Have You Heard About a 4-Day Work Week?

Hey everybody!  This is Jody Ann Johnson with the 95th episode of “Coffee with Jody” your People Strategist and Champion. Today we’re going to be talking about the Four-Day Work Week and why that matters to businesses.  

Imagine having the time to run an errand, making a doctor’s appointment without having to ask for permission to take time off work, visit a sick family member, or heck even go to the beach and take a rest. 

Well, a lot of people found during the pandemic that having a shorter work week, because a lot of businesses who cut down the hours so that they could conserve dollars, found that their employees were much happier and just as focused and productive during the four days they were there throughout the pandemic. 

We found that there were skyrocketing rates of stress and burnout during the pandemic and having a shorter work week was one of the things that made it a little bit more workable for people.  

I’ll tell you, I’m beginning to see momentum around the world for this particular idea of a Four-Day Work Week. As a matter of fact, there’s some pretty significant companies and even governments that are exploring this as a viable opportunity for their teams.  

Atlantic magazine said going to a Four-Day Work Week looks like it’s going to be the next evolution in the workplace; and that it’s inevitable.  

So who are some of the companies that are doing this?  Unilever is practicing this as a case study in New Zealand. Kickstarter is implementing a Four-Day Work Week this year. Microsoft Japan launched the Four-Day Work Week in 2019 and found that productivity increased 40%.  

There’s also a number of other smaller companies that are doing this too, that you may not have heard of. Unito a workflow software company, they’ve gone to a Four-Day Work Week, Butte a  system software has gone to a Four-Day Work Week. Elephant Ventures has gone to a Four-Day Work Week and Spain is embarking on a three year study of the impact of the Four-Day Work Week in the government sector. So a Four-Day Work Week isn’t so outside the realm of where we’re headed. 

I can tell you that all of my clients are heavily involved in recruiting right now;  what we’re finding is that remote and flexible work is extremely important to people. We’re also finding that they are demanding a fair wage and salary. They have access to Glassdoor and to PayScale and other software’s that can tell them what the average salary is for their job with the number of years of experience they have.  

And so they come in armed with these kinds of questions; “Do you have a social corporate responsibility program? I know that the salary ranges Is between this and this and I want work remotely. Can my work be flexible? Do you offer a Four-Day Work Week?”  Companies that are willing to engage in these requests and trust their employees to actually do the work because they know they can manage it through workflow software, such as Asana or Monday.com, are able to take advantage of the talent that’s out there.  

They’re demanding and good talent is always going to be demanding because they know their worth. So I’m sharing with you this concept, because I do see the inevitable progression of this. In the 1900s. Henry Ford was one of the people who actually advocated for a weekend being  implemented into our labor, into our work world.  It was a seven day work week prior to that. 

His motivation was that people should have time off to enjoy the cars that he was selling. Now it’s an absolute standard to have a weekend, right? So rather than being afraid of it, what I’d love for you to do is to look at and ask “If I were going to implement that in my company, what would it take?”  “How would I measure and make sure that we’re providing the kinds of environments for great talent to come and work with us.” 

I’d love to hear your thoughts so please message me. What are your thoughts about a Four-Day Work Week?  

If you enjoyed this video, like it, subscribe to my YouTube channel and share it. And if you’d like to find out more about how a Four-Day Workweek and Business Coaching can help you to reach your company’s goals, please schedule a time with me in the calendar link below for a discovery call. 

https://mybiz.coach/jodycall

Thank you for watching this video, bye for now.