While this summer will go down in history thanks to a series of heatwaves and World Cup fever, it wasn’t perhaps as fruitful in other areas- ie number of hours worked!
Indoor and outdoor heating specialist, Heat Traders, wanted to find out how the hot weather affected British workers this past summer. Just how early they left their offices or place of work and how much this actually cost the economy. It ran a survey among 2,200 employees, and made some very interesting – and possibly worrying(!) discoveries…
Heat Traders found that, on average, Brits left their working day, or their shift, 19.5 minutes early each day over summer (which adds up to just over an hour and a half per week) to get to the pub, or the park, or wherever else they enjoy doing in the sunshine… but this potentially had a big impact on our economy.
In fact, Heat Traders calculated that the total cost to UK businesses based on workers leaving 19.5 minutes early per day this summer was a mind-boggling sum of £10.8 billion!
When broken down by region, workers in Cornwall clocked off an impressive 18.9 minutes early, costing their bosses a not-insignificant £325.27 each.
I disagree that the loss of time equates to that cost. Productivity is not just about the amount of time put to something, it is also about the state of mind. I imagine people were in a better mood and state of mind over the summer and that would have given an increase in productivity. Businesses need to recognise the impact of state of mind. This is the difference between managing (tasks and time) and leading (people).
I forgot to add there are studies that demonstrate this. See this experiment by a NZ company that moved staff to a 4 day/week – but still paid them for 5. They found their staff were more punctual, more energetic, meetings were shorter etc. and they are not going back to 5 days.
http://uk.businessinsider.com/four-day-workweek-new-zealand-company-perpetual-guardian-2018-7?r=US&IR=T
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