Businesses don’t need Labour to adopt a more flexible work week
Labour’s pledge at its party conference to introduce a four-day working week on five-day’s pay has grabbed headlines and been greeted with concern in some quarters and optimism in others.
Questions abound from journalists and employers alike. How could this be achieved? Would it mean shutting offices and factories for a three-day weekend? How much would it cost businesses to implement?
But these are the wrong questions.
What employers should be asking instead is whether, during a period of record employment, with many sectors and regions facing significant skills shortages, they can afford not to give their teams greater working flexibility.
Research we recently conducted for the Moorepay Engaged Employer report has shown that workers want greater flexibility and control over working hours – in fact the idea is supported by the majority of Brits. Moreover, research from Henley Business School has suggested that a shorter working week could save UK businesses £104bn a year though greater productivity and improved staff health and fitness.
How organisations offer greater flexibility is down to them (at least until Labour wins an election and tries to implement this policy). But companies that ignore the desire of their people to have greater flexibility risk struggling to retain valuable staff in the face of fierce competition to recruit.
To be clear, this isn’t just about attracting and retaining so-called “top talent”. There’s an equal challenge (and associated cost burden) in recruiting staff on or near the minimum wage, where employers can only compete on the whole employee offer – with flexibility and benefits a key part of that.
Flexibility over working hours requires negotiation. It isn’t just a case of shortening the working week by a day. People who choose a 32-hour week may not want to work that over just four days. Instead, they may opt to work five or even six days a week, but at reduced hours to enable school runs, avoid rush-hour hot spots, or flex their work to meet lifestyle interests.
They could also choose to save up the extra free time for more annual leave, particularly given the struggle many parents face arranging childcare over the school holidays.
Fundamentally the choice to work flexibly shouldn’t be a binary option between four or five days.
Employment policies and technology can all adapt to meet the challenges of this open approach to working hours. By recognising that flexibility means different things to different people, firms will be able to ensure that they have the core staff they need, while adapting to the lifestyle choices of their people.
Rather than seeing the demand for flexibility as a problem, I urge companies to embrace the opportunities it brings. The evidence shows that letting people work flexible hours or a shorter week can improve productivity and motivation, boosting recruitment and retention.
While Labour’s proposal for a four-day week was splashed around the headlines as though it were something radical, the reality is that finding more flexible ways to work is already a key conversation in workplaces across the UK.
In the current environment, employers that don’t embrace a more open approach risk staff voting with their feet, with all the costs and disruption such churn brings.
Main image credit: Getty