Asda is scrapping plans to introduce a four-day week as complaints from exhausted staff highlighted a major misstep in its successful roll-out of shortened working patterns.
A supermarket chain has launched a trial run to see staff working 44 hours a week over four days instead of five for the same pay. This translated into 11 hour shifts for a labor intensive job.
The idea of ​​filling the same weekly hours in a shorter period of time inevitably had adverse consequences for Asda employees. Staff described the shifts as “physically demanding”, while the early start and late finish left those reliant on public transport in detention.
Parents who work at Asda also faced challenges coordinating childcare and school pick-up and drop-off within 11-hour shifts.
The group has decided not to continue with the shortened four-day work week, but is trialling a flexible 39-hour week over five days.
“We will continue to trial different flexible working patterns to assess how they can benefit our colleagues and our business,” an Asda spokesman said. Luck.
Asda is not the only company to have faced fitness issues from staff after trying to introduce a condensed working model.
Insurer Domestic & General introduced a similar condensed working week, but also faced complaints from staff who were left feeling drained.
“Half the team absolutely loved it, half the team didn’t like it at all — it makes the day longer, it’s a little bit more intense,” Crummack said. The Telegraph. “For them, splitting the work into five was easier to handle psychologically,”
Last year, Crummack said Bloomberg that companies implementing a four-day week tend to lose “flexibility” and inevitably force workers to take on an extra fifth day anyway.
How to successfully bring a 4-day week
The announcements by Asda and D&G came just days before South Cambridgeshire Council hailed the huge success of its four-day week-long process.
450 council staff undertook the biggest ever public sector trial of the four-day working week.
Benefits included a 39% reduction in staff turnover, which helped the council save £371,500 ($476,000) through lower staffing agency costs, Guardian reported.
At the same time, the council said it processed 15% more large planning applications, while household planning applications were completed a week and a half earlier, indicating a huge increase in productivity.
“We know we can’t compete on pay alone and we need to find bold new ways to tackle our recruitment and retention challenges,” said John Williams, South Cambridgeshire Council’s lead member for resources. Guardian.
The four-day-a-week exams have increased in recent years, with varying results showing that success is not guaranteed.
In the most successful studies, staff tend to work shorter hours for the same pay, as at South Cambridgeshire Council. In increasing retention rates, several studies
The four-day, week-long trial saw more than 60 companies and nearly 3,000 UK employees experiment with the 100:80:100 model, where employees were paid 100% of their pay for 80% of their time while delivering 100% productivity.
A year after the trial was completed, Autonomy found that 89% of companies were still implementing the four-day week after employees saw a significant drop in burnout and employers enjoyed a drop in attrition.
However, the latest results from Asda and D&G suggest that the benefits of the extra day off are canceled out if employers try to get their staff to work the same number of hours on fewer days.
While British companies and public organizations are experimenting with increasing their employees’ free time, Greece is taking the opposite approach in its quest to increase productivity.
The country relaxed labor laws in some industries, allowing companies to hire workers who work 48 hours a week.