On a typical Friday afternoon, one worker at Emtrain, a California-based human assets expertise firm, takes a nap.

One other takes horseback driving classes, a interest they all the time wished to attempt however by no means had time to. Others are utilizing their Fridays to study piano, observe pictures or go to members of the family they have not seen shortly. 

They’ll do that as a result of Emtrain adopted a four-day work week pilot program in 2021, one of many many firms throughout the globe experimenting with a brand new method of working.

Even the boss likes it. “It has been very, very touching to see the period of time that folks have had again of their lives,” stated Emtrain President Odessa Jenkins. “We hear tales on a regular basis the place our staff are studying one thing new, participating with household that they have not earlier than, and it truly is altering the best way they reside their lives.”

Profitable pilots of the four-day work week, each within the US and overseas, have seen a large number of advantages to each firms and staff, together with improved worker well-being, elevated productiveness and a brand new strategy to retain and recruit expertise in a aggressive labor market. 

We requested three enterprise leaders and one Fortune 500 government coach about why four-day work weeks are gaining recognition. Here is what they are saying are the primary advantages of this new method of working — and the best way to successfully promote your boss on the concept.

Staff have extra time outdoors of labor

A four-day work week provides again to staff one in every of their most respected assets: time.

After Emtrain switched to a four-day work week, Jenkins was struck by the influence the change had on her staff. 

“Giving your folks extra time to do what they wish to do — to seek out out issues about themselves, to discover — provides you an worker base who’s extra dedicated to you, but in addition extra dedicated to their private well being,” stated Jenkins. “That is bringing more healthy staff and happier staff to us.”

Katie Klumper, CEO of Black Glass Consulting, a CMO consultancy primarily based in New York, stated she’s seen related outcomes at Black Glass throughout their four-day work week pilot. A lot of her staff are utilizing their Fridays off as a “private admin” day to handle primary duties like laundry, grocery purchasing or cleansing. 

“This enables them to have really two days of break [on the weekend], which permits them to have 4 days [at work] refreshed, current, centered, and extra productive,” Klumper stated. 

Having extra private time also can increase constructive psychological well being outcomes for workers in a time when burnout is on the rise. “It is extremely useful for folks’s psychological well being and wellbeing to know that they now have an additional day to only [do life],” stated Dr. Daryl Appleton, a licensed psychotherapist and Fortune 500 government coach.

Productiveness typically improves

A four-day work week forces you to be extra environment friendly in all facets of your work, together with communication, stated Jenkins. “It means committing to being very, very centered while you’re at work. And we instantly noticed that from our worker base.”

In accordance with an inner firm survey, 92% of Emtrain staff agreed that they had been in a position to meet their high-priority work milestones throughout the four-day work week. Odessa has not seen an uptick in staff working longer days, both. “It’s extra centered work possibly, no more work,” Jenkins stated.

Klumper stated that transitioning to a four-day work week has led to her staff being extra intentional about how they handle their restricted time at work. 

“Time is without doubt one of the most respected belongings now we have as professionals, and valuing that and being actually deliberate about the place you apply that was undoubtedly a profit,” she stated. “It wasn’t constructed to be longer workdays. It was meant to be the identical hours that we had been working, however do it in 4 days.”

The opposite piece is focus, stated Klumper. Engaged on a tighter schedule has helped her staff hone their craft and abilities to get by their work faster. “There’s been a number of constructive outcomes by way of the groups having the ability to collaborate at a faster velocity and having the ability to be rather more intentional and intense about how the work will get achieved,” she stated.

It helps recruit and retain expertise in a aggressive labor market

In a 2022 survey carried out by the Forbes Well being-Ipsos Month-to-month Well being Tracker, 90% of employed respondents stated it was vital that their job supplied work-life stability. And 82% stated it was vital that their job supplied flexibility in once they labored. 

“I believe if there’s something the Nice Resignation has taught us, it is that given a possibility to sit down again, folks wish to be a part of firms the place they will really feel that it helps the approach to life they wish to reside,” stated Anthony Reynolds, CEO of Utah-based expertise expertise platform HireVue. (As a substitute of a four-day work week, HireVue provides its staff each different Friday afternoon off.)

