2025 Inspiring Workplaces Awards now open for entries
Get started
Date posted: 29th April 2021

29th April 2021

Guest Blog: How to successfully implement a 4 day week and run a successful business

Guest Blog: How to successfully implement a 4 day week and run a successful business

Before Covid-19, suggesting full time remote work across the majority of businesses worldwide seemed laughable. Yet a year on that’s exactly the position we are in, and its changing expectations going forward. Employees are expressing a desire for a more flexible life and greater work life balance. In fact, Spain, New Zealand and Germany are trialling a 4 day working week – could the UK follow suit?

When James Caan CBE (a former Dragon on Dragons Den) asked his followers if they’d like to see a 4 day week in the UK, 81% of nearly 52,000 people said they did. How do you empower your people to work in a way that suits them with the knowledge that you are still hitting your goals? This blog by Mark Probert suggests 3 ways for you to assess if a four-day week is right for your people and your business.

  1. Have the right structures in place to make hybrid working a success

    A recent Survey by Wakefield Research on behalf of ServiceNow, reported that 87% of employees said the new way of working during Covid-19 was an improvement. This means that post pandemic people will not want to go back to the way things worked before COVID-19.  Offices will have a place but it’s clear that they won’t have the same place they did before. Your people are likely to want a blend between remote working and office based work.If you don’t make the right structural changes, it is very likely there will be a detrimental impact on employee experience and engagement. As teams are rarely in one place today, it’s easy for employees to feel disconnected from their teams, for communication to breakdown and careers to stall. Make sure you create a framework for managers on how to adapt the way the invest in personal development for their teams. This will help the transition go smoothly and ensure no-one is left feeling out of the loop.

  2. Have a performance management tool in place to measure output not hours worked

    If the output from a four-day week is the same or better than working five days, it really doesn’t matter if people work fewer hours. This is where performance management tools can come in handy. Whatever tool or system you choose, they can help you understand what’s working well, what additional/ alternative support is needed or if any other arrangements need to be made. This means employees can work the hours that get the best performance from them, while giving you the assurance that goals are still being met.

You can read the article in full online: How Do You Balance Changing Work Expectations Post-Covid-19 and Running a Successful Business?.

Make sure to explore Inspiring Workplaces for other content and insights about Leadership.