It has been revealed that a six-month trial pilot program is currently underway to determine the viability of a four-day work week in Australia and New Zealand.
The pilot program began in August and is an initiative of not-for-profit organisation 4 Day Week Global. Thus far, the response has been mostly favourable among the participating employers and employees in the region, according to a spokesperson from the non-profit.
Employment relations advice firm Employsure, representing over 31,000 small and medium size businesses across Australia and New Zealand, has been keeping a close watch on similar trials around the world and acknowledged the growing demand for the four-day work week.
“While the four-day work week isn’t a new idea, the pandemic has moved it from a novel thought experiment to serious consideration,” Stephen Roebuck, Employsure Head of Operations, said. “The effects of a shortened work week cannot be understated and if applied across the board, workers would receive 50 extra days a year to do with as they please.
“Working parents can spend more time with their children, complete personal projects that were put on hold, or even travel,” Roebuck added. “While this might seem like a win for employees, there is an expectation that productivity is maintained at a five-day standard.”
It has also been noted that other recently completed trials of the shortened work week have also yielded similar results of little to no perceived drop in productivity among participants.
“As with all trials, we will have to take a deeper dive into the results to decide if ultimately a change to the working week will have a net positive for both employers and employees alike,” Roebuck said. “Other considerations will also need to be made. For instance, the move to remote work has had a knock-on effect for surrounding businesses.
“For every worker that stays home, that’s potentially one less coffee sold at the local café,” he added. “While this model may work for some businesses, it’s not practical for other smaller businesses as they would require staff coverage across all five days.”
Employsure has indicated that it will be engaging with its client base to determine if SMEs would consider changing their work-week independent of the trial results.
