Do Fewer Working Hours Increase Employee Engagement?

If you were to poll your colleagues as I did to ask if they would welcome fewer working hours, I bet you would have a universal response of, “Who wouldn’t!” But, it turns out, not everybody is happier with a shorter work week. Some of the consequences were not anticipated…

About a decade ago, the Korean government mandated that businesses institute a work week of five, not the usual six, days. The hope was that employees would have more time to devote to their families, be more engaged at work when they were at the office, and be more content in general.

Ten years later, it turns out that the result was quite different from expected. Employees were not at all happier on the job. Why? Because though their work week was shorter, their work load was unchanged. They were expected to accomplish the same amount of work as before in less time. The pressure was greater and not compensated by the time off.

So, employee engagement training professionals advise to make sure that you identify root causes, plan for unintended consequences and only take engagement actions that will truly improve commitment, motivation and performance.