Survey shows M’sians work longest, least productive

PETALING JAYA: Malaysians work an average of 15 hours more than their contracted hours each week, surpassing Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia, but has one of the highest percentage of productivity loss.

A newly-released workplace survey conducted by AIA Vitality found that Malaysian employees are overworked, stressed, lead unhealthy lifestyles, and as a result, are at high risk of health problems and productivity loss.

The survey also found that Malaysia has the highest percentage of employees who slept less than seven hours a night at 56%.

Malaysian employees also reported the highest percentage of physical inactivity with 64% doing less than 150 minutes of physical activity a week.

It also revealed that 53% of Malaysian employees reported at least one dimension of work related stress, while 12% experienced high levels of anxiety or depression.

Due to the high stress and sedentary lifestyle, the survey found that 84% of employees reported at least one type of musculoskeletal condition while 53% are at risk of mental health issues.

The survey linked poor employee health and well-being to a major loss in organisation productivity.

It said in Malaysia, the average yearly cost of health-related absenteeism and presenteeism per organisation is estimated at RM2.7 million.

Presenteeism is when an employee is physically present for work despite being sick or not being productive.

Among the four countries surveyed, Malaysian employees recorded the second highest number of absenteeism and presenteeism at 67 days a year, after Hong Kong.

The Malaysia’s Healthiest Workplace by AIA Vitality Survey 2017 involved a total of 5,369 employees from 47 organisations.

The wider Healthiest Workplace survey, encompassing Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, surveyed 214 organisations and 10,001 employees in total.