Intrapreneur boss Meier
There are “many creative solutions” for the four-day week
01.07.2024, 18:07
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Since February, 45 companies have been trying to introduce the four-day week as part of a pilot project – with full pay and full performance from their employees. An interim assessment shows some problems and challenges. Co-initiator Carsten Meier from the management consultancy Intraprenör nevertheless draws a positive conclusion in an interview with ntv.
ntv: The interim conclusion of your pilot project showed that 40 percent of the companies had problems responding to a Four-day week What were the challenges?
Carsten Meier: The four-day week is of course a process of change. It’s about changing processes, managing things differently, changing cultures. It’s completely normal that there aren’t just good, quick solutions, but that there are also challenges. For us, that means that a very typical process of change is taking place, in which companies have to think about how they can change so that a four-day week is even possible.
What were the challenges and how were they solved?
Above all, it was about adaptation: How can I change the work so that goals can be achieved in less time? For example, it was about what digitalization effects can still be achieved. How can meetings be adapted, how can communication be adapted? But also: How do we have to re-plan our shifts? How do we have to restructure things overall? That takes time. And above all, it needs the insights and creative ideas that come from employees, among others. That is an effect that we have now noticed in this interim report: Many employees are motivated to come up with their own ideas about how a four-day week can be made possible in the first place.
But it still didn’t work out for everyone. Two companies even dropped out. What was going on?
Management consultant Carsten Meier collects as much data as possible from the participating employees and managers – even hair samples to record stress levels.
In all international studies, we see that not everyone who starts actually finishes. In this case, there are two companies that have now decided after two months that they have had enough for now. They are ending the test. We assume that economic effects play a role here. We find ourselves in an economic situation in Germany that is not easy. Companies are faced with the question of whether we actually have enough focus to deal with an experiment that raises so many questions. Or do we need to concentrate entirely on getting through this economic situation first? But we also see that many of the other companies are dealing with it very positively and are continuing down this path.
And what do these models look like? Not all participating companies actually have a four-day week.
Exactly. You can see that very creative solutions are being found for reducing working hours. For example, companies are doing a four-and-a-half-day week and every other Friday is off. Other companies say you can choose whether you want to work a reduced working time of four or five days. Others say we’ll condense it and take less working time, but pack it into four days, for example 36 hours a week into four nine-hour days.
Which sectors are represented in the pilot project?
It is very, very diverse: from craft businesses to industry and even daycare operators, for example. But IT companies, consulting firms and agencies are also involved. It basically includes everything you would imagine the German economy to be.
As you mentioned, the economic situation is difficult. Can Germany even afford to go for a four-day week?
Economists and politicians must answer this question. In our pilot study, we are looking at whether a four-day week can be a business solution. And we can see that it offers an advantage for certain companies in terms of attracting skilled workers and filling vacancies more effectively. It can be a solution for that. Is it a solution for all sectors in the current situation in Germany? We need to discuss that in more detail elsewhere.
How do you measure and evaluate whether this experiment works? Employees will probably say something different than the bosses.
We collect data from managers and employees who take part. Control groups are also tested alongside those who take part in the pilot project to see if there are any differences. We try to collect a lot of data so that we can ultimately provide really good insights. Among other things, hair samples are taken to see how high the stress level is and how it changes. Some participants also have fitness trackers on their wristbands and share their data on them to see how their sleep changes, for example.
Sibylle Scharr spoke with Carsten Meier