Despite widespread redundancies, a quarter of employees are making no extra effort to prove their worth in their jobs but 57% are looking for opportunities to shine and show how they add value.

Just under one in 10 employees (9%) plan to get into work earlier than normal and stay late as a means of keeping their jobs and 7% will make the extra effort by looking smarter in the workplace, according to research from Monster.

But according to Monster, looking extra smart and staying late will not make any difference to employees' prospects, but staff should concentrate on completing their work and only stay late if they have important tasks to finish. Staff have also been advised to help colleagues with large workloads, to prove they are team players.