In addition to mobile working, the four-day week is probably the most discussed topic at the moment when it comes to changing the world of work. Three day weekend with the same pay – sounds tempting. Doing the same work 80 percent of the time sounds ambitious. As part of a project, 45 companies and organizations from Germany are trying out the four-day week for six months and are receiving scientific support. A large part of it starts on Monday.
The IT service provider Nacura from Paderborn is there. “For us there were two main arguments: firstly, the work-life balance, and the second point is employee retention and acquisition,” says Markus Nölker from the management. Of the 23 employees, only two remained at their previous working hours. Every employee could make the decision voluntarily.
“Great interest in at least trying it”
“There were a lot of worries about whether you would be able to do the current job in four days or whether you would spend more money if you were always free on Fridays,” says Nölker. Many ideas for concrete implementation were discussed in a working group. All employees were given plenty of time to think about it. In an anonymous vote, the team ultimately clearly voted in favor of the experiment. “In the end, the employees were very interested in at least trying it out,” says Nölker.
The initiator of the project is the management consultancy Intraprenör, which in turn works with the organization 4 Day Week Global. The NGO has already taken the project in a similar form to various other countries. In Great Britain, many of the companies subsequently showed great interest. Because the companies were able to volunteer for the project, the results from Great Britain and the future ones for Germany are not representative.
Model 100-80-100
The German edition is scientifically supported by the University of Münster. Participating companies have the opportunity to share experiences and optimize their model in monthly exchange meetings and chat rooms. Intraprenör only specifies the 100-80-100 model: i.e. 100 percent performance in 80 percent of the time with 100 percent payment.
According to Nölker, four teams were formed at Nacura for the four-day week and work at different times: three teams are on duty from Monday to Thursday and one team is on duty from Tuesday to Friday. As an IT service provider, it was important to be able to offer customers support every working day. The teams alternate who has to work on Fridays. One team even has a four-day weekend thanks to the rotating system.
Craftsmen and industrial companies also take part
Nölker is optimistic that the four-day week will become established in the company. He expects a similar development to the home office. “We introduced mobile working in April 2019, but only a few people used it. Then Corona came, we had to send people to work from home – and now, to put it bluntly, many people no longer want to go back to the office.”
The organizations and companies participating in the project are scattered across the Federal Republic. 30 percent are based in the most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia. According to Intraprenör, more than half of the companies have between 10 and 49 employees. The most represented industry is “IT and technology” (14 percent). But crafts and industrial companies (6 percent each) are also represented in the project. According to Intraprenör, these sectors were often underrepresented in studies from other countries.
