ActivTrak Productivity Lab: Employees End Their Workday 37 Minutes Earlier Than One Year Ago

The ActivTrak Productivity Lab announced key findings from a quarterly benchmarking study of digital workplace behaviors revealing the workday span decreased 33 minutes from Q1 to Q2 2023, and 37 minutes year-over-year. This shift was exclusively at the end of the day, with workers shutting down approximately 30 minutes earlier than the previous five quarters. Data suggests that ending the workday earlier could be contributing to a decrease in overutilization and a positive shift in overall employee well-being.

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The Productivity Lab analyzed more than 38 million hours worked from 134,260 anonymized employees representing more than 900 ActivTrak customers between January 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023. Data representing 20 industries, including financial services, healthcare, insurance and professional services showed quarterly and year-over-year changes that include:

• Total work time remained flat quarter-over-quarter, decreasing a mere 6 minutes year-over-year for a total of 7.6 hours per day.
  
  
• Meanwhile, the length of the workday decreased 33 minutes quarter-over-quarter, and 37 minutes year-over-year, suggesting improved time management as productivity and focus also remained steady.
  
  
• The number of overutilized employees fell 13% in Q2, and year-over-year, possibly related to small improvements in multitasking (down 6 minutes year-over-year) and better workload distribution.
  
  
• Nonetheless, nearly one-third (28%) of employees remain overutilized as they continue to log 10+ hour days.

“While the majority of business is still conducted between 9 to 5, we noted a significant change in end of day behaviors — with the typical workday ending more than 30 minutes earlier than one year ago. This shift did not result in a loss of productivity, but rather an improvement in workload balance,” said Productivity Lab Manager Sarah Altemus. “Factors such as the return of commutes for in-office workers, seasonal summer schedules and better time management could be contributing to this shift.”

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Organizations across multiple industries use ActivTrak’s workforce analytics platform to gain insights into workforce productivity and efficiency, workload balance, focus, collaboration and burnout.

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