One of the most recent workplace trends that have been popping up around the world is the 4 day work week. It sounds pretty great, right? One less day at work, and more time to visit loved ones and enjoy life. However, this would be a big change for any business and despite its appeal, shouldn’t be adopted lightly.
Here is what to consider before switching to a 4-day work week.
Workplace Maintenance
Normally, your workplace simply needs to be maintained over the weekend. With a four-day week, this is an extra day where your space will be unoccupied. This means there will be a greater window of time where dirt can gather in your office and a greater window of opportunity for criminals. After all, an empty building is a very attractive target.
Therefore, you need to ensure that you have regular cleaning and security services to protect your business. This is where a facilities management company can help. They will be able to provide cleaning and security services to help maintain your site both inside and outside of office hours.
Out of Office Procedures
For many businesses, things are still running even when everyone clocks off for the day. If you move to a four-day structure, you need to ensure that your business can survive this extended quiet period. Considering outsourcing tasks like customer service and monitoring your social media to companies that can look after this for you during your out-of-office hours.
Work-life balance
Just because you reduce your working hours, this doesn’t that your workload instantly reduces with it. The time needs to be made up somewhere. This can lead to longer days during work hours where your team could be working for as much as 10 hours in a day. This is not sustainable as your employees will burn out quickly despite the extra day off.
Furthermore, this can present issues for things like child-care. Before reducing your hours, ensure that you can still manage the same workload in a sustainable manner.
Boundaries
Boundaries are important for your staff, especially when outside of the office. If you want to move to a four-day model, you need to set clear boundaries for work-related communication to avoid people checking their emails etc on their days off.
What days will be off days
Having your entire company off for an extra day can be impossible for some businesses. However, your staff don’t all need to have the same day off. Consider staggering days for different departments, to minimize the amount of time that your business spends completely closed.
Time to adapt
Switching from 5 days to 4 won’t be a smooth transition. There will be inevitable bumps in the road that you’ll need to overcome. If you plan to make this change, allow time to troubleshoot and problem solve before adopting this new way of working completely.
Final Thoughts
As enticing as a 4 day work week sounds, take the time to consider these factors before making the leap!
