How the world of work changed in 2023

The world of work changed for South Africans in 2023 as more people returned to the office after the lockdowns in previous years saw many people working from home. Some companies adapted their workplace for employees to come in for a day or two per week while they work at home or remotely during the rest of the week.

The biggest world of work news of the year was the successful completion of South Africa’s four-day work week pilot programme that turned out to be an unexpected success as it had huge benefits for employees as well as employers.

ALSO READ: Four-day work week pilot in SA an unexpected success

The pilot programme, run by 4 Day Week Global in partnership with 4 Day Week South Africa NPC and researchers at Boston College and the Stellenbosch Business School, was initially greeted with scepticism, but the research findings showed that companies rated their experience with this new way of working as 8 out of 10, with 92% of the companies definitely intending to continue the four-day work week or considering doing so.

Employees also valued their time off so much that 51% said they would want a 21% to 50% pay increase to revert to a five-day work week at their next jobs, while 13% said no amount of money will get them to return to the five-day formula.

Benefits of 4-day work week

Companies reported a range of business benefits from revenue increases to improved productivity, positive impacts on recruitment, decreased resignations and decreases in absenteeism, Karen Lowe, global head of partnerships at 4-Day Week South Africa, said.

Employees noted improvements in their overall well-being, including a reduction in stress, burnout, fatigue, poor sleep and anxiety, a positive boost in mental health and work-family balance and an increase in exercise frequency.

Lowe says self-rated productivity emerged as the most significant change, with nearly half of employees reporting an increase in productivity during the trial period.

Professor Juliet Schor of Boston College, the lead researcher, said the researchers were encouraged by the fact that participants did not experience an increase in the intensity of work which suggests that the work reorganisation strategy succeeded and performance was not achieved via speedup, which is neither sustainable nor desirable.

Dawn of the Great Unretirement

Another new trend in the world of work identified in 2023 was the Great Unretirement.

“As younger people find new ways to work, a gap in traditional employment needs to be filled and ‘unretirees’ are stepping back into the workforce.

“Some are returning to work out of necessity, while others simply miss having a job to go to,” says Lyndy van den Barselaar, MD of ManpowerGroup South Africa.

ALSO READ: The next workplace trend: the ‘Great Unretirement’

According to Sanlam’s 42nd Benchmark Survey Report, one in five South Africans believe they may never be able to retire and 42% say they feel a sense of insecurity or lack of control over their financial future and will simply have to keep working past the expected retirement age.

While many South Africans also constantly struggle with the constant increase in the cost of living, less than a staggering 10% of retirees will be able to maintain their standard of living before retirement.

The global population is also getting older, primarily due to increasing life expectancy and declining birth rates. In 2020, more than 147 million people worldwide were between the ages of 80 and 99, accounting for 1.9% of the global population. In 1950, it was merely 0.05%.

In 2020, the number of people older than 60 outnumbered children younger than 5. Between 2015 and 2050, the proportion of the world’s population over 60 will nearly double from 12% to 22%. Our world has a notably higher percentage of older people than 70 years ago, a trend Van den Barselaar says will continue.

Do South Africans work too many hours per week?

While people want to cut a day from their work week and older people want to return and not retire at normal retirement age, South Africans had much to say when the Department of Labour announced that it was considering conducting an investigation into the working hours of working class citizens.

According to ourworldindata.org, South African workers potentially have the longest working hours in the world. The South African Labour Guide stipulates that a 5-day work week in South Africa sees employees working 9 hours a day – excluding a lunch break – which adds up to 45 hours a week.

ALSO READ: Labour department mulls reducing hours South Africans spend at work

The department wants to determine whether South Africa’s working hours are reasonable. The last investigation was conducted in 2014, when the then Employment Conditions Commission looked into the feasibility of reducing working hours and found that hours were successfully reduced in certain industries such as textile, sugar, glass and metal work and engineering.

However, the International Labour Organisation identified South Africa in 2017 as one of the countries where people worked the most, with a total of 2 178 hours worked in a year. There was no more news about this investigation since.