Making the Case for a Four Day Work Week
To many companies' surprise, at the onset of the pandemic adapting to remote work was less painful than many expected. Prior to working from home, remote work was met with great hesitation and suspicion. While showing up and bringing creativity to the office is irreplaceable value, companies are discovering new ways and opportunities to drive productivity from the home office. What does that look like? A four day work week.
While it is true, no one transitioned into lockdown anticipating to cut the workweek down. However, hundreds of companies have taken this new age approach without hurting sales and boosting productivity. The main concern was and remains a focus around the overall well being of employees. In the beginning, companies who were behind in the digital transformation frantically accelerated their progress by setting up their online infrastructure to enable a comfortable shift. Companies have quickly discovered the importance of cloud-based tools such as Slack, Google Suite, and other popular software applications.
So, who's doing this? A growing number of companies such as Buffer, Uncharted, Target Publishing, Bunny Studio, and more are pushing back against a relentless pace of work Americans are widely credited for. This condensed work week is not only about boosting the quality of life for employees, but some argue that it is the solution to fostering a resilient and flexible workforce.
“Employers are much more aware that there is a work-life balance that employees seek,” says Ryan Gatto, a district president for Robert Half, an employment staffing agency. “Employees have been able to prove that they can be just as productive in a condensed week because people are looking to have a healthy balance between your professional life and your personal life.”
Recently, the new policy has been making headlines. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, 15% of employers are currently offering this schedule; however, the rise in new, responsive working arrangements, along with the growth in automation and technology, are contributing to this idea becoming a reality.
Other organizations, such as Microsoft Japan, have reported success with revised hours. After experimenting with a four day work week, the company saw a 40% increase in productivity among its employees.
“The challenge for many employees is that it's not a one size fits all and it almost needs to be based upon individual performance, individual accountability, and not rolled out as a blanket statement for their entire workforce,” says Gatto, of Robert Half. "By compressing the workweek to four days, you are empowering those that can be responsible and accountable to their work. But, of course, there could be those individuals who take advantage of it and are not as productive."
Not everyone who tries out a four day week will decide to implement the new schedule; however, this trend suggests that a 4-day week helps to create and foster a space for more creativity, a more resilient organization, and a better future.