The Four-Day Workweek has been getting a lot of attention these days. But is it all hype?
I researched the four-day workweek for 9 months before implementing a pilot at my national climate change nonprofit in 2022. I’ll share some lessons and benefits of that below.
The main goal of shifting to a four-day workweek is to help employees find a new way to stay productive while also increasing staff morale, work-life balance, and retention. But you are also working to change your community and society by valuing rest, family, and work-life balance.
A primary benefit is that you build loyalty. Workers become far more invested in the success of their employer when they see their employer taking care of them. The loyalty not only comes in the form of retention but also good will and saying good things about the organization publicly.
Another benefit is productivity. Most studies show that workers are as productive or more when they need to get their work squeezed into a shorter window, in exchange for getting more flexibility. (For more on these studies message me NonprofitFixer.com).
Morale is also a powerful benefit. Giving employees time to rest and recharge and spend more time with family or on hobbies or travel, makes them appreciate their job more.
But there are other possible benefits. If your employees are expected to work at a physical location, reducing the number of days that employees have to commute improves their lives immediately.
It reduces carbon emissions, soul-crushing commutes, energy costs at the office, and possibly car accidents. It may also reduce organizational expenses if you have a kitchen, coffee, or snacks that you provide to workers.
Another benefit of the four-day workweek, although we did not use it this way, is that it creates another tool for management in discussing raises and benefits.
One could argue you are giving your employees a 15-20% raise in the form of their time back. They have the same workload and the same pay, but now, if they are creative and productive, they get 7-8 hours a week back and less of a commute.
Workers may not see this the same way, but you are creating a new benefit for workers and that must be factored into your compensation philosophy.
Finally, workers and managers goof off sometimes. Everyone does. CEOs do and frontline workers do. When you stretch the workweek across 5 days, you are expanding the number of hours where employees may surf the web for news, call their partners, or who knows what else.
By pushing the work into a truncated window it is simply more difficult to goof off.
There is data to suggest that employees are currently being paid for many hours of “non-work” related activities. Is the four-day workweek right for your organization? How does it interact with Open PTO or Unlimited PTO?
For more information about these questions, the process, and the other articles and research we compiled that led us to try the four-day workweek, work with me . You can also head over to my “Complete Guide to Implementing a Four-Day Workweek). And get on my email list to hear about the March 2 training on how to implement the 4DWW. Full link here https://www.nonprofitfixer.com/nonprofit-fixer-blog/the-complete-guide-to-implementing-the-four-day-workweek
Come to our training on March 2, 2023 also. https://bit.ly/4DWWSales
Share this with everyone in your network and on social media!
Sean Kosofsky, The Nonprofit Fixer
Mind the Gap Consulting, LLC
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Sean M. Kosofsky, MPA Bio
Sean Kosofsky is the Nonprofit Fixer! He is a coach, consultant, trainer, and strategic advisor. For the past 30+ years, he has helped causes, campaigns and candidates raise millions of dollars and transformed nonprofit organizations and leaders. He has served in a wide variety of roles in nonprofits, including policy, communications, development, grassroots organizing, direct service, board leadership, and five stints as an executive director. He has worked on a wide range of issues including LGBTQ equality, reproductive justice, voting access, bullying prevention, climate change, and more.
His work has been covered in media outlets internationally and he has received numerous awards and recognitions from the sector, the City of Detroit and the State of Michigan. His work has appeared through partnerships with blog posts through AFP, Candid, Idealware, Bloomerang, TechSoup, Wild Apricot, Funding for Good, and Pamela Grow’s Motivate Mondays, and more. He is an author and the owner of Mind the Gap Consulting. Sean is currently the Executive Director of Climate Advocacy Lab. He is a proud Detroit native but lives with his husband and dog in New York City. Check out his resources at Nonprofitfixer.com.