being “extremely challenging”), 29 percent of respondents selected 5, 49 percent selected 4, and 20 percent selected 3. “If you look at the impact of the pandemic on the workplace, often we were too focused on the location of work,” said Joe O’Connor, chief executive of 4 Day Week Global. “Remote and hybrid work can bring many benefits, but it doesn’t address burnout and overwork.” Some leaders of companies in the trial said the four-day week had given employees more time to exercise, cook, spend time with their families and take up hobbies, boosting their well-being and making them more energized and productive when they were on the clock. Critics, however, worried about added costs and reduced competitiveness, especially when many European companies are already lagging rivals in other regions. “We are learning that for many it is a fairly smooth transition and for some there are some understandable hurdles – especially among those which have comparatively fixed or inflexible practices, systems or cultures which date back well into the last century,” said O’Conner. Jo Burns-Russell, the managing director at Amplitude Media, a marketing agency in Northampton, England, said the four-day workweek had been such a success that the 12-person company hoped to be able to make it permanent. Employees have found ways to work more efficiently, said Burns-Russell, and the result has been that the company is delivering the same volume of work and is still growing, even though half of the employees are off on Wednesdays and half on Fridays. “It’s definitely been good for me in terms of making me not ping from thing to thing to thing all the time,” Burns-Russell said. Gary Conroy, founder and chief executive at 5 Squirrels, a skin care manufacturer based in Brighton, England, that is participating in the trial, said employees had become more productive, while making fewer errors, and that employees were collaborating better. “We’ve kind of gotten away from ‘That’s your job, not mine,’” he said, “because we’re all trying to get out of here at five o’clock on a Thursday.” According to Claire Daniels, CEO at Trio Media, another organization in the pilot, “The four-day week trial so far has been extremely successful for us. Productivity has remained high, with an increase in wellness for the team, along with our business performing 44 percent better financially.” “The four-day week [pilot] has been transformational for us so far,” added Sharon Platts, chief people officer for Outcomes First Group. “We’ve been delighted to see productivity and output increase and have also been able to make it work in our education and care services, which we thought would be far more challenging. While it’s still early days, our confidence in continuing beyond the trial is growing and the impact on colleague wellbeing has been palpable.” And while participant Nicci Russell, who serves as managing director of Waterwise, said the pilot initially involved a learning curve, “We’re proud to be involved in the trial and it’s going well for us,” she said. “It wasn’t a walk in the park at the start, but no major change ever is, and we were well briefed and prepared by the 4 Day Week Global team. We have all had to work at it – some weeks are easier than others and things like annual leave can make it harder to fit everything in – but we’re much more settled with it now overall than we were at the start. “We certainly all love the extra day out of the office and do come back refreshed,” Russell continued. “It’s been great for our wellbeing, and we’re definitely more productive already.” If an organization is considering a four-day work week, worker productivity research presented by Robert Half Talent Solutions strongly suggests that days off from the office should come at the end of the week. Surveys of more than 2,400 workers by Robert Half showed that Monday is by far the most productive day at work, followed by Tuesday and then tailing off significantly by Friday. And that trend line remains true among both remote and in-office workers, as well as pre- and post-pandemic. J How Collaboration Solutions Are Used Source: Techconsult; Hornetsecurity Most Productive Day for Workers Source: Robert Half Talent Solutions Team Type Proportions 2020/2021 45% 35% 25% 11% 12% 6% 5% 7% 6% 4% 5% 40% 43% 29% 31% 27% 20% 12% 13% 11% 5% 6% 5% MON TUES WED Remote In-office THURS FRI SAT+SUN MON TUES WED THURS FRI SAT+SUN 2019 2022 70% 20% 10% 66% 23% 11% 62% 23% 15% 61% 26% 14% 38% 19% 43% I send a lot more direct messages than group messages. Despite groups, I prefer dir ct messages when writing to colleagues I also send business-critical and internal documents and messages to public groups. I send a lot more direct messages than channel message I also use direct messages for private conversations. 45% Mostly agree Partially agree Mostly disagree 31 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com
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