Employers: What Does a 4-Day Workweek Mean?

Small companies are always seeking for methods to minimize expenses while increasing efficiency. Determine if a four-day workweek is appropriate for your company.

What you’ll discover:

How does a four-day workweek function?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a four-day workweek for employers?
Do workers get overtime if they work four 10-hour days each week?
How can I know whether my 4-day workweek experiment was a success?

Recruiting and retaining top talent and highly trained personnel may be challenging for many organizations, particularly in a tight labor market. Providing a better work-life balance to your team may often be the difference between maintaining your best employees and recruiting the personnel you want. Adopting a four-day workweek may be a solution with extra advantages for your company.

How does a four-day workweek function?

A four-day workweek might function differently depending on the demands of the organization. Some firms may be able to operate just four days per week and provide employees with an additional day off. Some firms may not be able to function merely four days a week. Staggering schedules to provide enough coverage every day may be required for those firms to adopt a 4-day workweek.

The various methods to a shorter workweek differ in terms of the number of hours worked each day, the total number of hours worked per week, the quantity of work anticipated to be done, remuneration, and other aspects. Employees typically either:

32 hours spread across four days.
40 hours spread across four days (nonexempt workers in some states must be paid overtime for anything over eight hours per day, so this may not work for some employers).

Even if you reduce the overall number of hours, your employees should be able to do the same amount of work in a four-day workweek as they would in a five-day plan. By cutting hours and expecting the same amount of work, companies may discover that workers are significantly happier and more productive if they change employee remuneration such that total income stays the same.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of a four-day workweek for employers?

Although the four-day workweek may seem to be a benefit primarily to workers, it may be one of those rare win-win scenarios. The following are the key advantages for employers:

An advantage in attracting highly competent and devoted employees.
While staff are working, there is less downtime.
A more motivated staff that is less concerned with the time.
A staff that is less stressed.
Expense reductions associated with one less business day each week, such as office energy and manpower.

While the movement for a four-day workweek is mostly driven by employees who can demand a better work-life balance, the greatest advantage for companies is the ability to attract and retain top talent in their field.

A 4-day workweek, on the other hand, has several limitations and may not be suitable for every kind of company or employee. Businesses that use the 10-hour day model, for example, may discover that worker weariness becomes an issue at the conclusion of a shift. Employers may also face the following disadvantages from a four-day workweek:

Customers or customers may be dissatisfied with your new schedule.
Vendor deliveries may need more meticulous preparation.
Conflicts in scheduling.
Adding additional employees.

Employers that adopt a 4-day workweek should explain out the facts and what they expect from employees in their Employee Handbook.

Do workers get overtime if they work four 10-hour days each week?

This is determined by your state’s labor regulations. In California, Nevada, Colorado, and Alaska, for example, nonexempt workers who work more than eight hours in a day may be required to pay overtime, which is normally one and a half times the regular rate. The overall number of hours worked in a week is irrelevant in these states.

Several states calculate overtime based on the number of hours performed in a particular week. This implies that workers are not entitled to overtime if they work four 10-hour days and do not exceed 40 hours per week.

How can I know whether my 4-day workweek experiment was a success?

Like with any new method of working, approaching the 4-day workweek with care and appropriate preparation is advised. Starting with a trial period and measuring the outcomes against benchmarks is a useful technique. Before beginning a trial run, consider the following questions:

What is your weekly average output?
How do you calculate productivity?
What do you want to accomplish by switching to a four-day workweek?
Will your employees and management back you up in this decision?

After you’ve decided to give it a go, you should pay attention to a few important measures to see whether the shorter week is helping you achieve your objectives. You might use the following metrics:

Total revenue.
Productivity and sales.
Operational expenses.
Getting new customers.

In short, choose the measurements that will best assess your company’s performance. Other, more difficult-to-measure characteristics, such as staff stress levels, may still be vital to monitor. You may want to be patient while your company adapts, but be prepared to make changes as you go.

Consider checking in with your employees while reviewing your stats. You might invite employees to submit a private survey or just provide comments. However, keep in mind that variables other than your 4-day workweek may have an impact on your outcomes. Finally, if the quantity of work done by your organization has neither slowed or increased, the new timetable may be regarded a success.