Abstract
The idea of a four-day workweek—where the common 40-hour week is shortened to 32 with no reduction of benefits or take-home pay—is becoming increasingly popular, boasting improved efficiency and heightened levels of employee satisfaction.
Naturally, as an IT provider, we’re intrigued by the idea of using technology to get the most out of this abbreviated time in the office.
That’s why we wanted to examine the four-day workweek concept to determine how your business (from its internal time management to overall employee satisfaction) can get the most out of it with the help of the right IT.
Defining the Four-Day Workweek
As we’ve established, the only difference between the four-day workweek and the existing five-day standard is that an employee is expected to be in the office and work eight hours out of four days rather than the more typical five. Their benefits and compensation don’t change; their net take-home pay remains the same as if they were in the office for 40 hours each week.
A few things do tend to change, however, when this schedule is adopted by businesses:
Productivity Rises
Fewer hours in the week help motivate you and your team to waste less time overall. You know that meeting that could have been an email? A four-day workweek makes it far more likely to be an email, and your efficiency will take less of a hit. The four-day approach can help you accomplish more overall.
Overhead Costs Diminish
“But wait,” I can almost hear you saying, “didn’t you say that each employee’s compensation wouldn’t change after the switch from five days to four days? How does that help save costs?”
It’s simple: one fewer workday means that there’s one fewer day that you need to pay for a building full of utilities to run. Your team members can also see this kind of change on a more personal level, as that’s one less day they need to pay for their commute and potentially lunch in the workplace.
Work and Life Balance
Be honest… would you rather work five days a week or four? Even by a day, decreasing the workweek can help significantly boost employee satisfaction. Plus, since they’ll have more time to attend to their own responsibilities and priorities, they’ll be less likely to be distracted in the office and more motivated to accomplish their tasks.
How Your Technology Can Play a Role in Your Business Time Management
There are a few tools that you can use to more effectively manage and utilize your time so that you can make the most of it.
Project Management and Collaboration Help Keep You on Task
One of the biggest benefits of business is that an entire team works toward a unified goal, and certain tools can help you direct the team’s efforts. Project management systems enable you to task out processes and keep your team accountable for their progress. At the same time, collaboration tools help ensure that everyone in your business can communicate with each other as needed, regardless of where (or when) they are working.
Automation Can Remove Tasks That Don’t Require Much Brainpower
While necessary to complete, many tasks aren’t effective ways for your team to spend time at work as they are often repetitive and generally simplistic. Automation can help you free up your team’s time by making these tasks more efficient and allowing them to devote their energy to more productive work—ultimately allowing more to be done in less time.
Giving Your Team the Support They’ll Need Helps Maintain the Workflow
Regardless of how much you’ve invested in your business technology or how much you’ve trained your team to use it, technical challenges are bound to arise that turn into bona fide obstacles. Having a reliable and professional IT resource ready to help can minimize (if not eliminate) these time-wasting obstacles, making a four-day workweek more feasible overall.
The writing is on the wall: the four-day workweek will be a reality much sooner than later.
As more businesses adopt this improved model, balance and efficiency will become more attainable. As we’ve established here, technology will be an essential part of this adoption… and that’s why you want to reach out to us here at NetMGM.
We offer managed IT services that will help you reach your goals and benchmarks by optimizing your processes and the technology that enables them. Call 888-748-2525 today to learn more about how we can help you transition to a four-day week with the right technology!
