Sabra Lane: The four-day working week will soon become an option for Woolworths employees after the supermarket giant's new enterprise agreement came into effect on the first of July.
14,000 full-time workers could be eligible to work longer days in a shorter working week.
But some Australian companies are already embracing the four-day week without asking their employees to work longer days.
Debbie Bailey is the head of growth for the 4-day-week group, which helps companies transition to the flexible model. She spoke to the Bright Side podcast about the ongoing benefits to businesses and staff.
Debbie Bailey: It can be an absolute game changer for you and your business. Two thirds reduction in absenteeism. You can have 70-odd per cent reduction in burnout, 50+ per cent reduction in resignations. These are things that have a really significant bottom line effect for businesses and also the level of service that you can offer your stakeholders and your customers.
Sabra Lane: Those numbers are pretty compelling that you just gave then.
Debbie Bailey: They're incredible and they're common. So those are numbers that came through our UK research. It also comes through our Australian research. Medibank recently reported on their midterm results. They've had two third reduction in their absenteeism after just three months of trial. They're incredible consistent results that organisations see through the change.
Sabra Lane: A few years back you were actually part of a trial for a four-day work week. How did that all start?
Debbie Bailey: It's quite a leap of faith because it's a lot to get your head around. You're looking at different processes and ways of working. You really need your whole of organisation to be on board to make it happen. So we went through a couple of months planning phase where we had a look at how we would work differently, how we might structure our days, but also what were the things that we had to maintain in order for it to be successful. And then we put it into practice. So we had a six-month trial period, which we then extended for a further six months after that. The outcomes were incredible. The staff absolutely loved it. We were able to maintain service levels. We were able to think differently about how we worked and really get into the detail of doing focus work and still maintain that great client service and satisfaction, which was one of the non-negotiables of the trial.
Sabra Lane: It sounds like you liked it so much that you ended up leaving Momentum Health and joining with the four-day week mob.
Debbie Bailey: Absolutely. I actually finished my CEO contract with Momentum and was looking for something different. I love transformational change. But I particularly love the transition that can occur by having a four-day week and trialling that in an organisation. So after a little break, I jumped on board with Four Day Week Global. I've been working with them ever since, building up their consulting and growing the services that they offer to companies all over the world, but also in Australia as well.
Sabra Lane: And the new businesses that you're working with, what is the rough rate of adoption for moving, making the switch to a permanent four-day week after piloting it?
Debbie Bailey: The UK trial was a great example. That was a trial that we did in 2022 with 61 different companies. So at the end of the trial, 91 companies continued the four-day week after that first six-month period. We've just done some more research with them two years down the track, and over 80% of them have maintained that four-day week operation. So there's a very high take-up and maintenance of it, which is pretty impressive when you think about change processes. That's a very high success rate.
Sabra Lane: Debbie Bailey, the Head of Growth for Four Day Week speaking with The Bright Side podcast.