73% of employees want to switch to the four-day-a-week model with a five-day salary, according to ManpowerGroup’s “What Employees Want” report. According to 93% of employees, flexibility improved the quality of their work, and for 53% of respondents, the most important factor related to flexibility is the choice of start and end times of the working day.
The ManpowerGroup report describes five main areas related to current trends in employee expectations. The survey shows that opportunities such as working from home and the flexibility gained during a pandemic are very important to talents – 93% of respondents said it improved the quality of their work. 7 out of 10 people (73%) would also like to switch to a four-day-a-week work model (with a five-day salary). For talents, the most important factors related to workplace flexibility are the ability to choose the start and end times of their work (important for 53% of respondents), full flexibility in the selection of a job (41%) and longer leave (41%). Also important for employees are the increase in the number of paid vacation days (33%) and the possibility of performing tasks from home more often than from the office (23%), the report said.
The latest ManpowerGroup publication also touched upon the issue of the 4-day working week. 7 out of 10 employees (73%) prefer to compress their working hours in the 4-day working week model for a 5-day salary, 17% indicated the possibility of 7-day availability with the possibility of performing duties at any time, and 10% of respondents would like to pursue business activities 4 days a week in exchange for a proportionally reduced wage.
“The shortening of the working week to 4 days is being talked about more and more, also in Poland. There are companies that have already made this decision, and tests are being carried out in many places around the world to verify the risk of a decrease in efficiency. The results of the analyzes are exceptional here. promising, initially they do not indicate a deterioration of the results, on the contrary, an increase in commitment, motivation and overall employee satisfaction was noticed,” said Luiza Luranc-Jaworek, sales director of ManpowerGroup in Poland.
There are many benefits of flexibility in the workplace, the most important ones indicated by the respondents included more time spent with family, friends (46%) and time spent on rest and regeneration (44%), as well as shorter commuting time (36%). %). 3 out of 10 talents may devote more time to non-professional activities (33%) and noticed that flexibility contributed to greater productivity of the working week (30%), it was also indicated.
The ManpowerGroup analysis also touched upon the issues of mental health, burnout and talent support by companies in this area. More than half (51%) of employees say that a larger pool of vacation days would help to prevent burnout, and 44% indicated flexibility at work, such as choosing the time and place from which to work. 4 out of 10 (39%) of employees declare that they would like to develop and acquire new skills, and would also expect additional days off from the organization to take care of their mental health (36%).
Source: ManpowerGroup and ISBnews
