A four-day work week is becoming increasingly viable in the minds of talent and employers – new research suggests nearly 3 in 5 (57%) of UK employees would prefer to reduce their hours to four days.
In light of this, Andrew Duncan, Partner and UK CEO at Infosys Consulting, comments:
“The talent market will continue to shift as companies try out new hybrid work approaches – the latest being the trialing of a four-day working week.
“Over the last two years, leaders have seen the positive impact that location-agnostic policies have on employee well-being. Flexibility-forward is the approach of the future, however, ensuring these policies are properly structured is key to making them a success. Unless companies start to establish clear boundaries around their policies, they risk seeing employee burnout. The same goes for a four-day working week – without clear guidelines in place, this flexible style of working risks an ‘always working’ culture, leaving talent feeling like they need to be available 24/7 to get ahead – the opposite of what was intended.
“Additionally, there is a risk that hybrid policies will create a new culture of presenteeism; this is going to pose a problem for employees who spend less time in the physical workplace – be it due to childcare commitments, health or even a preference towards solitary working. Managers will need to work together to make sure that employees are evaluated based on results in both day-to-day feedback and formal performance reviews, rather than when or where they work.”
