GOOD HOURS’ WORKING If not managed well and without an appropriate supporting culture, compressing hours into fewer days can lead to employee burnout and higher stress levels. Scheduling challenges in production and manufacturing for example may also mean working four-day weeks is simply not possible for all employees. Staying connected with colleagues can be a further challenge in hybrid and reduced hours working, which can counter other positive impacts. There is also the inclusion aspect, with 46% of UK employees still having no access to any form of flexible working in their current role. So, how can organisations tread their own path on
the issue, and respond to employee needs around flexible working; including hybrid working, the four-day week, staying connected and better balancing work and home life?
“One of the pitfalls that organisations fall into is
following the latest ‘culture’ trend without considering how that operational activity will affect their culture,” says Ben Gatelly, CEO of software platform, Charlie HR. “Culture should always help you attract the right talent, retain them and enable them to do their best work, when it comes to looking at the four-day workweek. For us at Charlie that meant adapting that policy to enable the type of culture we’re trying to craft here.” Harriet Calver, Senior Associate at law firm
Winckworth Sherwood, advises that businesses looking to a four-day working week should “take time to properly assess how it will impact on your business, weighing up the positives and negatives, and to consult with employees to garner their views, before making any firm decisions. “A four-day working week model clearly won’t
suit every business and will require genuine support from both leadership and the employees, as well the appropriate technology and infrastructure, to give it any chance of success.” Engaging with employees is clearly critical. Research
from Theta Global Advisers in February – released as lockdown restrictions in the UK were lifted – found that 24% of Britons report that their employer hasn’t explored any flexible working options to help them return to work. This while more than half of British workers say they worked better at home and 40% believing a strict return to the office this spring would hinder their performance.
FLEXIBLE FROM DAY ONE While the four-day week clearly has its benefits and can be a game-changer, it is not the only option on the table. Hybrid and other forms of working, such as making all jobs flexible from day one, are other ways to achieve recruitment, retention, wellbeing and inclusion outcomes. The CIPD’s campaign to make all jobs flexible from
day one the default has gained new resonance post- pandemic. As co-chair of the government task force to promote wider understanding and implementation of inclusive flexible working practices, the CIPD launched the campaign in 2021. The body is calling for a change to UK law to make flexible working requests a day-one right for all employees: a proposal the government put out for consultation in September 2021. “Learning from the pandemic, many organisations
are now open to more hybrid ways of working which give their employees greater flexibility and say over where
they work,” said Peter Cheese on the consultation’s announcement. “Flexible working is good for inclusion, wellbeing and
productivity, and will help employers attract and retain a more diverse workforce. People have a higher expectation now of how working practices can be more flexible and supportive for the future. The HR and people profession has a vital role to play in helping employers develop the right culture and policies and in training managers to support a more flexible workforce.”
“ Job quality, especially intrinsically meaningful work, less intensified work and having a favourable social environment, has positive effects on employee mental health, even in jobs with short working hours.”
CAMBRIDGE JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS ARTICLE BY SENHU WANG, DAIGA KAMERĀDE, BRENDAN BURCHELL, ADAM COUTTS, SARAH URSULA BALDERSON
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