Thursday, September 23, 2021
How much work is healthy?
Packaging company changes to four-day week
By Diana Dittmer
Reports of shorter working hours mostly originate in Scandinavia. Now Great Britain is apparently also discovering the topic. Healthy employees pay off, states a British company – and now lets them cut short with full pay.
What the employees at Belmont Packaging and its e-commerce sister Boxed-Up in Great Britain are looking forward to this week is the dream of many employees: Less work – with full pay – and more time for yourself. This is exactly what the 30 employees at the specialist in corrugated cardboard packaging solutions have now achieved for themselves after a model test. Since September 20, there has only been a four-day work week for them. The majority of Britons can also imagine such a work-life balance for themselves, as surveys show.
Less work not only makes employees happy, it can also affect sickness levels. That is why Belmont Packaging has only had the four-day working week since September 20.
(Photo: Belmont Packaging)
When the company near Manchester began testing this model in production in late 2019, the focus was primarily on the health and well-being of its employees. In addition, it was also about appreciation, as the commercial manager of the packaging specialist emphasizes: “We not only value our customers, business partners and suppliers, but also our greatest asset, the employees, their hard work, commitment and dedication to our company make what it is, “Gareth Rollo told the Manchester Evening Post.
However, this turnaround is not entirely unselfish, because stress-related illnesses can also be prevented in this way: “Four-day working weeks give Belmont Packaging employees time to concentrate on personal development or to spend time with loved ones. This can lead to satisfaction of employees and contribute to less burnouts in the workplace, “it says in the press release.
In addition, the company has always endeavored to be “progressive when it comes to customer service, quality, performance, technology and new ways of working”. With the step towards the four-day working week, the company also wants to take on a “pioneering role” not only in the health and well-being of employees, but also in the packaging industry.
Scotland rushes ahead
Indeed, Belmont Packing’s decision is currently trending in the UK. At the beginning of the month, Scotland announced that it would test the four-day week with full pay. Instead of the usual 38 hours a week, Scottish men and women will soon have to work 30 hours in offices, which means that every week has a three-day weekend. The salary will not change despite the 20 percent reduction in working hours. The Scottish government justifies the attempt, not hours, but performance justified the annual wage.
How much employees welcome reduced working hours, shows a survey quoted by the British broadcaster BBC in this context: A survey by the think tank IPPR Scotland showed that a full 80 percent of people would like a four-day week. Two thirds of the over 2,200 people between the ages of 16 and 65 surveyed stated that a shorter working week could not only increase their well-being but also productivity in the country. 88 percent of those surveyed also offered to take part in the Scottish pilot program. The Scottish government wants to try to possibly implement the model nationwide.
Less work, lower sick leave
In recent years, there have been reports of model tests with reduced working hours, especially from Northern Europe. Iceland has already tested the four-day week very successfully in two large-scale experiments from 2015 to 2019. For 2,500 workers, more than one percent of the working population, the working week has been reduced from 40 to 35 or 36 hours – also with the same pay. After the successful test phase, the model is now being rolled out nationwide.
In Sweden – also from 2015 – all municipal hospitals and old people’s homes tested the four-day week. There, too, it was found that the staff were healthier, happier and more productive. “The people were significantly more satisfied, had a higher quality of life and lower sick leave”, the psychologist Rüya Kocaleven confirms to the “Stern”.
The American startup entrepreneur Stephan Aarstol is convinced that the well-being of employees and high productivity with reduced working hours are not mutually exclusive. A company can do more with fewer working hours. He himself prescribed a five-hour working day for his company. Far too much time is wasted at work, he said recently in an interview with ntv.de.
Others, on the other hand, warn against transferring such pilot projects to other countries and the entire labor market. Employees who generally welcome shorter working hours generally do not want to forego their wages. Not every company can afford it. Employers, for their part, have to fear unoccupied shifts and gaps in duty rosters, so that work is simply left behind. In many cases, and not just in the healthcare sector, jobs would have to be created to keep operations going.
Belmont Packaging shows courage to show the gap. Since this week, the company has been pointing out that deliveries will be canceled due to the shorter working hours only until 4.30 p.m. are accepted.