Risks of reducing working hours for SMEs
The Spanish Government is considering implementing a reduction in the working week to 37.5 hours per week, but economists are warning of the possible negative effects of this measure on small and medium-sized companies. According to the latest barometer from the General Council of Economists (CGE), the vast majority (72%) of economists consulted anticipate an unfavorable impact on the results of SMEs, and only 12% believe that the measure could provide some benefit. Experts insist that policies must be adjusted to the country's business reality to avoid decisions that harm productivity and business.
Among the main risks for SMEs highlighted by the CGE are the increase in labour costs and the need for organisational restructuring. Even before reducing working hours, many small businesses already operate with very narrow profit margins and bear high wage and tax costs, in addition to experiencing difficulties in finding qualified staff. In this context, cutting weekly hours without a prior improvement in productivity would imply having to hire more staff or pay more overtime to maintain the same activity, which would further increase personnel costs and reduce business efficiency. In fact, economists warn that adding the cost of a shorter working day to the current situation would further reduce the productivity of SMEs, negatively impacting their competitiveness.
This loss of competitiveness is expected to be particularly critical in labor-intensive sectors. The CGE survey shows that the most negative perception is concentrated in industry (83.3% of economists anticipate unfavorable effects) and commerce (80%), closely followed by the consulting/advisory and banking sectors (73.3% of negative assessments), and also education (73.1%). On the other hand, in the public sector, pessimism is lower (58.8% of negative opinions) and the highest percentage of positive expectations is recorded (17.7%). These data indicate that private businesses with a high dependence on labor could see their productivity and competitiveness more compromised if working hours are shortened without adequate compensation.
In conclusion, the Council of Economists warns that the ideal conditions are not yet in place to immediately implement the 37.5-hour workday without risks. Before reducing the hours, they recommend solving structural problems such as lack of training, digitalization and low productivity levels, since SMEs will need to adjust internally to be able to apply a shorter workday with guarantees of success.
How Timenet can help you adapt to the new working day
Faced with these challenges, having digital tools for time control becomes key so that SMEs can adapt to the new working day without losing efficiency or breaching regulations. Timenet is software designed for SMEs and the self-employed, specifically designed for digital time recording and control of each employee's working day in a simple and efficient way. With Timenet, the company can adjust and monitor the hours worked in real time, ensuring that no worker exceeds the established 37.5 weekly hours (or detecting any excess in the form of overtime at the time). In addition, the platform guarantees legal compliance: it generates detailed and traceable reports of each employee's working day, and stores this data for the years required by law (4 years) to facilitate possible labor inspections. Everything is recorded in a secure and accessible way, providing transparency for both the company and the workers.
A solution like Timenet also simplifies internal organization to accommodate the new reduced working hours. The system allows work shifts to be planned and calendars to be managed centrally, so that SMEs can easily reorganize schedules and quadrants to cover service hours without violating the weekly limitation. Through the application, employees can record the start and end of their workday (whether working in person, teleworking or on-site) and request vacation or leave, while managers control attendance and absenteeism. Timenet automatically records overtime hours worked, notifying when a worker exceeds their regular working hours and thus facilitating compensating or remunerating them correctly according to regulations. In this way, managers have a complete view of the time dedication of the entire team and can make informed decisions to optimize resources, maintaining productivity despite the change in working hours.
It should be noted that Timenet is designed for the needs of small businesses. It is an intuitive and modular tool, which does not require large investments in infrastructure and can adapt to any organizational model as the business grows. In short, with Timenet the SME has an ally to deal with the legal adaptation of the reduced working day in a much simpler way, ensuring compliance with regulations and at the same time improving the effective management of working time.