The Hidden Costs of Overtime and How a Staffing Company Can Help
Ms. Pomerantz is the CEO of TPG Staffing LLC and has over 35 years’ experience in recruiting top talent for some of the largest companies in the world and start-ups alike. She earned a BS from the University of Pittsburgh and a Master’s in Human Resource Management from Rutgers University. She also has senior HR credentials, including both SPHR and SHRM-SCP certifications.
When it comes to your employees working overtime, you may think the costs are quite obvious. You have to pay your employees at least time and a half for their extra hours, which will negatively impact your payroll budget. But this is only the most obvious cost, not the only cost. There are several other hidden costs of overtime that you may not have considered, but can be extremely impactful to your business in a negative way.
Overtime Costs You May Not Have Considered
If you have flexibility within your payroll budget, you may not think that your employees working overtime is a problem. After all, you can afford it, and you likely feel like your employees will enjoy the bump in pay. If your staff works overtime only occasionally, both the obvious and hidden costs may be negligible. However, if overtime is a regular occurrence at your company or even mandatory, you are vulnerable to other consequences.
Safety
Being overworked leads to a person being overly stressed. This can be harmful to a person’s mental and physical health. Every person needs the proper amount of time to take care of themselves, and if your employees are putting in 50-60 hours a week, you are cutting into their ability to do so.
Health
Working 10-12 hour days is not conducive to a safe work environment. As employees work longer hours, their attention spans dwindle and their alertness wanes. Employees that are not aware of their surroundings or in a fog because of long hours are more likely to injure themselves while on the job.
Productivity
You might think that longer hours will lead to increased productivity among your staff. However, the opposite is usually true. Longer hours lead to diminishing returns from your staff. According to a Stanford University study, employees who are used to working 40 hours per week actually produce less when pushed to 60 hours.[1]
Quality
Even if your staff does produce more while working more hours, the quality of the work produced cannot be overlooked. If your business relies on repeat clients, you cannot afford to sacrifice your customer service standards or the quality that they are used to. Overworking your staff will almost definitely negatively impact the quality of their output or may lead to missed deadlines and avoidable errors.
How A Staffing Company Can Help You Avoid the Hidden Costs of Overtime
The reality is that if you have more work that needs to be done, you may not think you have much of a choice but to require your employees to put in more hours. You can’t afford to lose any business. But a reputable staffing company offers you an alternative approach to this problem, saving your current staff from the consequences of being overworked.
Hire More Full-Time Employees
The staffing industry has evolved to the point where many staffing agencies can find workers in virtually any field on short notice. You may not feel like investing the time and effort into a long employee search, and working with a staffing agency makes it so you don’t have to.
Whether you need a receptionist or department manager, a staffing company will streamline the recruiting and hiring process for you and get you the exact type of worker you need to hit the ground running. The cost of finding a new employee may be less than the amount of business you’re losing because of diminished productivity from your overburdened staff.
A staffing agency can provide you with temporary workers to help you get through your busy season.
Find New Skills
Do you have a special project that requires skills that your current workers do not possess? Rather than having your employees watch YouTube videos to learn how to do something or paying to train them, a better approach would be to trust a staffing agency to find a worker to fill your skill gap.
Add Temporary Staff
Are you entering a busy season that your team can’t handle? Are you experiencing a sudden uptick in business but are unsure if you need more permanent workers to meet the demand? A staffing agency can provide you with temporary workers to help you get through your busy season, or temp-to-perm employees any time of year that allows you to evaluate your workforce needs and adjust accordingly.
TPG Staffing is a national leader in recruiting, hiring, and staffing for companies of all sizes and from all industries. If you’d like to avoid the hidden costs of overtime, maximize your workforce’s productivity and capitalize on business growth opportunities, we’re ready to help. Contact us at any time to discuss your staffing needs and how we can help you meet those demands. Call 732-246-7100 to get started.
Sources:
- https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs201/projects/crunchmode/econ-hours-productivity.html