Busy Australian employees working long hours

While it might not be everyone's idea of fun, Australian employees are continuing to conduct hours of overtime, according to the 2014 Hays Salary Guide.

This statement comes from a survey of over 2,500 employers, of which almost one in three (31 per cent) said their employees are working longer hours than required. Just 11 per cent have been successful in reducing overtime while 58 per cent said extra hours had continued, but not increased.

Nick Deligiannis, managing director of Hays, said employers are looking at existing staff to fill holes rather than recruit new staff who would require sufficient training.

"This supports an emerging trend that we're seeing across the jobs market; the desire from employers to do more with less," he explained.

"But pressure to increase productivity without increasing headcount has the potential to cause workplace stress and employee burnout, which will cost a lot more in the long run."

Most of the employers (40 per cent) had seen overtime rise by up to five hours per week. As well as this, a staggering 34 per cent had seen it increase by five to 10 hours per week.

Furthermore, 8 per cent of employers said overtime had increased more than ten hours a week, while 65 per cent of employees noted that overtime was unpaid at their enterprise.

Mr Deligiannis explained businesses would be better to invest in new staff using sufficient recruitment software to plug the gaps.

"There could be a very good business case for adding permanent headcount or using a temporary staffing solution instead. We advise employers to monitor absenteeism and attrition rates so they're aware of what overtime really costs," he said.

Recruitment software streamlines the entire process enabling a business to sort relevant candidate information and CVs to access the best talent and take some of the pressure off current employees.