Business
Four-day work week might be good for business─── BAMBATHA GIKO 15:55 Wed, 07 Dec 2022
A massive 97% of companies that participated in the four-day workweek pilot project are not likely to return to the standard working week.
The study reported that revenue increased by an average of 38% in some companies compared to the same period in previous years.
ALSO READ: OFM Business Hour: Four-day workweek pilot project launched in South Africa
The director of the 4-Day Week South Africa, Karen Lowe, says there’s been a 12.16% increase in employees hired during the trial - which is the first time they’ve seen that result come through. She adds the productivity rate in some companies remained the same, however, it improved at 77% of companies.
Workers who took part in the trial also reported lower levels of stress, fatigue, burnout, and an improvement in physical and mental health.
“We saw a reduction in fatigue by close to 10%, stress declining to lower levels at 32.4%, and burnout declined by 67%. So your mental health markers and issues are down by 38%, which obviously direct absenteeism results,” said Lowe.
She added that the health and wellbeing scores are incredibly encouraging, given that most South African employees are stressed out, burnt out and fatigued. The study - done during the 6 months trial that took place in the US, Ireland and Australia - shows there have been improvements across the board; in work/family balance, work/life balance, reduction in work/family conflict, an overall increase in life satisfaction, and even improvements in relationships with close to 50%.
Over 40% of the respondents in the study reported they’d require a 26-50% increase in salary if they were to return to a five-day week. 13% reported they’d need more than a 50% increase, while, another 13% said no amount of money would have them accept a five-day schedule.
Meanwhile, Lowe noted the pilot project is doing well in South Africa, with 20 companies participating - which is larger than the Ireland trial. South African companies can still participate as the deadline closes in January 2023.
The 4-day Week Global pilot project was launched on 23 September 2022 in South Africa. The project will be researching how a four-day week model can be best implemented in South Africa and is based on the 80-100-80 model, which essentially is 100% of the pay for 80% of the time, in exchange for 100% of the output.
