The 4-day work week: 4 things to consider
A 4-day week is a trend in the modern HR market. Especially, when it comes to tech companies and startups. While implementing such a work model has its specifics, there are way more advantages than inconveniences. What is more, with careful planning and a smart approach, there might be no disadvantages at all.
As for now, let’s review four main aspects to consider before making a step towards a shorter work week. Following these tips will make the shift to a 4-day week smooth and easy.
Communication with the clients
First things first, you need to make sure that all of your clients are aware of the company’s new schedule and are ready to adjust the work. Research (we listed some studies here) proves that productivity won’t decrease. On the opposite, it might actually get higher.
The only issue to solve is uninterrupted communication. Most likely, your clients will be understanding and won’t mind that your team will be off for one more day. Still, you need to make sure that your clients are informed and not expecting you to answer on the day off. You can go with reminders via messengers or emails saying that the team is not available today and they will get back soon.
Your employees' preferences
There is no universal answer as to when the extra day off should be. Some organizations choose Friday for employees to get a three-day weekend, some go on with a day off in the middle of the week. While making this decision, it’s crucial to take your clients' needs and the financial side into account and talk with your employees.
People directly involved in the work process probably know best when it’s best to pause from work, both from the organizational point of view and personal preferences. Make a questionnaire with several options to choose from or simply talk with your team face-to-face.
Deadlines and the pace of work
One more aspect to consider when planning the shift is how it might change your pace of work. As we have mentioned, the productivity of the team likely will not decrease or might even increase. At the same time, to achieve such a result, some adjustments have to be made.
Organize a meeting to discuss which activities your employees find unnecessary — it’s time to optimize. If you want the same (or bigger) amount of work to get done in a shorter time, some activities have to be removed from the schedule.
Metrics and productivity
Finally, remember to measure the effectiveness of the new work system. While most often, a 4-day work week is implemented to reduce stress and offer a better work-life balance, no company is willing to lose customers and profit over such an innovation.
To decide whether the 4-day week experiment was successful or not, you can use the following methods:
- employees questionnaires to quantitatively measure satisfaction levels, stress level, mental well being
- meetings with employees to qualitatively measure how the employees find the new system do they have any complaints or ideas for improvement
- project management tools for analyzing the tasks planned vs tasks completed over a certain period of time
- meetings with project managers and clients to discuss if they noticed any shifts in productivity
- time tracking to analyze how much time does each task take, if some tasks are now taking less time
With these tools at hand, it is easy to notice how does typical working schedule compares with a 4-day one. You might carry on the experiment for a month or two and then decide whether to continue it based on the results.
Summing up
4-day work week introduces numerous advantages to the companies and their teams, like lower stress levels and higher work satisfaction levels. By dedicating enough time to planning your experiment and measuring its results, you don’t have to fear the lowering of productivity or missed deadlines.
