Jordan Maitland spearheaded a four-day work week at her workplace Raisely and said it's meant staff are more energised and productive. ·Source: Supplied
Aussie businesses are being warned they “cannot afford” to not consider introducing a four-day work week as employee burnout becomes a growing problem. More Aussie companies are adopting the new work model, with big names like Medibank and Bunnings among those trialling the change.
Fundraising platform Raisely was one of the first companies in Australia to permanently adopt a four-day work week in 2022, with staff receiving no cut to their pay. Chief customer officer Jordan Maitland told Yahoo Finance she expected more businesses would make the switch this year.
“Life is busy and with AI we’re able to get so much more done, which is almost at the expense of your people and you’re almost getting too much done in five days that people are easily burning out,” she said.
“With all the technology and better ways of working, reward your people for that and let them have that day off and come back more energised.
“Otherwise, if we’re working at this pace, five days a week, you’re going to have continuous burnout and continuous turnover.”
Maitland originally pitched the idea of a four-day week to her boss. She wanted more time to spend with her son Leo, who was a toddler at the time, and was preparing for the birth of her second child.
Has your company switched to a four-day work week? Contact tamika.seeto@yahooinc.com
Her boss was on board with the idea and suggested trialling it for everyone at the 40-person company, which is also fully remote.
Raisely conducted a three-month trial using the 100:80:100 model, where staff keep 100 per cent of their pay, have their work hours reduced to 80 per cent, but must maintain 100 per cent of their productivity.
To maintain productivity in the shortened week, Maitland said the team took on less extra project work and had less time for learning and development. Instead, they focused on their “core” jobs for the majority of the time.
The trial found there were no drops in productivity. In fact, it went the other way, with a 10.1 per cent improvement.
Staff also reported their work-life balance improved by nearly 18 per cent, along with increased energy levels.
“When you have less time, you really focus on what’s important,” Maitland told Yahoo Finance.
“People naturally started prioritising what was most important and stopped doing things that were just distracting to their work. It really happened naturally, which I was surprised about.
“The other thing is you just have more energy with an extra day off. You come back feeling refreshed and creative and energised and that really shines through in the work people are able to produce.”
Aussie companies ‘ready’ for shift as employees face 'squeeze'
Christian Miran, a work revolution architect and chief disruptor at Thrive Nation, said he thinks Aussie companies are “ready” for the four-day week shift.
Miran previously worked at Medibank and led the insurer’s trial.
“Australia is really prime for this now. This is the next wave of understanding of how we could be more productive,” Miran told Yahoo Finance.
Christian Miran led the four-day work week experiment at Medibank. ·Source: Medibank
“Globally, labour cost productivity stats are stagnating since the 60s. We’ve kind of squeezed as much as we can out of people.
“We’ve got to find new ways and I think Australia is not immune from that and our burnout rates are equally as high in Australia as they are around the world.”
Research from recruiter Robert Half found just over a third of Australian employees expected their organisation would transition to a four-day work week within the next five years.
Another 37 per cent said their company “might” transition within this timeframe.
'How can you not afford to?': 4-day work week seen across industries
Miran said he believed there was a “universal application” for the four-day week across industries.
In Colorado, for example, the Golden Police Department has been trialling it with positive results. Toyota in Sweden has also trialled the shorter week, along with eyewear maker EssilorLuxottica in Italy which has made the move for employees at its factories.
Miran said some industries simply “cannot afford not to do something different” where they had high attrition, high turnover and high sick leave rates, along with increased employee disengagement.
He gave the example of a retail business he is consulting with that had a 40 per cent turnover rate.
“How can you not afford to do something to address it? When you look at the cost of what that’s costing you in finding new people, training them up, lost time, it’s massive,” he said.
Maitland said she was using the extra day off to spend time with her kids and felt more energised coming back to work. ·Source: Supplied
Maitland said the four-day week had helped Raisely attract and retain talent.
“We’re a small company so we haven’t had the most competitive salaries in the past. We’ve gotten bigger, so we’re doing a bit better,” she said.
“But by offering this four-day work week, we’re able to compete with some organisations that offer higher salaries because we have the better work-life balance and for retention, there’s nothing like it.”
More workers keen for the change
As more Australian employers get staff to come back into the office, some workers are swinging the other way and wanting their companies to introduce flexible benefits.
A Robert Half poll of 1,000 workers and 500 hiring managers last year found 65 per cent of employees wanted a four-day week with retention of their full salary.
A poll of more than 2,000 Yahoo Finance readers also found a staggering 90 per cent were in favour of the shorter week.
Maitland said having an extra day off meant she had more time to spend with her family and to complete life admin, giving her time to truly rest on the weekend.
“I still have one toddler at home who is not in daycare that day, so for me, that’s an extra day to be with them, which is really nice,” she said.
“On the weekend, when you just want to spend time with your family, it’s the worst to do the life admin, do the laundry, when you just want to enjoy and rest.”