Permitting extra flexibility within the office also can assist firms retain current staff and assist employees to achieve their most potential.  

“It has been an enormous expertise driver,” stated Klumper. “Persons are accountable. If in case you have the best folks on the staff, you could possibly make on daily basis [paid time off] and they might nonetheless be a part of as a result of they’re passionate concerning the enterprise. … If in case you have the best expertise, they’ll do the job and so they’ll do a good higher job once they get to do it on their phrases.”

Each the staff and the corporate profit

“It is laborious to say [the four-day work week pilot] hasn’t been helpful, each from a qualitative and a quantitative standpoint, as a result of we’re additionally smashing our enterprise aims,” stated Jenkins. “Realizing that each from a smooth abilities standpoint we have improved, in addition to from a monetary or enterprise productiveness standpoint we have improved, it is laborious to say that it wasn’t a terrific thought.”

In accordance with an inner survey, 82% of Emtrain staff reported that they had been experiencing higher well being and well-being because of the four-day workweek, whereas 71% to 75% of staff stated they had been experiencing much less unproductive stress at work. 

Emtrain is not alone. In accordance with a survey by the Society for Human Useful resource Administration, 60% of the surveyed organizations that had applied a four-day work week famous features in worker satisfaction and productiveness ensuing from fewer conferences.

The nonprofit Four Day Week International, which is operating a pilot program serving to over 70 UK firms check a four-day work week, additionally reported related leads to its newest survey of the taking part organizations. In accordance with the survey, 88% of respondents acknowledged that the four-day work week was working “properly” for his or her firms three months into the six-month trial. As well as, 95% of respondents stated that productiveness has stayed on the similar degree or improved, and 86% stated they had been “doubtless” to think about retaining the four-day work week coverage after the trial ended. 

The way to suggest a four-day work week to your boss

Until you are a high-level government in your group, trialing a four-day work week will doubtless require getting your management on board. Listed below are some knowledgeable recommendations on the best methods to pitch the concept.

1. Compile the information

Earlier than proposing an thought to your group’s management, do your analysis, stated Appleton. Pull collectively the information and the assets, and most significantly, be ready to elucidate why your thought issues. 

“That is the factor with management — they do not need extra work,” Appleton stated. “Come ready with every part you could have on the desk as a result of that is perhaps the one probability that you simply get.”

2. Contemplate how a four-day work week matches together with your firm’s current values

Most “new” concepts are merely an iteration of one thing we have seen earlier than, stated Jenkins. Take a look at your organization’s current core values and see if any of them naturally match with a extra versatile schedule or four-day work week.

For instance, Emtrain already had an infinite PTO coverage earlier than its four-day work week pilot, which meant the corporate was already used to not having staff within the workplace on a strict schedule. Switching to a four-day work week was simply one other step in the identical route for an organization that positioned flexibility as one in every of its core values.

“[Ask yourself] what are the issues you have already got in your organization that may lend to extra versatile work, and amplify that,” stated Jenkins.

3. Give attention to enterprise objectives and aims 

On the finish of the day, you will want to point out your boss how a four-day work week will profit the corporate. Pull collectively success tales from different firms much like the one you’re employed at, and be ready to point out how your proposal will increase or preserve income, whereas probably chopping down on bills and boosting productiveness.

“Include a proposal that is centered on establishing success after which transferring ahead from that success,” stated Jenkins. “That is all the time very consumable from [a leadership team’s perspective]. As an government chief, when you carry me one thing that feels decrease threat, greater reward, and confirmed, it should be very laborious for me to say no.”

4. Recommend a pilot program 

In case your management is hesitant to implement such a giant change, beginning with a brief pilot is an efficient strategy to ease right into a four-day work week. 

“Begin gradual,” advises Jenkins. “Do not attempt to take your organization any sooner or additional than it is perhaps able to go. Pilot it.”

Emtrain and Black Glass each began their four-day work week packages as a pilot, and HireVue did the identical with its biweekly Friday half-day schedule. 

In case you’re searching for a spot to begin, the nonprofit group Four Day Week International is coordinating six-month pilot packages that present coaching, mentoring, and analysis for organizations inquisitive about testing a four-day work week. 

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