It’s common to say that a 5-day week is already short enough to accomplish everything you need to do. So, the 4 day week seems impossible. However, some companies have opted for it and it would potentially increase employee productivity. What if you decided to give it a try?
Since the pandemic which disrupted work, it has become obvious that we need to think about organizations that correspond to both the profitability of the company and the well-being of employees.
The different ways to set them up
Switching to a 4-day week can be done in different ways. First, you can increase the number of vacation days. This represents an easy way to manage the business from an HR point of view and represents a real win for your employees.
Then, you can define a day of rest with each employee but increase the number of daily hours. You then act by rotation in your teams for the people present or it will often involve training your employees in several professions if you do not have duplicates in certain positions.
Finally, you can achieve a reduction in weekly working hours and maintain remuneration, which remains the most appreciated by employees, as you can imagine.
The advantages of real 4 days
Working only 4 days has certain advantages, firstly you offer a significant advantage to your employees. Highlighting the fact that you only work 4 days can allow you to attract talent who would not otherwise come to you. You can accommodate many people who want to enjoy life and have a high degree of expertise or who want to work a lot on some days and be free on others.
If we listen to the companies that have adopted this system, daily production should increase because in reality employees would tend to postpone work on the remaining days and develop greater autonomy. They would organize themselves to produce the same thing in a shorter time. Ultimately, the 4 day effect would put pressure on time. On the other hand, the fact that your teams have been able to rest should naturally increase their efficiency because we know that productivity increases if you are rested.
According to a study carried out by the University of Oxford among 5,000 British Telecom employees, you also increase productivity, happiness at work and customer satisfaction. Two additional good reasons to put it in place.
Being less present, you will stop with presenteeism by implementing a 4-day week. It represents a good way to combat procrastination because everyone no longer has time to attend to other activities and the duration of meetings would tend to decrease.
However, if you do not have the necessary teams and the workload is already very heavy over 5 days, it may be a good idea not to adopt it.
Some examples of companies that have switched to a 4-day week
- Lidl has been testing the 4-day week for its employees working 30 hours per week since September 2023, the brand is experimenting with the 4-day week. This approach is part of negotiations on the quality of life at work with the social partners. This involves improving working conditions, retaining employees, promoting work-life balance, and attracting new skills. Instead of working 30 or 35 hours over 5 days, employees concentrate their efforts over 4 days. So no reduction in hourly volume but more hours worked, namely 7.5 hours over 4 days. All without a reduction in salary.
- Love Radius, a company specializing since 2007 in the manufacture and marketing of baby carriers, adopts a 4-day week from May to August, without a reduction in salary.
- At the Yprema company, since 1997, 80% of employees (excluding management, sales and reception staff) have worked 4 days all year round. Specializing in the circular economy and recycling of materials, this SME with a turnover of 23.5 million euros (2018), today has 102 employees spread across 16 sites in France.
