6 Ways to Offer A Four Day Work Week
What is the Four Day Work Week?
The four day work week is a compressed work schedule. Since the pandemic, employees are looking for more flexibility at work and the four-day work week offers flexibility that creates a better work life balance, increases productivity and can decrease stress levels.
What does a Four Day Work Week Mean?
Employees work four days during the course of a week instead of the traditional five days.
Flexibility is a great tool for attracting and retaining talent
U.S. Companies attempting to move to a four-day work week are not just focused on how much people work but also on how to reduce employee burnout.
Economist Julie Schor is leading four-day work week trials where employees work 32 hours a week with five days of pay. The results have been overwhelmingly positive - from increased employer and customer satisfaction to revenue growth and lower turnover.
Offering a four-day work week can attract different types of talent and more people to your company. According to Forbes, it can increase job applicants by 74%. At the Wanderlust Group, employment applications are up 800% since switching to a four-day work week, the employee retention rate is 98% and last year’s revenue was up 61%. Financial Diet a media company went to a four-day work week and plans to never go back to a 40-hour week schedule, noting revenues have increased and workers are happier.
Who Has Moved to the Four Day Work Week?
Microsoft Japan switched to a four-day work week in 2019, reduced work time by 20% and gained 40% in productivity. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) notes that companies utilizing the four-day work week are finding their employees to be more engaged and using their time more efficiently. A four-day work week may also save costs in areas like electricity, office supplies and cafeteria expenses.
The California State Legislature is considering a proposal to set the working week standard at 32 hours, instead of 40, for the same pay. If California were to make the four-day work week standard, other states, such as Massachusetts and Vermont, would consider following suit.
There are different ways companies can implement the four-day work week.
Newsweek recently shared a list of every U.S. company that has moved to this flexible schedule and gave examples of how it worked for them.
How do you make a Four Day Work Week Schedule?
There are various ways and schedules to manage a Four Day Work Week.
The 32 hour work week
A four-day work week of 32 hours, rather than 40 hours, gives the employees opportunities to work whatever four days they would like. Employees may align the four days with their client’s schedule as well to minimize loss in productivity. Some employees can have a long weekend, every weekend.The 4/10 work schedule
Also known as 4/10s is when an employee works four, 10-hour days and then gets three days off each week. With this schedule, employees work 40 hours a week but they’re working longer hours each day.The 9/80 work schedule
Also referred to as the 9/80 consists of eight 9-hour shifts, one 8-hour shift and one day off within a two-week period. This schedule allows an employee one day off every two weeks with little impact to the employee’s daily schedule and minimal impact to the company.
Testing a Four Day Work Week
If you’re not ready to commit to a major change in your company work schedule here are two great ways to test schedule flexibility.
Summer Fridays
Summer Fridays allow employees to leave early on Fridays or take the entire day off to enjoy the summer weather or get a jump start on a vacation. Summer Fridays tend to start on Memorial Day and end on Labor Day. This Summer perk becomes a season that employees really look forward to and it’s great way to see if the four-day work week works for you!No Meeting Fridays
A day of no meetings eliminates the interruptions and gives employees the opportunity to fully focus and commit to their work and tasks. People Architects practices No Meeting Fridays and it makes Monday’s and the start of our week more efficient because we had a whole day to prepare for the week.
Interested in adding flexible work schedules to your company policies?
People Architects can help. Contact us to get started.
