SME bosses working overtime add £22bn to the UK economy

SME managers and owners working overtime add £22bn to the UK economy, a recent report from digital lender Everline and the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) was able to reveal.

The survey polled more than 1,000 decision makers in small businesses and found that, on average, almost 80% of SME managers admitted to working overtime in the past month, while 18% reported working more than 60 hours or more per week on a regular basis.

The report also found that of those who usually work conventional weekday hours, more than half (52%) have plans to continue working on at least one bank holiday over the coming 12 months — pumping an extra £1.7bn into the UK economy. Indeed, more than a tenth of bosses say they are likely to be working on Boxing Day and New Year's Day (12% and 13% respectively).

Much of the overtime that owners take over bank holidays is carried out to prevent them from falling behind on their work — a problem reported by 51% of respondents.

CEBR economist Sam Alderson argues that a lack of suitably skilled workers available to many businesses has encouraged many managers to take a hands-on approach.

"The strong pick-up in business activity illustrated by the Small Business Tracker is evidently stretching the capacity of small businesses," he said. "A shortage of skills is constraining the ability of businesses to expand their resources and as such decision-makers are being forced to take on responsibility for greater range of functions."

Overtime calculation made easy with Tensor WinTA.NET

If your firm or organisation includes many complex shifts and pay arrangements in its weekly schedule then a Tensor Time and Attendance network is the best there is at sorting rotas and rosters.

The various WinTA.NET systems and software handle all major hours calculation methods. A number of basic rules control how hours are calculated. These include settings to separate 'worked time' into different overtime rates, plus night shift working. Periodic Overtime is used to calculate overtime on weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis.

If you'd like to find out more about the range of workforce management and Time and Attendance solutions supplied by Tensor, just contact us or Book a Demo, our representatives will be more than happy to answer any questions or queries you might have.