While many companies around the world and even some in South Africa trialling a four-day work week, another local company has taken the model a step further by trying to reduce the normal eight-hour work day.
Leading South African global business services (GBS) provider, Rewardsco, has said that it is using a growing body of research that overturns the notion that the conventional eight-hour working day optimises productivity, as the basis for its “Half Day, Double Pay” programme that offers its telesales agents the opportunity to earn a full salary for just 5.5 hours of work per day.
Dylan Koen, group commercial director at Rewardsco, says that the company is positioning itself to be an employer of choice in a sector where skills are in short supply and retention of talent is difficult, but imperative.
Koen said internationally, it has emerged that hybrid employment models that intensify productivity over shorter working periods will be the order of the day for forward-thinking companies such as Rewardsco.
Eight-hour working days, which date back to the industrial revolution, are more habit than necessity.
While many companies the world over are beginning to implement a four-hour working week as opposed to the more conventional five, Rewardsco had opted to rather shorten the working day itself.
This is based on research by recruitment specialists Zippia that reveals that the average employee is only productive for around 4.8 hours of the working day.
Based on this, Rewardsco’s cutting-edge programme offers telesales agents the freedom to work alternating morning and afternoon shifts without sacrificing their basic salaries or commission-earning potential.
“We have found an incredible formula that allows our people to do things they ordinarily wouldn’t have been able to do working nine hours a day,” he explains.
The new dual shift programme was successfully trialled at the company’s uMhlanga head office at the beginning of this year.
In response to date, Rewardsco said it has seen a 15% increase in sales performance, a 10% increase in daily attendance and a 100% increase in data efficiencies. Staff commission payouts have also grown.
The company is now rolling out the programme to a larger pool of 150 high-performing sales agents, with even more opportunities for expansion on the horizon for disciplined and motivated staff.
This research by Zippia is not alone in suggesting that shorter working hours increase productivity.
In 2017, a paper entitled Working Hours and Productivity, published in Labour Economics showed that medium-skilled employees working in front of computers for more than 4.6 hours produced less output per hour due to fatigue
The study, which focused on a call centre in the Netherlands, also showed that, as the number of hours worked increased, the average handling time for a call also grew, meaning that agents became less productive as the day wore on.
A recent study conducted by researchers at Boston College, University College Dublin, and Cambridge University tracked employers instituting a shorter working day and showed that revenue had risen by 8% over the study period, with burnout falling by two-thirds.
A further study, conducted in Iceland, concluded that a reduction in working hours maintained or increased productivity and service provision while also improving workers’ well-being and work-life balance.
Koen says that responding to this growing bank of research was part of Rewardsco’s culture, which focuses on investing in its greatest asset – its people.
“Coronavirus, which initially forced employees to work remotely, together with employees’ demand for a better work-life balance post pandemic has intensified the need for a more flexible approach to working hours across the globe. As a result, companies across Europe and Australia are investigating everything from shorter working hours to weeks split between home and the office, and even four-day working weeks,” he says.
In South Africa, where many employees are forced to spend far longer periods travelling to and from work and where long commutes prevent those in more rural environments from accessing work in cities, shorter working days could be even more important, Koen says.
He adds that, as companies such as Rewardsco begin to export their services to countries with complementary time zones, efficient management of shifts and productivity could provide a competitive advantage and enable the local global business services sector to create more jobs for entry-level job seekers.
“Positive experience during the pandemic enabled Rewardsco to glean first-hand experience of the efficacy of a hybrid working environment and use this to its best advantage, as it positions itself as a leading South African supplier of global business services to the international market,” he notes.
In addition to supporting 1 900 employees and their families and being in the throes of recruiting a further 600, Rewardsco also has about 350 employees operating with work-from-home status.
“We’ve definitely taken something hugely positive out of this. With increasing online business, we have found that we are being requested to call people outside of conventional working hours. Because this is consent-driven and a customer wants to be phoned for a particular deal at a particular time, our work-from-home structures allow us to phone in the early mornings, evenings and on weekends,” says Koen.
In October, it was announced that non-profit organisation 4 Day Week SA had invited companies to sign up for a pioneering pilot that is set to start in 2023.
The businesses that join this initiative will take part in a co-ordinated six-month trial of the four-day week, with no pay cuts for employees.
Participating companies will have the guidance of global experts and mentoring to ensure that things go smoothly, says 4 Day Week SA. Boston College in collaboration with Stellenbosch Business School will conduct academic research on the experiment.
According to the non-profit, the four-day week is being adopted worldwide in an effort to improve workplace productivity and wellness, attract talent, improve the lives of individuals, and have a positive impact on the environment.
IQbusiness, the largest South African management and technology consulting firm, said in a statement in October as well, that it is one of the first businesses in the country taking part in a 4-Day Week pilot.
The company is following a trend by over 90 international companies that have already moved to a 4-day work week.
These businesses are across North America, Australia and New Zealand, the statement says.
According to IQbusiness, employees will work 80% of their working week (gaining an extra day off per week), with no loss of pay.
BUSINESS REPORT