The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown up different perspectives about work and how it affects our lives. This forced regime has helped us to realise that indeed you don’t have to report to a physical location and work for a certain number of hours to be effective.
Companies have come up different versions of hybrid working model; for instance, work for 3 days onsite and two days at home; one week in the office, one week at home e.t.c. Other companies have employees working either full-time remote or full-time on-site.
The hybrid model has now come to stay as recent research shows that almost half of employees (47%) would likely look for a job if their employer doesn’t adopt a flexible working model. A recent study by Slack found that flexibility is a key reason employees are attracted to the hybrid work model. Finding balance is easier in a flexible work arrangement.
The whole talk about balancing your work-life has altogether given way to the notion that even reducing the number of working days in a week can provide employees with a healthier work-life balance for themselves. This has gone global. Companies and countries alike have started trialling the four-day workweek.
In 2019, Microsoft tested a four-day workweek in its Japan offices and found as a result employees were not only happier – but significantly more productive, as high as 40%. In 2018, New Zealand trust management company Perpetual Guardian trialled a four-day workweek over two months for its 240 staff members. Employees reported experiencing better work-life balance and improved focus in the office. Staff stress levels decreased by 7%.
Belgium has joined the list of countries that have approved a four-day work week. This is part of a series of labour reforms approved by the Belgian government. Belgians can now perform a full workweek in four days instead of the usual five without loss of salary.
According to Deputy Prime Minister and Labor Minister Pierre-Yves Dermagne on Tuesday in Brussels, however employers will still have the right to turn down employees’ requests for a condensed workweek, but the explanation for the refusal must be done in writing. For companies, it will become easier to introduce evening and night work without prior agreement from all labor unions.
“The goal is to give people and companies more freedom to arrange their work time,” Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Tuesday in Brussels. “If you compare our country with others, you’ll often see we’re far less dynamic.”
A four-day week will help women caring for children and aging parents maintain a work-life balance, but it will also benefit the labor market, said Beatrice Delfin-Diaz, president of the Belgian Association of Women Business Leaders.
Iceland trialled the four-day workweek between 2015 and 2019. Researchers said the trials were an “overwhelming success” and this led to many workers moving to shorter hours. This has been tested in Sweden, and similar pilots are underway in Spain and Japan. The United Kingdom started a six-month trial program in June 2021, with about 30 companies that have so far signed up for the trial. Similar programs are set to start in the U.S. and Ireland, with more planned for Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
