The Australian company Versa does not work on Wednesdays, none of the employees can not be caught in the workplace on this day. This completely changed the workflow: employees became more organized. And at the same time, they became happier.
Examples of companies that distribute their workload over four days instead of the usual five are around the world. The idea is always the same: more free time and, therefore, more rest for employees. Although they spend less time in the company as a whole, they work much more productively.
How does the reduction in working time
The initial shift to the new schedule was worrying about how this should work. Some managers worry about missed appointments, employee stress, and customer frustration.
But at Versa, employees didn’t just take advantage of the extra day off. They pre-organized their workflow in accordance with the new schedule. Meetings have become more effective, and empty chatter in the corridors is a rarity.
The company began using a new work schedule in July 2018. According to company founder and CEO Kat Blackham, sales have grown 46 percent since then, and profits have tripled. She believes that they were able to increase sales because people are doing an excellent job. Initially, she needed to convince her team of the importance of the changes and promise that if the experiment failed, they would return to the 5-day week. She wanted to prove that in one of the most unexpected sectors - the service sector, where young people are known to work for many hours, something innovative can be effective.
Why was Wednesday a weekend?
But why the environment? Why not have a long weekend? It was necessary to divide the work week into two parts. This is due to the fact that in most cases employees work much more energetically after the weekend. In addition, there is still a practical reason for appointing a specific day as a day off: if a tribute to employees is the opportunity to choose a day off on their own, it would be more difficult for them and their clients to work for the future.
Examples of other companies
Researchers also believe that the free environment is the best day of the week for extra relaxation. At least, that's the opinion of staff interviewed by Professor Jarrod Haar of Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand. Also, a New Zealand real estate company hit the headlines last year when it switched to a four-day week. There, sick leave was practically not used, colleagues felt more comfortable and were more productive. However, the company also lost some employees who could not cope with the new system and the resulting load. But not all companies that dare to experiment adhere to it. Thus, some American startups returned to their usual work schedule, as this caused additional stress for employees, and companies were less competitive.