South African employers are operating in a workplace where motivation, ambition and pressure often overlap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to ADP Research\u2019s People at Work 2026<\/em><\/strong><\/a>: A Global Workforce View<\/em>, unpaid work remains a major global workforce issue, with many employees regularly putting in additional hours beyond their contracted time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The research, which surveyed more than 39,000 working adults across 36 markets, found that 62% of workers globally put in up to five hours of unpaid work each week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A further 26% work between six and 15 unpaid hours, while 12% report working 16 or more unpaid hours per week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For employers, this creates a complex challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the one hand, workers who put in the highest number of unpaid hours are often highly engaged and more likely to find meaning in their work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This suggests that extra effort can come from commitment, purpose and a desire to contribute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, ADP Research also highlights the downside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Higher levels of unpaid work are linked to increased stress, lower productivity, and a greater likelihood that employees may look for another job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This makes unpaid work a critical issue for South African businesses to monitor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Middle East and Africa region, the report shows that unpaid overtime is particularly notable, with 18% of workers reporting 16 or more unpaid hours per week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For South African employers, this raises important questions about workload balance, employee wellbeing and long-term retention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The message is clear: \u201cfree\u201d labour is not truly free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When employees consistently work beyond their paid hours, businesses may benefit in the short term. But over time, the hidden costs can become significant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Burnout, disengagement, reduced productivity and higher turnover can all affect business performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Employers that want to build resilient, high-performing teams should focus on creating a culture where extra effort is recognised, workloads are realistic, and employees feel supported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This means giving managers the tools to identify pressure points, encouraging open conversations about workload, and ensuring that productivity is not built on unsustainable working patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n South African workers have already shown strong levels of engagement and ambition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The opportunity for employers is to protect that energy by making sure hard work does not quietly become unpaid overwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For businesses looking to retain talent and improve performance, addressing the hidden costs of unpaid work should be a priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a>Click here to learn more about ADP.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" According to \u00a0ADP Research\u2019s People at Work 2026: A Global Workforce View, unpaid work remains a major global workforce issue, with many employees regularly putting in additional hours beyond their contracted time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":865279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10459],"tags":[17745,25709,25712,19709,25711],"class_list":["post-865276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news","tag-adp","tag-adp-resaerch","tag-adp-researchs-people-at-work-2026","tag-employer","tag-unpaid-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865276"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":865363,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865276\/revisions\/865363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}