Expecting humans to sustain machine-level output across a full workday is not realistic. Research shows the average worker is productive for only 2 hours and 53 minutes of an 8-hour workday. Extending working hours does not proportionally increase productive output – it primarily increases fatigue and burnout.
Today, among the latest trends, there is one that is beginning to emerge among the most productive companies in the world: the reduction of the daily volume of work. From the average 12 to 15 hours a day, 6 days a week working schedule introduced at the beginning of the industrial revolution, to working only eight hours a day, five days a week schedule.Â
This change, although a much-needed one, has not really put workers at their productive best or utilise their competencies to their maximum potential as research further suggests that in an eight-hour day, the average worker is only productive for two hours and 53 minutes. Â
When working for eight hours in an office, for example, workers tend to spend a considerable amount of time procrastinating, resulting in less than three hours actually being spent working productively. Many unproductive activities such as checking social media, reading news websites, discussing non-work-related things with co-workers, making food and drinks in the office, etc. are observed when workers procrastinate.Â
Low daily productive output creates three compounding business risks: underutilization of employee skills and competencies, high wage costs relative to actual productive output, and increased employee burnout from hours spent in unproductive presence rather than focused work
- Workers not utilising their skills and competencies to their maximum potential.
- Paying a huge chunk of wages for very little return.
- Increased employee burnout and making the average workday less humane.
Outsourcing Might Be Inevitable
To this end, several solutions come to mind. One of them is outsourcing. Not only does outsourcing to virtual expert agencies lead the charge to truly disrupt the workday, but it also offers improved productivity at a reasonable cost. Many companies that choose to outsource are increasingly finding that there are significant benefits available to them in doing so. First, outsourcing can help companies become significantly more efficient – namely, by offering flexible engagements hourly.
This is thought to be a great way to help businesses drive the success of economic growth. Workers take advantage of the hours when they are most productive, take less time or hours to accomplish work, and their time get tracked down to the second whenever they work. As a result, they produce the same output but with lesser time. On the other hand, you can also enjoy peace of mind knowing that your workers are not sitting idle in the office or spending time on unproductive activities.
Second, you will observe increased employee engagement and improvement in morale that will eventually reduce employee burnout. It is true that every business aims at creating a high-performance team. But this is only realistic when workers are either motivated or are focused on the work at hand. With shorter hours of work and the absence of fatigue, stress-related diseases, boredom and cardiovascular disorders, workers should be able to boost more intense and concentrated productivity.
And imagine if you truly embrace this transformation. Even if you did not cut a workday down to three hours, you could still pretty much expect the same amount of output as someone in the office for eight hours.
Google and Alibaba showing the way
Today, many forward-thinking companies are reinventing their organisational culture and outsourcing internal responsibilities. Google, for example, sets a good example of excellent business culture and scaling successfully through the use of outsourcing. The company has been outsourcing work to remote workers for years and seeing excellent benefits. They outsource everything from virtual assistant work, IT work, development, email support and more.
Alibaba, on the other hand, had recognised that the skills they needed to grow were not available at scale in the region when they first established. Alibaba started looking for partners and outsourcers early in their development across a host of different projects and found many of the skills they needed in the United States. By outsourcing web development to the United States, the site flourished and grew at an astronomical pace.
Examples of other companies that used outsourcing to grow from small teams to global leaders:
- GitHub
- Apple
- Basecamp
- Wise (formerly TransferWise)
- Skype
- Slack
In a nutshell, the working framework that was developed 200 years ago is unsuited for the culture and productivity we demand today. As a result, a growing number of companies are restructuring their organisational models – shifting from fixed full-time headcount to flexible, output-based work arrangements including outsourcing.
For businesses looking to improve productivity per dollar spent, outsourcing through a specialist remote staffing partner is a structured, lower-risk entry point. Kuubiik offers flexible remote talent engagements starting from $763 per month, with time-tracked output and no long-term commitment required.
