More companies are trying four-day work weeks.
Some are doing it to avoid laying people off during the pandemic. Others say it creates a better work-life-balance with employees at home.
Elephant Ventures is a software company that started testing employees working four 10-hour days. It's a move to help employee morale and parents dealing with childcare and remote learning.
“I think you still have the age-old conversation of if it's 40 hours compressed into four days, you still have how much productivity are you actually getting in a 10-hour workday,” said Barb Holland, an Human Resources Knowledge Advisor with SHRM.
Productivity has gone up in other countries, like at Microsoft in Japan, when they tried a four-day work-week last year.
Zip Recruiter has seen an increase in job postings that mention four-day work weeks this year.
“If you're not wanting to lose your good workers or you're wanting to make sure they're not looking elsewhere for those places that are hiring, you have to be thinking about, ‘how do I retain my good staff,’” said Holland. “I don't want to lose them and flexibility I think is going to be a key piece of retaining staff in the future.”
That HR expert says flexibility could be key to attracting new workers in the future.
Elephant Ventures plans to test its new work week this month. If it's successful, it could look at reducing the workday by an hour.