The success of the 4 day week will hinge on visibility
The results from the world's largest 4 day week trial have been released and the takeaways are incredibly positive. A whopping 92% of organisations involved in the trial are planning to continue with reduced weekly hours. But how will a 4 day week function in the hybrid world?
For many of us, the days of a rigid 9-5 work schedule are long gone and flexible working is here to stay. As the 4 day week looks set to become the next big development in the future of work, the challenge will be to interface the flexibility of the hybrid model with the freedom of 4 day week.
One of the biggest parts of the challenge will be in scheduling and visibility. For an onsite team that shares the same days off every week, this won't be too difficult, but once that team is hybrid and is given the flexibility to chop and change that extra day off, then things are going to get messy. Fast.
The idea of a flexi-hybrid 4 day week will have the organisers amongst us visualising a beautifully maintained spreadsheet for everyone to regularly fill in, only for the whole team to forget about its existence after a week or two. After that, you’ll be subject to chasing people on Slack to see what hours they might be working that day, and failing that, you might even see an increase in meeting no-shows as your colleagues completely fail to inform each other of their working plans.
Put the spreadsheet down, there's a better way.
At LunaDesk we've got tools that will put those fears to rest. We’re building The Scheduler to give teams instant visibility on who is working where and when.
For us, it doesn’t matter if the working week is 4 days or 5, The Scheduler lets us know when others are available, whether it's a regular day off or an ad-hoc dentist appointment.
Will the 4 day work week become the norm?
Whether you’re working onsite, remote, or a combination of the two, the key to finding hybrid harmony in the 4 day work week lies in proper visibility and a collective effort to keep each other informed and up to date. If you and your colleagues can utilise LunaDesk's tools like The Scheduler, we have no doubt that the 4 day week will become the future of work.
Last week I was on the phone with a recruiter who told me that hybrid work was now considered a pre-requisite by almost every candidate that they spoke with. Four years ago most companies would have laughed at the request of an employee asking to visit the office just once a week, but now it’s the norm.
Just like the world embraced hybrid and remote working from early 2020, we think that more and more organisations will open up to at least trialing the 4 day work week, in light of the overwhelmingly positive reaction. In turn, more and more employees will be looking out for the 4 day week as a huge perk in their future roles.
Be one of the first to access The Scheduler.
We believe in a hybrid working future where both the flexibility of hybrid and the freedom of the 4 day work week go hand in hand, and so we're on a mission to make sure companies and organisations have the tools they need to achieve hybrid harmony. Request access below and be one of the first to sample The Scheduler.