Is it time to embrace the four-day week?

The Great Resignation is pre-empting changes to how organisations treat their staff. Increasingly, corporates are changing their tune. They are offering remote work, more flexibility, and empowering staff to manage their own hours.

 

Within the charitable sector, flexibility has always been an attraction for new recruits. The four-day week represents an opportunity for staff to have a better work-life-balance. It could also be a way to increasing job satisfaction.

 

 

What’s in a four-day week?

 

Experts are in debate around the advantages of a four- over a five-day work week.

 

The benefits of a four-day week are being trialled in the UK. The pilot project, launched in January 2022, includes around 30 companies working just four-days per week.

 

ITV reports that the staff are being paid at the same rate as if they were working for five days. The project is being run by the Four-Day Week campaign, Autonomy, and researchers at Cambridge University, Oxford University, and Boston College. They are investigating whether workers can be 100% productive despite the reduction in time.

 

Joe O’Connor, the programme’s manager, says: “The four-day week challenges the current model of work and helps companies move away from simply measuring how long people are ‘at work’, to a sharper focus on the output being produced.”

 

 

A four-day work week comes naturally

 

The crux behind a four-day week is simple. Staff have more time to enjoy their personal lives, and are able to recharge for their work.

 

Speaking to tech magazine Computer World, Grace Lordan, an associate professor at the London School of Economics, says employees put in more effort when at home: “COVID-19 showed us that you can send workers home and they’ll end up working just as hard, if not harder.”

 

Some charities believe that four-day weeks are the way to go. Community Integrated Care is among the first to break ground. The aim is to increase attractiveness to new recruits, improve work-life balance, while still offering around-the-clock services.

 

The decision is supported by staff. In an internal survey the charity says that employees overwhelmingly wanted to reduce the number of days in the office. Over 80% of staff felt positive about the reduced work week and 81% wanted to spend less time in the office post-pandemic.

 

The four-day work week has come along side many other operational changes. The charity modified its shift schedules and encourages hybrid working. The office space has also been repurposed to host meetings and to encourage learning and development.

 

Ultimately the shortened work week isn’t an aim unto itself, but a part of larger organisational aims and improvements. Teresa Exelby, Chief People Officer at Community Integrated Care says: “Our hope is that by ensuring that our colleagues can achieve a positive and healthy work-life balance, this will in turn boost the wellbeing and productivity of our workforce.”

 

 

It’s not for every organisation

 

Despite the benefits of a shorter work week, not all organisations are suited to working four days. Reed, the recruitment specialist, says that the four-day week isn’t a one-size-fits-all model.

 

Shortened work weeks may not be beneficial for those who need to support beneficiaries across seven days. For tasks that take a long time and are paid through the work week, a four-day model may increase overtime payments.

 

For managers, the concept splits opinion. The Financial Times describes this division by age and gender. They report that nearly 80% of senior managers under the age of 35 favoured the four-day week, compared with 56% of those aged 55 or older.  

 

By gender, women liked the four-day week over men, with 64% in favour versus 57%. When it comes to implementation, the implicit view is that younger and/or female managers are more likely to trial the four-day week. 

 

There are other drawbacks.

 

The consulting firm Adecco crystallises a few of the material considerations. Salary costs top the list of issues to iron out. Shifting to a four-day work could spell the need for more resources to cover the fifth day. The increase in wages might not be tenable for charities or other organisations on a shoestring budget.

 

The other, more glaring disadvantage of a four-day week is that it may not work for every sector. Both Adecco and Finitas, a UK recruitment specialist, agree that service-based sectors may struggle with a four-day week.

 

Put simply, they say that some jobs may be required around the clock – for example, a nurse or doctor. These professions, with limited ability to go digital, may struggle to work a four-day week.

 

 

Watch and learn

 

For charities not yet ready to take the plunge, there is hope. The 4-day week campaign includes non-profits who are implementing four-day weeks on a permanent basis, without pay cuts. There’s more to learn from Causeway Irish Housing Association, Advice Scot, Common Knowledge, and other charities. They are paving the way for others to follow suit.