T
he stakes are high. The so-called Great Resignation or Great Re-evaluation spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic is prompting high attrition, record pay awards and deepening
skills shortages. Employees want meaningful work with employers whose purpose makes sense to them. They also want to feel valued, cared for and like they can progress. It’s in this context that Peter Cheese, Chief Executive
of the CIPD, called for HR to “rewrite the rulebook” at the professional body for HR and people development’s annual conference at the end of last year. Could the five-day working week be the first to have a line crossed through it?
TAKE FIVE – OR FOUR? Critics of the five-day week say this cornerstone of working life is no longer fit for purpose in post-industrial economies of the twenty-first century, linking it to poor wellbeing and productivity. Instead, hybrid working patterns that combine
flexibility of working hours with where we work are shaking up the working week as we emerge from Covid-19 restrictions in many parts of the world and return to “business as normal”. So much so that last year, data from HR software
provider CharlieHR suggested fewer than 5% of SMEs would return to the nine-five/five-day week post- lockdown. A significant amount of research also shows that a majority of employees would consider leaving their employer if their option to work from home was removed. In the workplace, organisations of all sizes and
representing diverse sectors are arguing the case – and indeed piloting – a four-day working week: Microsoft, Unilever, Morrisons and Durham-based online challenger bank Atom among them. Commenting on its six-month trial, which sees office-based staff work four nine-hour days and one six-hour Saturday every four weeks, supermarket chain Morrisons said: “The idea is that this innovative new way of working will mean we are much more flexible and responsive, and we think it will make Morrisons a place where more people will want to join – and stay. “The company noticed that working from home
during the pandemic had made employees more productive, quicker and more flexible. It can help us as a company to be more productive. It can have all sorts of health benefits. And it puts everybody’s wellbeing first.” Morrisons joins at least 30 more companies in the
UK and proponents like the Icelandic government, which ran a successful trial with Reykjavik City between 2015-19. Employees worked 35-36 hours across four days for the same pay as five days across a wide range of workplace and shift patterns. Iceland’s Association for Sustainable Democracy
(Alda) and UK think-tank Autonomy’s study tracked the scheme. Their concluding study, Going Public: Iceland’s journey to a shorter working week, reported unchanged or higher productivity alongside unchanged service levels. Their research also found that “worker wellbeing dramatically increased across a range of indicators,
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THINK GLOBAL PEOPLE HR
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