Much is being said about the four-day working day, in fact, some companies are already implementing it in Spain, following in the wake of other international ones. The awareness of work and family life or the objective of reduce the work week from 5 to 4 working dayswithout reducing salary or benefits, are the key points that companies want to promote to promote the well-being of workers.
In this sense, Isidoro Lopez-Briones Santoshead of digital technology strategies at the technology company GOWtech, points out that “According to several studies, more than 50% of the time is spent on actions outside of the objective tasks. Also, based on our experience, 80% of the time spent completing certain tasks can be automated. Bearing this in mind, we consider that there is a wide margin for improvement in productivity allowing, without loss for the company, to reduce the weekly workday from 40 to 32 hours, which is not the same as working 4 days. To achieve this, it will be necessary to replan and automate processes, have a personalized application with which workers can make better use of the working day, implement a time management strategy appropriate to the type of work and temporarily plan both the projects and the prioritized list of tasks. daily tasks, since the simple fact of reducing a working day without applying other measures would have serious consequences for the company”.
It is not about accumulating the 40 hours per week of the full day in 4 days of the week, but to reduce the hours worked to 32 per week, but making those hours much more productive and of course, without negatively affecting the employee’s monthly payroll.
This job alternative has been gaining popularity in recent years, especially as a result of the pandemic, as a short-term goal for many human resources departments of large and small companies. According to the head of technology strategy at GOWtech “It is a complicated change, but it is possible to compensate for the reduction in hours with the digital transformation, also managing to improve the mental health and mood of an entire work team”.
The data supports this position. Figures from InfoJobs indicate that 62% of those surveyed would prefer a 4-day workday over 5 days, as up to now, without loss of salary and maintaining productivity; while almost 85% consider that the 4-day working day would have considerable benefits and improvements in reconciliation with personal life.
Younger workers, those who are most committed to reduction
By ages, they are workers from 35 to 44 years those who see a greater positive impact on work motivation and who represent almost 80% of those consulted, which translates into an increase in productivity according to 72%. On the other hand, workers aged 45 and over are reluctant and mistrust the positive impact it can have on motivation, 64%.
Other recent studies affirm that, if almost 55% of workers consider the reduction of working days one of their main priorities, among the younger generations this percentage increases to 62%.
Combining personal and work life, seeking greater flexibility in hours and in the location of the job, is reflected in the well-being of workers and, at the same time, benefits the companies for which they work. they are not few the advantages of the 4-day work week. In addition to improving the well-being of employees, companies would also benefit from this measure desired by the majority of their employees, but the key to carrying out this measure, without reducing the productivity and efficiency of employees, is because the company has with a personalized system adapted to your needs.
From GOWtech they assure that “The customized digitization of the processes, after the corresponding study and replanning, could gradually reduce the working hours of the employees, which would also improve their satisfaction, mood and productivity.”
The truth is that this type of schedule is something in trend and, in fact, more than 70 companies in England have already put it into practice. Technologies and the way of working evolve at a dizzying pace and the solution so that any company does not enter into obsolescence inevitably involves the automation of processes.
