Many companies are out there that have been initiating a four-day workweek policy. 30 UK forms will work for 32 hours for six months, leaving all compensation and benefits unchanged for employees to see how it is going to benefit both the company and employee.
Companies can also spread 32 hours over five days. They have shown interest in pursuing this policy as they expect that it would increase the productivity of employees. However, the focus is not just the increased productivity of employees.
Using the four-day work week trial, companies want to measure its impact on workers’ health. Now companies do not have to measure the progress of employees based on the hours they spend at work but based on the output they have produced.
If you have started a small business, you can plan to introduce four day work week. A typical work week includes five days working up to 40 hours. However, some companies are trying to break this trend in order to seek higher productivity.
Nowadays, various software solutions are out there that you can use to track the productivity of every second. It does not matter how much time you spend in the workplace because software track your productivity.
Despite working for eight hours for five days, your productivity will likely be only 75%, which can be higher in a four-day workweek.
How a four day work week can help businesses and employees
Here is why you should give the four-day workweek a try.
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It helps reduce expenses of both business and employees
Having a four-day workweek can help you reduce your business expenses. If you are already an established business and looking to shift from a five-day workweek to a four-day workweek, you should keep the day off when your employees are not productive.
You should closely monitor their performance so you can see which day they are the slowest. However, at the same time, you will have to update your customers that you are off that particular day, so they do not try to approach you that day.
One of the significant benefits of a four-day working week is that you will be paying less money to your employees. The other benefit is that you will be able to save some money on your energy bills. Further, you will have an additional day to review your business strategy every week.
Most businesses struggle to have enough time to track the progress of employees and monitor other aspects of your business like customer satisfaction and plan how you can change your strategy to take your business up.
The four-day workweek policy is going just to improve the finances of entrepreneurs but employees as well. They will be able to cut back on their commute expenses. Working parents will be able to pay attention to their children one day more, and they will be able to save their money on daycare expenses.
With one day extra off, they will be able to focus on other essential things like a doctor’s visit. Since employees can save money on their daily expenses, they will be able to have more money in their emergency cushion and avoid running after 15 minute loans from direct lenders.
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Promote productivity
The most significant benefit of a four-day workweek is that your business productivity may increase. Employees will be more engaged with their work. Since they will be working fewer days without compromising with their benefits, they will be more productive.
It is the human tendency that employees become sluggish by the end of the week, and it affects their productivity. This is why it seems logical to let that day off. From Monday through Thursday, employees have been noticed to work harder, faster and better.
They manage to go the whole hog even in strict deadlines. Some entrepreneurs have revealed that employees work harder in four-hour work week, and hence they deliver more quality work. Companies have seen that reduced week policy has a significant impact on their physical and mental health.
Employees do not take the day off sick as before. Since they are able to manage work-life balance, they can better focus on their work as well as daily money needs. Now they have to take out no guarantor loans with a direct lender every time they need money.
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It attracts employees
The four-day week work policy attracts a lot of employees. It has been a dream of employees to work for fewer hours. The maximum benefit, after all, employees will get. The four-day week work means long weekends and hence employees will likely be fresh when they come to work next week.
They will have a chance to unwind, pursue their hobbies, interests and spend more time with their family and friends. Flexible working weeks have been the dream of many employees because it provides them with an opportunity to pursue avocation, help their children or grandchildren, and the like.
Four day work week is treated as a tool to retain employees. In fact, many employees want to work for such companies that have introduced a revised working week policy. However, there are very few companies that are engaged in it – only 10 to 12% of small businesses and 5% of large companies.
Some of them are those companies that cannot offer pay hikes due to poor business sustainability. In order to offset this loss, they have reduced working hours. If companies are struggling to give a pay hike, they reduce working hours.
Although some of the companies have utilized funding like guaranteed loans in the UK, it does not seem to be a favorable option to everyone, especially if you are secure about your business sustainability.
You can use this policy to attract new and young talent if you are a start-up. This will not only help you save your money, but it will also help your employees manage their expenses smartly. You can treat this policy as a more significant benefit or incentive to your employees.
Are there any drawbacks of this policy?
If you have introduced this policy in the middle of your business, you need to ensure that all of your customers are updated about it. Well, on the other hand, it will make it challenging for you to maintain the same level of customer satisfaction.
Your customers may have some complications accessing you when they need, and as far as it is about the use of AI chatbots, they are not able to handle all types of queries. Chatbots generally operate basic questions. In the end, they simply reply our team will get back to you within the next 24 working hours.
Further, a four-day week work policy may not be suitable for all types of businesses because it depends on the kind of business. The entire corporate world cannot accept it.
The bottom line
A four-day workweek can help save expenses for businesses and employees. It is a win-win approach. However, many companies are on a trial phase to see if employees are able to produce more output.
It is not clear whether more companies will come forward to accept this policy, but it seems to be an effective way to benefit both the company and the employee.
Jessica Rodz is the Senior Content Writer at Cashfacts. She has a long career in the field of content writing and editing. Jessica has the expertise in the UK lending marketplace where she has worked with 7 different lending organisations and acquired many responsibilities from preparing loan deals and writing blogs for their websites.
At Cashfacts, Jessica is managing a team of experienced loan experts and doing a major contribution in guiding the loan seekers via well-researched blogs. She has done graduation in Business (Finance) and now currently doing research papers on the UK financial sector.
