8 April 2022
4 Day Work Week.
You might have heard a rumour this week that Australia is looking at trialling a four-day work week. The largest ever trial is about to start in the UK and is heading to Australia later this year. More than 3,000 workers across 60 companies in the UK will soon trial a four-day work week. It will be the biggest pilot scheme of its kind.
The trial will start in June and last for six months. Employees will be paid their full-time salary but only work 32 hours instead of 40 hours. The study will measure how the change affects productivity, staff satisfaction and staff retention.
A similar trial is set for August for both Australia and New Zealand. The trials will be monitored and run by a collaboration with Oxford, Cambridge and Boston College. The trial comes earlier than anticipated after the impact of flexible workplaces during the pandemic. Finland has already introduced a similar concept and are still ironing out the kinks but have seen major workplace shifts with Employee satisfaction.
So, whilst we wait in anticipation to see if this is adopted as new best practice, we thought it might be useful to explain how you can shift the 9 -5 mentality.
For a start, flexible start and end times. Allow your Employees to work their time over a spread of hours. For some this might mean clocking in 7.6 hours between the hours of 7am – 7pm with a compulsory “on” time between 11am – 2pm. It might also be that Employees can work across weekends rather then the traditional Monday – Friday. This then might enable them to work across different time zones. Obviously, this won’t be able applicable to every business, but for some it might be a good idea to start looking at.
Other option might be that you introduce 40-hour work weeks, where Employees accrue hours to have a RDO once a month for that additional time worked. Some Awards even stipulate RDO’s – so make sure you check that too.
Another option is to create a roster system whereby it might be a number of days on, a number of days off and this either rotates or changes once a month. You might also consider working more hours over a smaller number of days.
As you can see there are lots of ways flexibility can be introduced into a workplace. Irrespective of whichever option you go with, it is important that you have it documented to ensure everyone is clear on the expectations. We can help you here!
Whilst the trials for a four-day work week focus on productivity and Employee satisfaction, who is to say that this won’t come from changing up what you’ve currently got by introducing some of our suggestions.
If not, and you are keen to be a part of the pilot program in Australia, you have until May to sign up.
And if you want to know how it might work for you – Act Now – We are here to help – Call Now Actually 1300 605 30
