisation leaders understanding
sometimes less – even though juggling work, family and volunteer
breaks have been proven to engagements. In turn, employers the benefit of investing in and
increase productivity, creativity and stay more agile, able to react in no developing their staff ahead of time.
3
mental well-being . time to unforeseen changes, both Contrary to what employers often
believe, this short-term, sustainable
external (multiple new projects due
Knowing that it takes time and effort approach will secure a healthy and
to unforeseen business scaling) and
to change the status quo, some successful employment culture –
internal (changes in personnel).
countries have started to regulate the secret key to entrepreneurial
work breaks through laws that ‘force’ Want some role models? In success.
employees and employers alike to 2018, the countries with the 1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/
get used to this new productivity- bryanrobinson/2019/06/02/
highest percentages of part-time
boosting tool. Going even further, the-burnout-club-now-
employment were the Netherlands
there is a great demand for new considered-a-disease-with-a-
(57%), Sweden (46%), Switzerland membership-price-you-dont-want-to-
employment arrangements. Remote
(45%), Finland (43%) and the UK pay-for-success/#437f2f6b37ab
working is one option. But part-time
4
(42%) . With the exception of the 2. https://www.businessnewsdaily.
employment - also called time-
Netherlands, the global figures are com/11323-cost-of-coming-to-work-
splitting - is a particularly interesting quite low, a fact that highlights that sick.html
arrangement for employees and 3. https://www.forbes.com/
there is much room for improvement
employers alike. sites/alankohll/2018/05/29/
when it comes to increasing part- new-study-shows-correlation-
It may seem counterintuitive to time employment. Let’s learn from between-employee-engagement-
meet the demands of an ever- employers in these model countries, and-the-long-lost-lunch-
break/#22351dd4efc7
changing market through part- which will no doubt help to develop 4. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/
time employment. But at the end new policies favoring a healthy and SL.TLF.PART.ZS?end=2018&start=1
of the day, the costly endeavour effective employment culture. 976&view=chart
www.MiddleEast-Business.com 7 year, Issue 26, Mar - May 2020
th