Human capital management
as in five, but I offered the same salary and said I would recruit if we needed more people to do the same work – but I didn’t need to.” Though de la Clergerie did not stipulate the same output from employees, it is a key underlying principle of the 100:80:100 model, and he must have expected that people would work to maintain their productivity.
“No one should see the difference from people working only four days,” he remarks. “Of course, it will take time for the concept to spread throughout industry. We have to change people’s minds, and many people see it as destroying the value of labour, but I disagree. People can work better in fewer days, so I see it as us putting greater value on the people who provide labour.”
Going viral The idea of the four-day week flourished during the pandemic, when companies were forced to dismantle and rebuild their working practices. Now, the concept is proving contagious. It does, however, present some challenges, even as the opportunities are obvious. “For me, the only negative is due to the fact that the four-day week is not general,” says de la Clergerie. “Some people won’t come to this company because they feel their manager will never leave. Some employees leave because they see limited chances for career evolution, so they need to go elsewhere to progress.”
“Nevertheless, other companies cannot take our staff as easily, even if they offer a higher salary,” he adds. “Now, 1% of our employees say we should go back to a five-day week, while 97% want to keep the four-day week, and 2% say they don’t care either way.” According to O’Connor, the recruitment and retention argument for a shorter working week is “a slam dunk”, as the transformative benefits for individuals are so extreme in terms of wellbeing that staff seem to simply never want to leave.
Nevertheless, there are grey areas to explore in finding the right balance. “The variable is productivity,” he says. “It depends on the process and culture. We would not say that if a company reduces work time by 20% but does nothing else, the results will be good. It is all about partnership between leaders and employees, and it involves changes to working practices, better use of technology, and identifying inefficiencies.” “You can’t just keep doing what is being done
already,” O’Connor adds. “There is a process of ensuring people see they have to earn this benefit. It is about leadership being clear in communicating targets and objectives. That said, the proportion of companies that run trials and abandon them is very low, but you have to be clear about what is required for it to be sustainable for the business.”
40% SHRM
The percentage rise in productivity per employee following a four-day week trial in Japan by Microsoft.
“One place I didn’t imagine this kind of improvement was logistics, but we still fulfil all of our orders. Workers come in on Monday with more energy and they still have more energy at the end of week, so they can do the same work that they used to do in five days.”
Laurent de la Clergerie
An effective four-day week will no doubt butt up against culture barriers, notably in the US. O’Connor is based in New York – which he calls “the capital of overwork” – so he is taking the bull by the horns. But he is confident that if employees are allowed to figure out the details of how they do their own job within the parameters of a shorter working week, and companies can build an empowered culture, then the idea will soon gain traction. In short, Keynes’ forecast may have been dramatic, but it seems his vision of the future was prescient after all. ●
A four-day week has led Groupe LDLC to enjoy higher productivity and less burnout among its employees.
Finance Director Europe /
www.financedirectoreurope.com 21
Groupe LDLC
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