Four-Day Work Week Plan
A four-day workweek is a human resource planning structure in which employee attendance is organized over four days per week, as opposed to the traditional five-day workweek. This working arrangement may similarly affect how students attend class sessions and, by extension, how society is organized (Ng & Stanton, 2023). This paper will examine the challenges of implementing a four-day workweek and its implications for employee satisfaction and organizational productivity. These discussions will also address the legal implications of adopting a four-day workweek instead of the customary five-day workweek.
Challenges of Implementing the Workweek Plan
By design, implementing a four-day workweek means employees would spend less time in the organization. Reducing the number of days in the organization will likely negatively impact productivity (Vella, 2018). Indeed, a snowball effect may emerge, causing missed project deadlines (Hazak, Ruubel, and Virkebau, 2019). In such circumstances, the process of managing employee workload may be suppressed. Similarly, high levels of burnout that are associated with this process may lead to increased rates of employee dissatisfaction.
Strategies for Supporting Transition
Successfully introducing new systems in an organization rarely happens in isolation. An intricate web of systems is required to ensure that such a transition occurs successfully. Given the multiplicity of factors to review in effecting such changes, it is essential to undertake a pilot study to provide a nuanced understanding of the issues to be addressed.
A robust legislative framework is required to transfer knowledge from the pilot study findings to the development of practical policies for implementation (Hussain, Li, and Sahibzada, 2023). The aim is to avoid sudden shocks to the broader system that may emerge from implementing new weekly schedules (Sahu, 2021). In this environment, flexibility is a valuable tool for meeting the diverse needs and demands of different players. At the same time, it may be necessary to create alternate work-schedule systems to support the four-week work plan (Ng & Stanton, 2023). Setting up such systems would minimize implementation risks and prevent minor issues from escalating into major problems in the future.
Government and Policy Support
The policy framework identified in the previous slide is essential in securing government support for implementing a four-day workweek human resource plan. The proposed change is likely to encourage stakeholders to adopt flexible work arrangements in the workplace that accommodate diverse schedules (Ng & Stanton, 2023). Resources and guidelines required to implement this new system successfully may be available through government and policy support. This process can help streamline organizational policies with national and international laws, thereby creating a seamless path to maximize both organizational and industry goals (Hussain, Li, and Sahibzada, 2023). If implemented successfully, the result is an increased alignment of organizational, industry, and national goals to support the implementation of the four-day workweek plan.
Reference List
Hazak, A., Ruubel, R. and Virkebau, M. (2019) ‘When would creative R&D employees like to work?’, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 27(3), pp. 596-612. Web.
Hussain, N., Li, B. and Sahibzada, H.E. (2023) ‘Government support to Pakistani women entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 pandemic’, Public Administration and Policy: An Asia-Pacific Journal, 26(1), pp. 80-92. Web.
Ng, E. and Stanton, P. (2023) ‘The great resignation: managing people in a post-COVID-19 pandemic world’, Personnel Review, 52(2), pp. 401-407. Web.
Sahu, M. (2021) ‘Public policy measures for COVID-19 crisis management: lessons from the UAE’, Fulbright Review of Economics and Policy, 1(2), pp. 246-265. Web.
Vella, M. (2018) ‘Employment and labour hoarding: a production function approach’, Journal of Economics, Finance, and Administrative Science, 23(46), pp. 230-246. Web.