In an interview with Slinghshot SEO CEO Jay Love, he talks about the business advantage of having a four day work week. I know many of you are probably thinking, a four day work week would never work in our environment or I am already working 10 hour days every day, how could I get my work done in 4 days. Here is my challenge for you, instead of thinking it won’t work, take five minutes and think about how it could work. I would be willing to bet, in most companies, it is not a matter of something like this never being able to work, it is a matter of people who refuse to entertain the idea of how could it work. I read through a number of the comments in this article and there were many employees who are working in this environment and love it. Many said they might still log in on Friday for a couple of hours to get ahead but they enjoy the flexibility the four day work week affords.
I truly believe the way we do work is going to shift dramatically over the next decade. Things like ROWE , compressed work weeks, etc., will be the norm, not the exception. (If you don’t know what ROWE is, I have blogged about this several times here, here, and here.) Companies who understand this will try to stay ahead of the curve and work to see how these innovative work structures can be implemented now, rather than waiting until their top talent is gone in favor of these environments.
Let me give you a real life example that just happened last week. A friend of mine is currently looking for a job. One of the companies he was talking to said they are moving to ROWE in Q2. He specifically said that with all things being equal between different companies, he would go with this company because of the work environment. In fact, he went on to say he was so excited by ROWE that he would be willing to take slightly less to have the flexibility in his work schedule that ROWE affords.
In the upcoming battle on talent, and yes there will be one once the economy opens up, work environment issues will attract the necessary top talent and if all other things are equal, could tip the scales in companies obtaining the talent necessary to be successful in the future.
So again I challenge you, stop thinking it won’t work and take a few minutes to think about how it could work. If you refuse to, you will be left behind in the war talent.
