Is it the end of the 9 – 5, 5 day week? It might be at MSDS!
The 9 to 5 day is well established as the norm yet is it the best fit for employers and employees? In the UK, it has been shown we work some of the longest working hours in Europe whilst having one of the least productive economies. Maybe its time for change? The 4 day week campaign thinks so and so do MSDS.
We are excited to announce that in the first quarter of 2024 MSDS are trialling a four-day working week across the organisation with the aim of making it permanent if it works. The idea is that all staff work less hours with no loss of pay.
We want to be clear, this is not compressed hours. Whilst there will be four slightly longer days there will be less hours overall but for the same pay. The benefits in pilots elsewhere have been huge for both employers and employees with no loss of productivity (and actual increases in most cases).
For our employees a four day week clearly gives a better work life balance with the time for rest, leisure and life admin. It has also been shown to really help with the cost of living crisis too. One less day at work reduces both the cost of childcare and commuting.
But what is in it for us as employers and for our clients? Well trials have shown that employees who move to a four day week increase productivity and reduce costs whilst attracting and retaining high quality employees who are happier, less stressed and take fewer sick days. The heritage sector is an incredibly rewarding place to work, however, traditionally it has not been known for being particularly innovative in its working arrangements or for being well paid. The 2022 BAJR Poverty Impact Report highlighted this to all of us and as well as making changes to salary and one off cost of living payments in October 2022 we knew we wanted to help lead change and a four day working week is one of the ways we hope to do this.
Recruitment to some highly skilled roles can be a challenge due to an ongoing sector wide skills shortage in key areas and that’s one reason why MSDS want to be at the forefront of change to enable us to be an attractive option when we recruit. We are already super flexible with staff benefiting from flexible working arrangements and term time only contracts. This just seems like the next logical step for our team.
There is also an environmental and societal benefit too which can only be a good thing. Society benefits through having people with better mental and physical health as people have less stress and more time to focus on health and wellbeing. The environment benefits by a reduced carbon footprint as people cut their journeys into work and start to make more sustainable choices, such as cooking with fresh local ingredients as they have the time to shop!
We don’t have all the answers yet as to how this works in practise with things like bank holidays, etc. but if the trial is looking successful then we will be engaging a consultant towards the end to make sure we have everything covered before implementing fully from April 2024. We plan to share our journey with the sector and to be open and honest about how it (hopefully) works for us and any pitfalls along the way.
We are all hopeful that this will have a positive impact on all our team, whilst bringing benefits to the business and making us a really good option for people when we recruit in future.
We are really excited to see how this goes and look forward to reporting back in April 2024. Hopefully it will be a permanent change, there may be hurdles to cross but if we don’t try we will never know. By being the first heritage based organisation that we know of to trial this maybe we can help drive change that will make the sector a better one for everyone who is part of it.
You can read more about the thinking behind a four day working week here: https://www.4dayweek.co.uk/why-a-4-day-week
