A UK business has joined the working week revolution by letting employees drop down to a four day schedule without a decrease in the amount that they are paid.
Chilwell Products, a family business for three generations, has become the latest of several companies in Britain to opt for a shorter working week in order to keep employees happier and – in theory – keep productivity at the same level.
This means that employees at the company, which makes parts for scaffolding, now have a wonderful three-day weekend every single week, because they’ve got Fridays off for the same amount of money.
More than 30 companies are already trialling this sort of week with the aim of keeping productivity at 100 percent for 80 percent of time.
We can all dream, right?
Laura Clarke, the managing director of the company, said that the traditional 39-hour week that most of us are used to is ‘a thing of the past’.
She told Metro: “We’ve made the changes and have still achieved a 45 percent increase in capacity, helping us increase turnover and giving us the chance to go after new opportunities.”
It’s clearly working so far, then.
Clarke, 30, took over at the helm from her mother Lorraine in 2019, who in turn took over from her father, the founder of the business Derrick Telford.
They’ve got nine staff across the factory in Stanton by Dale, Derbyshire.
Now, those lucky few have five fewer hours every week written into their contracts.
As well as introducing the new work week, they’ve also pumped around £100,000 ($130,000) into technology upgrades, upgrading power presses using tech from Bruderer UK.
While some were initially concerned about changing processes, they’ve now reported a 12 percent rise in volume of components over the last 12 months from 15.6 million to 17.5 million.
Not bad at all.
Companies like Chilwell who adopt this sort of attitude to work/life balance are redesigning a more modern way of measuring time and productivity at work.
This may be – in part – because of the pandemic, which forced businesses into a snap rethink of how they operate, and proved that workers are more adaptable than was previously accepted by bosses.
Charlotte Davies, a careers expert from LinkedIn, told the same publication: "Attempting to squeeze as much, or more work, into fewer hours could prove stressful for some, but it’s all about finding some equilibrium.
"After all, employees that are given more time to rest and recharge outside of work hours are far more likely to be happier and more productive when they are back in."
