The new working week!

Mark Mullen, head of the online bank Atom Bank since 2014 has recently introduced a four-day working week for all of its 400+ staff - and there will be no pay cuts!

Taking either Monday or Friday off, so having a great three day weekend, the employees are now working a shorter week at just 34 hours instead of the usual 37.5 hours spread over five days.

Mark said that the impetus for the change was the Covid pandemic

and was certain that the changes will help keep staff motivated, with the extra day at the weekend providing them with a great opportunity for extended leisure time and relaxation away from the workplace.

Mr Mullen continued 'Before Covid, the conventional wisdom was you had to commute in, sit at a desk all day and repeat that process when you commuted home. Covid showed us that it wasn't necessary…I think doing 9-5, Monday to Friday is a pretty old fashioned way of working.'

After an extensive review of processes and whether the change would inpact on customer engagement and service levels it was agreed that the four-day working week would be introduced, this successfully occurred from 1 November.

Although the flexible arrangement is voluntary, it is hoped that everyone will adopt the new working system and stick to it. Mark stated 'I can't be sending my staff emails on a Friday, I can't expect them to respond to them.'

Incidentally, even though they now only work a 34 hour week, staff's wages have remained at the level they were when they worked 37.5 hours.

Changes in working patterns

In years gone by, most workers were expected to turn up six days a week, but some employers started to understand that giving employees more leisure time would actually increase productivity and well-being!

Henry Ford was one of the pioneers of this in the US way back in the 1930's, bringing in a two day weekend. It was quickly adopted by the Boots company in the UK with many more following.

Research in the public sector in Iceland that included four-days working week trials have been deemed as an overwhelming success and it is understood the experiment contributed towards a reduction in stress (which is one of the main causes of absence from work) amongst the people involved in the study.

Reducing working hours without compromising benefits such as pay is clearly a potentially positive step, particularly when coupled with the move towards home-working instead of going into the workplace every day, than can only benefit both the employer and the employees.

Prices Candles created significantly different working week for its factory workers when it relocated its production facility from south London to Bicester, Oxfordshire in the 1990's.

The working week was reduced to 36 hours, but split into three, twelve hour days, thus creating four "non-working" days each week. Steve Holden, Relocities Managing Partner discussed the new working pattern with Prices factory workers back in the '90's shortly after it was introduced, and although the employees said that a 12 hour working day was difficult to adjust to, they all hugely enjoyed having the two extra days off every week.

Mark Mullen concluded that the new four day working week will attract new talent at a time when attrition rates amongst staff continues to be uncommonly high as a direct result of the Covid pandemic. He added 'With Covid-19 causing vast numbers of people to reconsider how they want to live their lives, anything that leads to more productive, healthier, and, crucially, happier colleagues, is a win for everyone.'

Here at Relocities, we have always followed a working pattern that is based on ensuring employees have as much time as possible with their families. We do not have a rigid, fixed number of hours to be worked every week, but rather adopt a system whereby everyone in our teams has a broad facility to construct their own working pattern based on their needs, their colleagues needs, and their Clients requirements. We find that this system works well for us all, even though we do sometimes have to work occasionally on a Saturday or a Sunday - but the work/life balance always seem to reward us!

Please ask us how we might be able to assist with the evolution of your corporation's approach to developing a better working life for everyone!

Call:

THE AMERICAS - HOUSTON, TX

+1 (832) 717-8558

EMEA and APAC - LONDON, UK

+44 (0) 208 079-2838

Email:

moving@relocities.com