In the ongoing battle to win and retain talent, advice firms are reviewing ways to make their employee value proposition more attractive including embracing four-day week working structures.
Financial services firm Insignia has agreed to let some of its 4000 employees work four days a week in a trial. The new enterprise agreement also commits to expand rights to work from home.
Invest Blue staff operate on a nine-day fortnight structure, giving people every second Friday off while remunerating for 10 days. Grant Thornton and Crowe Australasia have moved to a permanent nine-day fortnight.,
Tribeca Financial introduced a four-day work week three and a half years ago in the depths of the impact the Covid-19 pandemic had in Victoria.
The firm’s CEO Ryan Watson tells Professional Planner the move has bolstered work practices as teams focus on demonstrating value to clients.
“The four-day week doesn’t work for all employees, only the ones who are willing to embrace a growth mindset, continuing to learn and innovate their daily work practices,” he says.
Tribeca has built a culture focused on value, not time or the sense of ‘being busy’. “A lot of our work as leaders in our business has been on culture and the continual growing of the capability of our people, to build them into high performing, confident professions,” Watson says.
“From this, we have seen thousands of hours dissipate from the time it takes to produce advice and service both our new and existing clients. And we still believe that we have a lot more upside in terms of bringing much more effective work practices to Tribeca, to serve the advice needs of our clients much better.”
Meanwhile, the Finance Sector Union is pushing for a four-day work week. National secretary Julia Angrisano says workers value workplace flexibility and that working four days is on the cards in the future.
“The acknowledgment by Insignia that a four-day work week is an emerging trend and ought to be trialled is an important step forward and win for Insignia workers,” Angrisano says.
“It will allow them to play a meaningful role in the evolution of workplace flexibility in our sector.”
She adds workers will not only benefit from the conditions they’ve achieved, but “can be proud” in setting a standard for others in the finance sector.
“AI and flexibility are important to our members, and employers should be aware as they prepare offers that these clauses will become industry standards,” she warns.
But are their feasible for professional planners? Reported trials into the four-day work week report productivity levels being maintained or even increasing. Other advantages include reduced transportation costs, reduced carbon footprint and a more sustainable environment, greater work-life balance and better staff recruitment and retention.
But there are disadvantages, according to research from the University of Queensland. Condensing workloads into four days puts pressure on workers and increases the potential for monitoring and micro-managing of employees to ensure workloads are completed.
Harvard Business Review warns the system isn’t right for every business. Some drawbacks including longer workdays making days tiring, disruptions to childcare, and employees wishing they could work more hours to keep on top of their workload feeling like their hands are tied.
Watson believes the four-day work week is so rare because there’s a general lack of bravery among business leaders to genuinely innovate and build business that serve both their employees and therefore their customers.
Watson believes the status quo is still safe. “But screwing the status quo is brave and this just isn’t a quality that is represented among Australia’s business leaders.”
