One of the hot discussions in business is the 4-day workweek. Employees are excited about it. Management is not so enthusiastic.
One of the hot discussions in business today is the 4-day workweek. Employees are excited about it. Management is not so enthusiastic.
Employees, especially technical team members, have been overjoyed at a 4-day week.
Unfortunately, it gets complicated to implement a 4-day week.
- Five days coverage – does your company need to have team members in place to cover customers or internal activities every day of the week? This can be a great problem because customers expect service five days a week but not all employees are available every day.
- Off days – if you stagger team members so that most team members are available all five days how do you decide which team members get what day off? Most will want Monday and Friday off which may not work.
- Vacation accrual – most employees accrue vacation days based on hours worked. Shortened hours mean loss of vacation time. It actually balances out because an extra day off each week can mean two extra days for a week’s vacation. However, it needs to be handled carefully because the employees need to see they are not losing vacation days. There will be fewer problems with a company that has generous vacation time.
An alternative to the 4-day week is giving the employee additional benefits:
- Additional vacation time (some employers are giving money for your vacation)
- Shorter hours each day
- Time shifting (starting the day at 6:00am or 10:00am)
- Services (meals, counseling, gym membership, etc.)
All of these help the employees and give a feeling of building the best environment for them.
Don’t be stuck if you cannot do a four-day week. Work on alternatives that will give your employees help.
Danger #1: It is easy to say you cannot have a four-day week in your business. I want to caution you to make sure you have looked at every option and every method to achieve a short week. Have you looked at every option/method?
Danger #2: Make sure you team wants a four-day week. That may sound stupid but having a shortened week may mean you need to reduce some benefits or implement some changes the employees won’t like. Before making any changes, talk with your team to make sure you are implementing something they want!