Companies Really Can ‘Do More With Less’
Give employees more time off and shorter workdays, and they will do better work.
The Law Vegas Golden Knights had an epiphany.
Photographer: Dave Sandford/NHLI, via Getty Images
With the unemployment rate at generational lows, companies are increasingly trying to squeeze more economic growth out of their current workforces, rather than hiring. That may prove counterproductive, as shown in labor trends in fields where performance is closely monitored. While more difficult culturally, a better change would be to have more workers laboring for fewer hours each.
"Do more with less" is the typical corporate response whenever labor is scarce or revenue is pinched. If an employer downsizes, that means remaining workers take on more responsibilities. Businesses, which presumably are performance-driven, are doing the opposite of what's occurring in fields where employee performance is intensively measured.