28 SA companies to implement 4-day work week on 1 March

The pilot programme for the 4-day work week in South Africa starts on 1 March with 28 local companies and one from Botswana, the first participant from elsewhere on the continent, with 500 business owners and employees testing a reduced hour working week to improve workplace productivity and employee well-being, as well as talent attraction and retention.

The participating companies will follow the 100-80-100™ model which prescribes 100% of the pay, 80% of the time in exchange for a commitment to deliver 100% of the output. They are now doing a four-week intensive onboarding to get ready.

The pilot programme will run for six months, guided by experts at 4 Day Week Global, the entity conducting trials around the world.

It will be underpinned by research before, mid-way, and at the endpoint of the trial conducted by Boston College and the Stellenbosch Business School.

“To have 29 companies joining South Africa’s first ever pilot of the four-day week is testament to the forward-thinking of business in this country. Participants embrace the idea that it is time to change the nearly 100-year-old convention of a 5-day week.

“Reduced work hours are central to the future of work and the companies are willing to try it. There is potentially so much to be gained and nothing to lose from the experiment,“ says Karen Lowe, director of 4-Day Week SA.

ALSO READ: 4-day work week pilot so successful, all participating companies sticking to it

Findings from 4-day work week trials in other countries

She says research findings from trials across the world make a clear case for the 4-day week.

“Results from trials in Ireland, the US and Australia released in November 2022 showed company performance, productivity and revenue improvements.”

She says it is also important to note that employees place a high value on the four-day week, with 70% of participants saying they would require between 10 to 50% more pay to go back to a 5-day schedule and 13% that they would require more than 50%. In addition, 13% said that no amount of money could convince them to give up the four-day week.

Findings from the UK trial, the world’s largest to date, will be released towards the end of February 2023.  

Lowe says recruitment is already underway for the country’s second 4-day week pilot, due to kick off in May.

ALSO READ: Will the 4-day work week improve your wellness? We may soon find out

This is what participating SA companies say

From the comments, it is clear to see that employees are eager to try this new way of working:

“We joined the pilot because we believe very much in giving our employees opportunities to be more productive, as well as taking care of their mental health.” – Kealeboga Kaelo, CEO of Precision Vehicle and Asset Tracking.

“As a team we decided to embark on rolling out our Freedom Fridays (Fridays off) to spend more time with our families and work on our mental and emotional well-being.” – Jeanine Topping, director at Jt&a.

“We have always been interested in productivity and efficiency and have become masters at doing more with less at a constantly increasing space, but we realised we were burning the candle at both ends and needed to focus more on wellness and bring balance back to the lives of our most valuable asset: our people.” – Gerry Skerritt, marketing director at Dream Team Catalyst.

“We are mothers who work from home and run our families while earning a living. We chose to put family first and adapted our working hours accordingly. A 4-day week approach allows us to have mornings and afternoons for family and fits our workday right in with the school day. We do not live to work full days; we work to live full lives.” – Jennifer Lopes, master tax practitioner at Tax Ladies.

“You do not build a great company by accident. Having a 4-day week is an innovative step towards building and maintaining a great work culture.” – André Bothma, founder and CEO at Tax Maverick.

ALSO READ: These South African companies to start trialling 4-day work week

Giving staff tools and time to focus

“We strive to give our staff the tools and time they need to focus on their emotional and physical wellness at work and at home, to ensure work life balance and operational productivity. Implementing will ultimately contribute to a more positive experience for our customers.” – Makhosi Kubheka, COO at Communicare.

“We are very excited to be part of a new way of thinking regarding a better work/life balance for our employees and at the same time improved productivity in the workplace.” – Annerike Meiring, human resource officer at Elnatan.

“Programming firms tend to be very hour-driven and have extreme hours for staff. We joined the 4-day week to ensure that we stick by our pledge to create wellness for our team. We believe that rested employees can be more productive.” – Llewellyn Marais, managing director at Marais Software Solutions.

“2023 is the year of people for us and we are putting the well-being of our team at the centre of everything we do. The best way to do that is by giving them some precious time. Everyone will win as a happy team creates great work and great work leads to happy clients.” – Anelde Greeff, chief content officer at 2Stories.