Could a four-day workweek increase productivity for your business and improve work-life balance for your employees? The answer can depend on the type of business you have, how it is organized, and how the job roles of your team are structured. In this article, we explore this topic.

How a Four-Day Workweek Works

The four-day workweek can be structured in various ways. But generally, employees who work a four-day workweek work the same number of hours a week as employees who work 5 days a week for 8 hours a day. However, the employees who work a four-day workweek usually work 10 hours a day for four days a week.

You can set up various types of plans for a four-day workweek such as creating a rotation for the four-day workweek among your employees or also adding remote work options. To determine what solution might be the best for your business, you will need to evaluate your operations and how productive your team currently is. Is their workload light or heavy and how many hours are they currently working?

Not everyone on your team needs to be included in your four-day workweek plan. You can be flexible and decide how to structure the work hours of your team based on your business needs and what your individual team members want. Many team members may want to take Friday or Monday off so that they can have a long weekend, but other days of the week may be taken off as well.

Consider How Employees Will Be Paid

One of the things you need to consider for creating a four-day workweek for employees is how they will be paid for the time they work and what the laws are regarding this in your state. Depending on your work arrangements with specific employees, some may be eligible for overtime pay, while others may not be.

Establishing Vacation Time

Think about how many hours of vacation time your employees will have and specify this in your employee handbook. It should be clear both for employees who are working a regular workweek and for employees who are working a four-day workweek.

Disadvantages of a Four-Day Workweek

Before covering the advantages of the four-day work week, let’s look at some of the possible disadvantages:

● In some cases, if employees are working 10-hour days, instead of 8 hours, their level of efficiency and productivity may drop in the last hours.

● Depending on your business, workers may not be able to complete all the work they need to with only a four-day work schedule.

● For some businesses, a constant presence is required where employees need to be available five days a week to represent the company.

Advantages of a Four-Day Workweek

Here are some advantages of the four-day workweek:

● Since employees are working fewer days, the time that they are working is usually more focused on truly important tasks that can drive the company forward. This also means that teams work together more efficiently.

● Employees who work fewer days are generally happier and experience less stress on the job. This helps to increase efficiency and creativity.

● Office costs are reduced with a four-day workweek.

You can do a test to see whether or not a four-day workweek will work for your company. A coach can help you to assess your business situation and get you on the right path. Get in touch today!