Kronos Survey Results: Removal of Working Time Directive Opt-out Will Impact Profitability and Customer Service
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18 December 2008 : In a recent survey conducted by Kronos to establish how employers are reacting to the news that the UK's Working Time Directive opt-out is to be scrapped, 50% of respondents are concerned that the opt-out removal will negatively impact the profitability of their company. Customer service is also expected to be negatively impacted according to 65% of respondents. The survey was conducted by email in December 2008.
Current working hours
Many organisations offer employees the flexibility to work longer hours with 90% of survey respondents stating that they do have some employees who work on average over 48 hours per week. The results show that 35% of respondents have 6-20% of their workforce work these hours and 15% of respondents state that over 40% of staff regularly work on average more than 48 hours per week.
What are the options?
Just 30% of respondents currently have no plans to make any changes once the opt-out is removed. Other respondents are considering options that include: implementing a technology solution to help improve productivity and efficiency (50%), using more flexible working contracts (45%); recruiting additional workers (35%) and multi-skilling/training existing employees.
Will managing employees hours be difficult without the opt out?
Yes, according to 45% of respondents who believe it will be difficult or extremely difficult, using existing systems, to accurately monitor employee working hours without the opt-out.
This is perhaps not surprising given that 50% of respondents are relying on spreadsheets and manual timesheets to manage employees' working hours. Automated time and attendance systems are being used by 40% of respondents to record and manage working hours.
How much extra admin will there be?
The majority of respondents are in agreement that there will be a significant impact in workload. 20% believe that the extra admin will take in excess of 10 hours over a pay period, 10% believe that it will take up to 10 hours extra and 25% of respondents think there will be up to five additional hours work to cope with.
The single biggest impact on employers
There were many responses to this particular question and the answers can be broadly grouped into: the negative impact on customer service; extra costs and the administrative burden; a reduction in employee morale as employees face significant loss of earnings; reduced competitiveness; and the costly impact of having to employ untrained temporary staff.
How are employees likely to react?
Negatively, was the opinion of the majority of respondents. Employees like the flexibility to choose their own working hours and the opportunity to earn extra money - and may even take second jobs and fail to record hours worked elsewhere
Not all respondents were aware that the European Parliament were voting on the removal of the opt-out on 17th December, with 35% of respondents unaware of the news.
Commenting on the results of the survey, Keith Statham, managing director, Kronos Systems says, "In the current climate any negative effect on productivity and customer service will not be welcome by employers. Managing working hours once the opt-out is removed needn't be an administrative headache and many of our customers already use a Kronos system to fully automate the monitoring of working hours under the rules of the Working Time Directive."