Many reluctant to fire workers indulging in side gigs: survey
Workers’ side hustles could be coming at the expense of their employer, finds a survey.
Overall, 87 per cent of Canadians who are working but looking for a job say they have worked a side gig at one point in their career.
And nearly two in five (38 pe cent) say they would work on their side hustle on company time if they thought they could get away with it, finds Express Employment Professionals.
Do employers care about workers’ side hustles?
Over half of Canadian companies (51 per cent) have discovered employees working side hustles during company time, raising concerns about:
- lower productivity (55 per cent)
- decreased focus and attention to detail (47 per cent)
- reduced engagement (38 per cent).
Most companies that discover an employee working a side hustle during company time take some kind of action (61 per cent), most commonly asking the employee to only work on their side gig outside of company time (32 per cent), giving them a verbal warning (30 per cent) or asking the employee to quit their side gig altogether (15 per cent), finds the Express survey.
Only a small percentage of companies take strict action such as firing the employee (11 per cent), reducing their salary (five per cent) or demotion (four per cent).
Workplace policies on moonlighting
To try to prevent employees from working side hustles during company time, 29 per cent of hiring managers say their company has updated its policies, finds Express Employment Professionals.
However, 50 percent of job seekers say their company does not have any policies in place to prohibit the practice, and 21 per cent are unaware if their company has any rules in place. Only 29 per cent of employed job seekers know their company has rules to prohibit employees from working more than one job during company time.
“While it’s clear side hustles reflect ambition, drive and sometimes, necessity, they often come at the expense of focus during company hours,” said Bill Stoller, Express Employment International CEO. “The data shows that many organizations haven’t yet developed the framework to support employees balancing multiple commitments. This growing challenge requires a proactive approach to ensure both company and personal goals can thrive without compromise.”
More than half of job seekers (52 per cent) in Canada think companies should request that these employees limit their side hustles to outside work hours. Few job seekers support stricter actions, such as termination (10 per cent), salary reduction (eight per cent) or demotion (seven per cent).
Overall, 53.4% of workers in Canada have a side hustle by selling goods through e-commerce, finds a separate survey.
Why do people want a side hustle?
Money is the top consideration for workers to take a side hustle, according to Express’ report based on two surveys between May and June: one among 504 Canadian hiring decision-makers and another among 505 job seekers.
Source: Express Employment Professionals
Others say they work a side hustle to:
- help them transition out of their job slowly (17 per cent)
- train or improve on existing skills that they can use at their job (14 per cent)
- try out a new industry/field (10 per cent).
Overall, almost one-third (29 per cent) of Canadian job seekers are juggling side gigs during company hours, with 10 per cent working full-time and 19 per cent part-time on their side hustles, according to the report from Express Employment Professionals.
More than one in five (22 per cent) Canadians are participating in gig work of various kinds across the country. That equates to about 7.3 million adults finding work outside of regular employment, according to a previous report from Securian Canada.
