The four-day workweek trend is "really hitting the ground" globally, as a rising number of companies start implementing the new policy, HR and workplace industry analyst Josh Bersin tells CNBC Make It.
Last month, Bersin and his advisory firm Josh Bersin Company published an analysis of companies worldwide who made the move to a four-day workweek, to see which practices they had in common to achieve success in this transition.
"The one thing in common between all of these companies that have made a successful transition to a four-day workweek is that they are viewing this as a way to increase productivity rather than just enforcing the workweek," Bersin says. "And they are doing so through using tech tools like AI and other organizational tips to reduce wasted time."
Bersin highlighted three approaches he thinks companies should adopt to ensure a seamless transition into a four-day workweek schedule.
It's not about cramming 5 days of work into 4
Bersin says it's wrong to characterize the four-day workweek initiative as an effort to cram five days of work into four. Instead, companies should view it as a work-time reduction project.
"A lot of the early pilots were basically taking the same amount of work and just squeezing it into four days, so everybody was working at night," he says. That method tends to fail, Bersin says; it doesn't necessarily combat problems like burnout that the 4-day workweek initiative aims to address.
Instead, what he suggests companies do is to view this as a productivity initiative "focused on enabling a four-day workweek, not just forcing the four-day workweek."
To do that, there are some questions to consider: Do you need to have all the meetings you are currently having every week? Are there certain projects that you are wasting time with that don't matter as much in the grand scheme of company objectives? Can you improve communication and provide resources within the company so that employees don't spend as much time having the same conversations back and forth?
Most of the companies Bersin spoke with reached out directly to teams in the company to look for productivity roadblocks in the way they do work. Most teams are thrilled by the idea and are eager to figure out things they can do.
Inventium, an Australian consulting company highlighted in the report, said that individualized productivity practices, such as scheduling deeply focused work around what day or time each employee or team feels the most productive, helped in their transition to the four-day workweek. The company noted a 26% increase in productivity and 18% decrease in employee stress levels at the end of its trial.
"In most companies, the five-day week is an institutionalized legacy, there's a lot of wasted time during those 40 hours," Bersin says. "And sure enough, virtually every company we talked to said that with the four-day workweek they were getting more work done in less time and the employees felt better about their jobs because they had more time outside of work."
Clarify and simplify accountability and lines of command
Another big trend is increasing productivity and decreasing work time by simplifying lines of command and flattening organizations, Bersin says.
Flattening organizations has many benefits, he argues: it speeds communication around groups and makes the company more dynamic.
A hierarchical structure gives employees incentives to work harder through the opportunity of getting promoted. Although Bersin's call for flattening isn't necessarily a call for the complete absolution of hierarchy in corporations, he does argue for giving employees the chance to move horizontally rather than linking raises with upward promotions.
Flattening organizations goes hand in hand with clarifying accountability, Bersin says, as flatter organizations without clear accountability would lead to just as much if not more loss of productivity.
"Teaching managers to be very clear on who's responsible for what and flattening the organization so there aren't too many managers saves time," Bersin says. "If every time I do something I have to get approval from my manager and every time he does something, he goes to his manager, well we're going to waste a lot of time just going up and down the chain."
Utilize AI and other tech tools
Tech tools for productivity, including AI, can save employees time, Bersin argues, and science backs him up.
A recent Stanford experiment showed that generative AI can boost workplace productivity by 14%. Another study, conducted in 2023 by Autonomy, found that tools like ChatGPT can increase productivity and free up enough time for 35 million American workers to move to a four-day workweek.
Wharton organizational psychologist Adam Grant agrees.
"I think there is a real potential, maybe for the first time in a century to think seriously about shortening the workweek," Grant told CNBC Make It in November 2023, in regard to the introduction of generative AI tools into the workplace. "Could [managers] let [employees] work maybe 10% less if they are 20-30% more productive with AI?"
Bersin says the initial hump in learning how to use these AI and tech tools is keeping companies from utilizing their full potential. Before making the switch to a four-day workweek, teams need to sit down and have a discussion on how they can use the tools they have at hand more effectively.
AI assistants like the Josh Bersin Company-developed Galileo can save time for HR departments in the preparation of assessments, employee documentation and courses, he says. Project management websites such as Asana and Trello also have integrated AI to automate routine tasks and streamline the project management process. He also recommends the use of AI tools that analyze employees' average computer usage and suggest dates and times to send emails according to the other person's activity, which could save time during in-office communications.
The tech tools don't all have to be AI; giving employees the opportunity to skip meetings and just watch the recording with the option to have it at 2x speed can free up time that could be put toward an extra day off.
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