Want to Retain Employees? Try a Shorter Workweek

The four-day workweek is the newest buzzy office development, with experiments and surveys touting improved worker morale, retention and productiveness.

In a single research of 41 companies throughout the U.S. and Canada — the bulk with 25 or fewer staff — 40% of staff surveyed stated they had been much less pressured after attempting out a shorter workweek. As well as, 60% of staff reported a greater work-life stability and 32% stated they had been much less prone to give up, in keeping with a July 2023 report by 4 Day Week International, a nonprofit that promotes shorter workweeks.

ThredUp has seen this play out in-house over the previous two years. The net clothes reseller shifted to a four-day week for company staff in 2021. Voluntary turnover amongst that group dropped 55% in contrast with 2019, and hiring bought a lift. Most new hires cited the corporate’s shorter week as a deciding think about employment, Natalie Breece, chief individuals and variety officer at ThredUp, stated by e-mail.

Can a shorter workweek do the identical for your small business? The quick reply: It relies upon.

“You’ll be able to’t implement one thing like this if the underlying tradition doesn’t help and nurture belief in your staff,” says Janet Lenaghan, dean of the Frank G. Zarb College of Enterprise at Hofstra College.

For a four-day workweek to work, you want a tradition that empowers staff and values outcomes moderately than face time, she says.

Planning, coaching and execution are additionally key for a profitable transition to a shorter workweek.

Asking staff to squeeze 5 work days into 4 doesn’t come with out changes.

Enterprise leaders should assess workload, targets and success metrics. Additionally they must spend money on instruments to streamline or automate duties, equivalent to accounting stories or different administrative obligations, so staff can higher prioritize their time. Lenaghan advises leaders to “concentrate on duties that drive bottom-line outcomes.”

Giant-scale pilots by 4 Day Week International, which have taken place globally, embody two months of workshops, teaching and mentoring. Firms that take part in trial runs additionally get ongoing help.

Earlier than ThredUp initiated its four-day workweek, it held coaching classes on matters equivalent to “how you can lead an environment friendly assembly, when to cancel or take away your self from conferences, and how you can effectively talk with staff,” Breece stated.

Managers and homeowners should even be encouraging and set a very good instance, which entails refraining from sending emails or anticipating staff to work on days off.

A pilot program is a lower-stakes approach to check out a shorter workweek and work out any kinks earlier than making it a everlasting coverage.

Ballot In all places, a expertise firm that develops stay survey and suggestions instruments, dipped its toe right into a shorter workweek by implementing “Summer season Fridays” in 2022. The eight-week trial had bumps, together with firm holidays that squeezed the already shorter weeks into three days.

“A few of the issues we noticed with execution and missed deadlines might need had as a lot to do with how the logistics had been arrange as with the concept of working 4 days every week,” says Rob Graham, CEO of Ballot In all places.

The corporate revived “Summer season Fridays” in 2023 with some tweaks and extra coaching primarily based on worker suggestions and knowledge evaluation.

“We restructured the schedule in order that holidays at the moment are thought of the designated day without work for that individual week,” Graham says. Managers additionally acquired particular coaching to assist enhance communication and effectivity regardless of fewer conferences.

Some firms can function Monday via Thursday with out impacting prospects or the enterprise. Others want some stage of staffing five-to-seven days every week.

Ballot In all places opted for a staggered schedule for particular groups, the place some staff had Friday off whereas others selected a special day.

At ThredUp, its 273 company salaried staff work Monday via Thursday. In distinction, staff within the clothes reseller’s distribution facilities work from three to 5 days every week, relying on their shift.

No vital enterprise change is with out its challenges. Attempt to anticipate these and be proactive find options when attainable. And acknowledge that some bumps could be the brand new value of doing enterprise.

Busy occasions, such because the push to complete an enormous mission or wrapping up end-of-quarter monetary reporting, will all the time be hectic. And it takes some effort to get again into work mode after an extended weekend, Breece stated.