On this Business Beat, Jeff talks with Lauren Winans of Next Level Benefits about the forward momentum of companies adopting a four-day workweek. Is it a win-win?
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Jeff: [Good morning, Paul. So much change in the way we work these days. Well, another movement gaining traction. Now the four-day workweek. Paul, you’ve heard of it. Cramming five days’ worth of work into four days, but gaining the advantage of a three-day weekend. Telling us about where this movement stands is Lauren Winans, chief executive officer for Next Level Benefits. Here’s Lauren.
Lauren: Yeah, so the four-day workweek movement is, uh, becoming more and more of a possibility within corporate America. There’s a lot of companies in the U.S. who are giving it a try in terms of pilots. So I think it might be possible in the near future that you might see more companies moving in this direction.
Jeff: Lauren, of course, the four-day workweek is supposed to be a win-win for both the companies and the employees, but it’s gonna take some adjustment, isn’t it? I mean, this is a big change.
Lauren: If you think about it, you’re gonna have to do, you know, five days’ worth of work within four days in some cases. Not all of the time, hopefully, but there is gonna be a little bit of a more of a hectic pace during those four days of work than when, you know, when we had the five days to actually fit it all in. You know, senior leadership also needs to acknowledge that when you move to a four-day workweek, it’s not just a move to try to keep up with your competitors or attract and retain talent, it’s really a culture shift and it might need to come with some reductions in workload.
Jeff: And, Lauren, for companies wanting to adopt this it doesn’t have to be all in all at once, does it? You can tiptoe into this a bit, right?
Lauren: You know, there’s so many different ways that you can kind of just test it out. You know, it doesn’t have to be a full-blown move to a four-day workweek right away. You can designate those no-meeting days. You can offer paid sabbaticals to give employees rest and a chance to recharge. You can also end the workweek early on Fridays. Maybe everyone’s done at noon and it could just be one week a month. And so it’s really, it’s a trial and error process and I’m excited to see where it goes.
Jeff: The four-day workweek becoming more and more of a reality. I’m Jeff Sloan, founder and CEO of startupnation.com, and that’s today’s Business Beat on the Great Voice of the Great Lakes, WJR.
