New skills and employment survey reveals workers also lack task discretion

Britons Face Tougher Workloads and Pace - Talent IntelligenceNew skills and employment survey reveals workers also lack task discretion

British employees say they’re working harder than they were more than two decades ago, according to results from a new study from Cardiff University, the UCL Institute of Education (IOE) and the University of Oxford.

Nearly half (46 percent) of workers expressed strong feelings about their job requiring them to work intensely, compared to just a third (32 percent) of workers in 1992.

The proportion of employees who reported they need to work at a very high speed for three-quarters or more of the time they’re at work also rose, increasing 4 percentage points to 31 percent in 2017 — the highest level since 1986.

Employees also noted other job quality changes, including control they have over work-related tasks they perform, which the researchers noted has the strongest connection to employee well-being and motivation.

After declining considerably in the 1990s, the amount of workers in Britain who said they have a great deal of influence over work-related tasks dropped three percentage points since 2012, the last year findings from the regularly conducted study were released.

Job insecurity, however, has fallen sharply.

For more about the importance of employee well-being and job flexibility in the workplace and additional Skills and Employment Survey results, view this information about the survey findings.