After living within the confines of a six-day work week during last few years, people started working in five-days week and now there are instances of four-days week. It’s became possible while one is ready to work for ten hours a day, then he gets three full days as holiday. I was just thinking what if now companies who provide their employees annual leave of around one month, gives them an option of mixing their these paid holidays with a flexi-working option of four-days a week. Although I am not a HR specialist, but just give this a thought, what all can be an outcome of this.
First, let me explain the “why” behind this concept by beginning with a very important aspect of the “people” portion of any business – the “company culture.” Believe it or not, many aspects of our culture are directly related to this special perk. Here are a few of the reasons for that statement and perhaps a few questions you should ask yourself as an employer:
- How much more innovative and exciting would the business be if every single team member spent one full day each week devoted to research/innovation? What insights, new ideas and energy would be pumped into the business? isn’t this something which pulls talent to all the startups ?
- Such a perk is an amazing draw in the age of recruiting the best in talent to your team. Like a hit song, HR department needs a “hook” to snag the cream of the crop. It will make an incredible difference!
- Correlated to the above point, the employee retention rate literally soars! Who would ever want to give up three days at home, only commuting four days a week and the cerebral exercise of weekly research?
- Even though the team is working 10-hour days, the sense of urgency brings a high level of energy, and in my opinion, focused collaboration. It is a joy to watch and to be sucked up into this flow of energy and enthusiasm
- The extra time for research makes for a well-informed team and the high self esteem level realizing they have something unique. (Plus, meeting a repairman on a Friday or planning numerous three-day getaways is never taken for granted …)
- In many cases, Thursday nights after work become an even bigger chance for team socialization and fun. This also seems to be vital to retention rates. A recent study indicated the No. 1 reason for a person not to change jobs is based upon having a close friend at the same company. Sort of makes sense, right?
- A drastic decrease in reporting sick to office cases (since things could now be managed in these extended weekends or weekends supplemented by flexi leaves)
Obviously, if you have a large customer service component to the existing business or if you must be open for retail hours, it takes huge amount of ingenuity and near perfect scheduling prowess to adjust to this type of schedule.
For me these above few points may help the decision makers in reaching the conclusion that the extra focus, energy, teamwork and dedication resulting from a four-day work week supplemented by flexi leaves will drive your productivity skyward!
Not a bad outcome for a simple idea Sirjee….!!
