In a tight labour market, workers spend a lot of their time on non-core tasks, devoting a full day per week to meetings and administrative duties

As the population ages, the number of people in employment will hardly grow at all in the coming decades. The resulting labour shortage underscores how important it is to manage working hours more effectively. If workers can use their time more efficiently, this can also yield productivity gains at both the organisation and macroeconomic levels. A new DNB survey shows that many workers see scope to reorganise their working hours by spending less time on tasks they do not consider to be central to their work.

Tight labour market

In many sectors, staff shortages hold back growth and hinder the provision of services. Addressing labour market shortages is not just about how much we work, but also about how productively and effectively the available working hours are utilised (see also an earlier DNB analysis on labour market tightness).

Meetings, planning sessions and administrative duties are often necessary for organisations to run effectively. At the same time, the survey reveals that many workers find recurring meetings and administrative duties to be too time-consuming. They indicate that these activities go at the expense of their core tasks, such as caring for patients or teaching. The survey also shows that organisations are not powerless in this regard: according to workers, actively reducing these time-consuming obligations can help lower work-related stress and increase job satisfaction, and may also lead to a more effective use of working hours.

Considerable variation

The survey reveals that the amount of time employees spend on tasks they do not consider to be part of their core duties varies from sector to sector. Figure 1 shows that the median of the proportion of non-core tasks is relatively high in education and the public sector, while it is lower in sectors such as retail and hospitality. At the same time, there is considerable variation within sectors. According to the survey, the proportion of non-core tasks in the healthcare sector is slightly lower than in most other sectors, although other questions reveal that 50% of healthcare workers still feel they spend too much time on non-core tasks. This is higher than the average for all sectors (47%).

Note: The figure shows the median and the responses between the 25th and 75th percentiles for each sector. Source: DNB survey based on the LISS panel.

Room for improvement

Not all organisations actively work to reduce non-core tasks. However, a third of employees say that their organisation has a policy aimed at addressing such burdens. The survey shows that such policies make a difference: in organisations without an active policy, 58% of workers perceive the burden of non-core tasks as high, compared with 45% in organisations where explicit efforts are made to reduce this burden (Figure 2).

Workers therefore notice when their organisation takes action. They indicate that this alleviates the workload and staff shortages, improves job satisfaction and can boost productivity. Workers say that the focus should be on scheduling fewer – and shorter – meetings, and on establishing better agreements and processes within the organisation.