If ever there was a time to rethink the traditional workplace it is now. Through necessity, organizations have proven that they can in fact operate in a ‘non-traditional’ format and still maintain productivity. As we move toward the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations have an opportunity to consider how their workplaces may look moving forward. Through these discussions the concept of the four-day working week has begun to gain more traction.
While in a compressed working week employees work longer hours over four days, the four-day working week means employees maintain their existing salary and simply work their usual hours for only four days.
You can read about the experience of two organisations who have implemented this here and here, but a few of the reported benefits are:
- Better work-life balance reported by staff.
- Increased productivity (I know, it sounds counterintuitive!).
- Ability to manage caring responsibilities, particularly for employees with aged parents.
- Reduced instances of sick leave.
- Increased staff retention, engagement and morale.
- Increased opportunity for domestic tourism to boost a post-pandemic economy (as floated in New Zealand recently).
However, in implementing a four-day work week there some important considerations:
- Customer service. The business still needs to run and clients still require their needs to be met. This may mean staff each take a different day off during the week, to ensure there is always someone available in the office.
- Collaboration. If the whole team is not present it is difficult to maintain the ongoing sense of teamwork and collaborate effectively. To manage this you may choose one day of the week which no one can roster off, to ensure that there is still opportunity for whole-team engagement.
Whether or not the four-day working week is a realistic consideration for your organization, may this concept and time in history be the prompt for a wider conversation about the future of the way we all work.