Is the four-day-week here to stay?

Barnes’ ‘four-day-week’ model works on the simple principle that organisations should make productivity rather than time the thing that they exchange for salary and benefits. The model is not strictly about a four-day-week per se, but about a significant reduction in working hours to increase productivity, whilst simultaneously improving the wellbeing of employees, their families, and local communities.

In Barnes’ pilot, he made an agreement with his employees that he would pay 100 percent of salaries and benefits, in return for the gift of only an 80 percent time-commitment if his employees were able to sustain 100 percent of pre-pilot productivity levels.

What happened in practise, was that when time was reduced to 80 percent, productivity increased by 20 percent alongside several additional gains such as, profitability, commitment, communication, team-cohesion, focus, and time-management.

The key to appreciating why a reduction in working hours is such a powerful driver of organisational performance is understanding that everything employees do, both inside and outside of their work activities, impacts on their ability to reach their potential in their job role.

As we become more cognisant of which activities, behaviours and habits add value and which detract value, it becomes increasingly obvious that as leaders we need to find ways that enable employees to do more of the former and less of the latter.

The high-performance formula looks like this:

• Getting eight-hours of sleep per night
• Aerobic and strength-building exercises every 48-hours
• Eating healthy nutrient-rich foods at 80 percent of meal times
• Regularly socialising with family, friends, and colleagues
• Volunteering for causes you care about
• Regular career-focussed learning and development
• Regular participation in personal hobbies and interests
• Managing ‘admin’ tasks in a timely fashion
• Taking regular breaks each day
• Taking vacations from work every few months
• A job that gives you purpose, meaning and a sense of accomplishment
  
  

The anchor of high-performance is eight-hours of sleep, every 24 hours. That leaves 16-hours of wakefulness in which to fit in everything else. This becomes an impossible task if an individual is required to utilise 10-12 of those hours in work and/or commuting.

When time is short, individuals are forced to reduce their investment in factors that are critical to reaching their potential. This is an entirely false economy for employees and their employers because whilst time-commitment is high, productivity and value-add become increasingly compromised and many of those hours become wasted or worse, damaging for both parties.

Some have argued that the four-day-week only works for office-based employees, but again the Barnes’ model found this hypothesis to be false. For those service roles such as F&B, hospitality, and customer service, which are so important to our region, a reduction in hours ‘on duty’ would necessitate an increase in overall headcount to continue to provide the same service.

However, that up-front cost will be significantly mitigated by the immediate impact of reduced absenteeism, sick-leave, and staff-turnover. Furthermore, additional commercial benefits, such as increased time-efficiencies, innovation, improved service standards and an increase in customer loyalty would far outweigh the small increase in staffing costs.

Just as the 40-hour week became the law for many nations in the late-1930s, sooner or later, it is forecasted that the 32-hour week will become written in law too. This is because, if the case for organisations wasn’t compelling enough, there is also much to be gained by governments too. They can expect to yield a reduction in public health costs, road-traffic accidents, crime, and pollution as well as an increase in family-cohesion, job creation and an uplift in their ability to attract and retain talent.

In recent years, the UAE has launched its Happiness Agenda, followed recently by the Principles of the 50 of which the 4th principle is ‘The main future driver for growth is human capital’; and the 5th principle is ‘Good neighbourliness is the basis of stability’. Finally, back in March, Dubai launched its 2040 Master Plan, which aims to make Dubai the world’s best city to live in.

The message is loud and clear, the UAE understands its future is people, and it is making all the necessary moves to empower those people to support the strengthening of the union, the economy, and the position of the UAE on the world’s stage. The 32-hour week, with all its proven people, planet, and economic advantages, has the potential to be a powerful enabler and accelerator of this and as such, will no-doubt be a serious consideration.

The doubts expressed by some that regional cultural ‘norms’ will prevent the UAE from benefitting are misguided. Equally, those who advocate for government subsidy or reduced pay in exchange for reduced hours are missing the point and will fail to yield the benefits. Smart employers (and countries) will embrace the shift from a focus on time to productivity. They will be better positioned to attract, retain, promote, and reward the best talent.

There are already signs of an international ‘wellbeing-race’ emerging and private and public organisations are going to be expected and later required to play a part in positively contributing to that. The four-day-week provides an opportunity for governments to feed many birds with one scone. For that reason, there is no doubt that it is here to stay.

Bobbi Hartshorne, co-founder and CWO at WellWise – Workplace Wellbeing Optimisers.