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A top Channel Islands finance firm is to trial a four-day working week this summer across its Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney offices.
The concept of a four-day working week has been gaining traction across the globe as a way of improving employee wellbeing and, as a result, their productivity.
Trials of workers being paid the same for shorter hours in Iceland, which took place between 2015 and 2019, were last year heralded an "overwhelming success", with productivity remaining the same or even improving in a majority of workplaces.
Companies across the world are now running their own trials, including in Spain and New Zealand where Unilever is taking part.
Now PwC in the Channel Islands has announced it is going to try out the new way of working.
Its offices will be open standard hours, five days a week, and employees will not receive any loss of pay for working a shorter week.
Senior Partner Nick Vermeulen said part of the rationale for the pilot was that workers had “emerged from the pandemic with different expectations around what constitutes a healthy life-work balance”.
While he said that PwC has operated “strong flexibility policies” for its staff “for some time now”, Mr Vermeulen said the firm was now “determined to do even more to be a great, innovative employer, rewarding and retaining both our current teams, as well as being a magnet for future talent on the islands.”
“We’re keen ultimately to embrace a new model of work which focuses on quality of outputs, not quantity of hours,” he said.
Pictured: PwC will be trialling a four-day week across its Channel Islands offices this summer.
Mr Vermeulen continued: “The pilot is based on a UK model of focused work, where there’s 100% pay, for 80% of hours, but with 100% productivity. We believe a measure of success of this trial will be in having a team of people who are healthier both mentally and physically, who are focused, engaged and determined to get the job done in a way that suits their diverse needs.”
While the 7,000-worker public sector has reported success with more flexible working arrangements since the pandemic, the Chief Minister has ruled out looking at a four-day working week.
"The breadth of services delivered by the Government of Jersey means that flexibility looks very different depending on the service and role a person is working in. A four-day working week would not be appropriate for many of our service areas,” Senator John Le Fondré said.
He noted, however, that the Government was looking at providing further flexibility around “where, when or how many hours people work” and running a number of trials.
Pictured: Following questions from Deputy Louise Doublet, Senator Le Fondré said in February that a four-day week was "not appropriate" for Government employees.
"Early indications are positive with the first pilot reporting that 79% of employees who responded to the survey felt that their wellbeing had improved as a result of increased flexibility and 82% reporting that they felt productivity and efficiency had increased or stayed the same as a result of the changes in working practices.
“When all pilots have been completed findings will be collated and learnings used to help the organisation embed this approach further.”
Four-day week "not appropriate" for Gov employees
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