By Kelsey Sheehy | NerdWallet
The four-day workweek is the newest buzzy office pattern, with experiments and surveys touting improved worker morale, retention and productiveness.
In one examine of 41 companies throughout the U.S. and Canada — the bulk with 25 or fewer workers — 40% of workers surveyed stated they have been much less confused after attempting out a shorter workweek. In addition, 60% of workers reported a greater work-life steadiness and 32% stated they have been much less prone to stop, in keeping with a July 2023 report by 4 Day Week Global, a nonprofit that promotes shorter workweeks.
ThredUp has seen this play out in-house over the previous two years. The on-line clothes reseller shifted to a four-day week for company workers in 2021. Voluntary turnover amongst that group dropped 55% in contrast with 2019, and hiring received a lift. Most new hires cited the corporate’s shorter week as a deciding think about employment, Natalie Breece, chief individuals and variety officer at ThredUp, stated by e-mail.
Can a shorter workweek do the identical for your small business? The brief reply: It relies upon.
“You can’t implement something like this if the underlying culture doesn’t support and nurture trust in your employees,” says Janet Lenaghan, dean of the Frank G. Zarb School of Business at Hofstra University.
For a four-day workweek to work, you want a tradition that empowers workers and values outcomes slightly than face time, she says.
Planning, coaching and execution are additionally key for a profitable transition to a shorter workweek.
Adjust priorities, provide coaching
Asking workers to squeeze 5 work days into 4 doesn’t come with out changes.
Business leaders should assess workload, goals and success metrics. They additionally have to spend money on instruments to streamline or automate duties, corresponding to accounting stories or different administrative tasks, so workers can higher prioritize their time. Lenaghan advises leaders to “focus on tasks that drive bottom-line results.”
Nevertheless, from the highest down, everybody within the group might want to discover ways to function extra effectively.
Large-scale pilots by 4 Day Week Global, which have taken place globally, embrace two months of workshops, teaching and mentoring. Companies that take part in trial runs additionally get ongoing assist.
Before ThredUp initiated its four-day workweek, it held coaching classes on matters corresponding to “how to lead an efficient meeting, when to cancel or remove yourself from meetings, and how to efficiently communicate with employees,” Breece stated.
Managers and house owners should even be encouraging and set a superb instance, which includes refraining from sending emails or anticipating workers to work on days off.
Start with a check run
A pilot program is a lower-stakes method to check out a shorter workweek and work out any kinks earlier than making it a everlasting coverage.
Poll Everywhere, a know-how firm that develops reside survey and suggestions instruments, dipped its toe right into a shorter workweek by implementing “Summer Fridays” in 2022. The eight-week trial had bumps, together with firm holidays that squeezed the already shorter weeks into three days.
“Some of the problems we saw with execution and missed deadlines might have had as much to do with how the logistics were set up as with the idea of working four days a week,” says Rob Graham, CEO of Poll Everywhere.
The firm revived “Summer Fridays” in 2023 with some tweaks and extra coaching primarily based on worker suggestions and knowledge evaluation.
“We restructured the schedule so that holidays are now considered the designated day off for that particular week,” Graham says. Managers additionally obtained particular coaching to assist enhance communication and effectivity regardless of fewer conferences.
Tailor it to your organization
Some firms can function Monday via Thursday with out impacting clients or the enterprise. Others want some stage of staffing five-to-seven days every week.
Poll Everywhere opted for a staggered schedule for particular groups, the place some workers had Friday off whereas others selected a unique day.
At ThredUp, its 273 company salaried workers work Monday via Thursday. In distinction, workers within the clothes reseller’s distribution facilities work from three to 5 days every week, relying on their shift.
Expect bumps within the street
No vital enterprise change is with out its challenges. Try to anticipate these and be proactive find options when potential. And acknowledge that some bumps may be the brand new value of doing enterprise.
Busy instances, such because the push to complete an enormous challenge or wrapping up end-of-quarter monetary reporting, will all the time be hectic. And it takes some effort to get again into work mode after an extended weekend, Breece stated.
“But these challenges aren’t unique to a four-day work week,” she stated.
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Kelsey Sheehy writes for NerdWallet. Email: [email protected]. Twitter: @KelseyLSheehy.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”