Three facts that employees don’t want their employers to know

In case you hadn't noticed already, a survey suggests that employees are only productive for just over half of the day.

Employees are only human. It is unrealistic to request them to stay in one company their entire work life, or perform at 100% concentration the whole working day.

However, employers should pay attention to the signs of disengagement – before it results in low productivity, procrastination, or even attrition.

Two recent surveys from Ringover have interviewed over 1,000 employed Americans separately, to delve deeper into the distracted behaviours employees usually have at work, as well as the indicators that imply employees intend to leave the company.

*While the survey was conducted in the US, HRO believes the results remain relevant to our readership in Asia.

Employees are only productive for just over half of the day

According to Ringover’s survey, the average worker is productive for only four hours and 36 minutes a day, or 57.5% of a typical workday.

Women were reported to be slightly more productive than men, by around 36 minutes per day (four hours 54 minutes compared to four hours 18 minutes respectively).

Among all types of workers, hybrid workers were found to be the most productive at five hours and six minutes, while office workers and remote workers were at at four hours and 42 minutes, and four hours and 6 minutes respectively.

The most productive age group was the middle-aged workforce (44-59) with an average of five hours and 30 minutes, whereas the least productive age group was Millennials (28-43) at four hours and 18 minutes.

So what did they do during all this missing time? The non-work-related activities workers admitted to spending the longest time on were browsing the internet on non-work-related topics (56 minutes), communicating with friends and family (55 minutes), and discussing non-work-related topics with colleagues (52 minutes).

People cited boredom (30%) or stress (30%) as the top two reasons for becoming distracted. Coming third was short attention span (23.1%), with 73.9% believing it is owed to digitalisation.

Nearly four-fifths of employees admit to job hunting during work hours

Eight in ten Americans (78.8%) that were surveyed said they had actively job hunted whilst employed.

On average, people spent 4.6 hours a week on finding a new job whilst employed. A quarter (27.4%) admitted to spending longer than seven hours per week job hunting on company time, with three quarters (72.5%) even using a work computer to do so – despite the fact that employers can easily monitor the activity on a work device.

Though employees are usually job hunting subtly, there are still signs for employers to spot such intentions.

The three most common indicators that someone is finding a new job are:

• Turning up late and/or leaving early (33.5%)
• Taking longer lunches (32.9%)
• Making more requests for days off (30.4%)

Meanwhile, taking a look at employees’ LinkedIn activity may also be a good way for employers to gauge if they are planning a move.

The most common job-hunting behaviours employees did were:

• Update their resume (55.9%)
• Update a LinkedIn profile (38.4%)
• Become more active on LinkedIn (30.0%)

When asked what employees would update on their LinkedIn profile, almost half (46.2%) said they would update their about info, 34.7% said they would update their experience section, and 28.6% said they would update their photo.

Most people (60.6%) also said that they would take a call about a new job privately at work. Three-quarters of people (77.1%) agreed they would dress smarter than usual at the office if they had an interview that day.

Employees would fake a family emergency to attend a job interview

Although eight in ten (78.9%) respondents said they would try to arrange interviews outside work hours, this isn’t always possible when interviewing for a position in a company with a similar 9-5 structure.

Therefore, three in five (60.5%) admitted that they had lied to their employer about taking an interview, and a quarter (26.1%) just ‘hoped their boss wouldn’t notice’ they took the time out from work for an interview.

Then what excuses would they use to slip out of work to take an interview?

The most common excuses for attending an interview included:

• A family emergency (32.3%)
• A medical appointment (30.70%)
• Sickness (27.2%)

Although the majority of people (61.2%) said they would feel guilty about it, most people (61.2%) would lie if their boss asked them if they were looking for opportunities elsewhere.