Transitioning to a 5-Day Workweek: How Can I Convince My Management to Embrace This Change?

I am working in a company where we have a 6-day workweek with Saturday as a half-day and Sunday as the weekly off. Recently, I have proposed a 5-day workweek culture so that all employees can have weekends off on Saturdays and Sundays. My management has requested a detailed report on this proposal, including the disadvantages and advantages of transitioning to a 5-day workweek.

I urge you all to share your views and ideas to help me persuade my management to consider this change. Our organization is a small startup with an IT background.

I would greatly appreciate detailed information on the proposed shift. Has anyone implemented this idea before, and how successful was the process of convincing management?

Regards

Since it's not clear from your query what kind of IT services your company provides, it's difficult to reply to you completely. Some IT services require a 24/7 working environment, while others do not. However, appended below are the points you may use as advantages of having a 5-day working culture.

Advantages:

- Consider this as an employee welfare benefit, which can be one of the reasons to retain your employees.
- The employer-employee relationship will become healthier. It will change the stereotypical mindset of employees towards management, showing that they not only focus on profit-making but also care for their employees.
- Employees will be motivated, and productivity levels will increase.
- Employees will have time to spend with family, reducing stress and allowing them to focus on their work.
- Reduction in absenteeism rates.

I hope this helps provide some clarity. Let me know if you need further assistance.

Dear Kajal, The subject comes up for discussion time and again. Twice I have given my views. You may refer to the following links:

- https://www.citehr.com/190753-increa...tml#post848570
- https://www.citehr.com/450840-does-5...ml#post2086360

Analysis of Time Spent at the Office

Have you done an analysis of the time spent at the office? How many hours are official, and how many are actually spent at the workplace? You may do the calculation as follows:

(actual hours put up by all the employees present on the day) x 100 / [(Total number of persons present on the day) x (total official hours)]

The above formula will give you an idea of the excess time spent per person per day. Calculate the average for the month and then the average for the last financial year. Are you from the HR department? If yes, then you should have access to attendance records. If you are not from HR, then tell your HR to provide the above records.

Ensuring Adherence to Official Hours

Whether it's a five-day or six-day work week, you should ensure that the company is sticking to the official hours, and the five-day work week does not become a farce! Unfortunately, your industry is notorious for this farce.

You may not like my forthright views, but this is the reality. Please do not take my comments on your industry personally.

Thanks,

Dinesh V Divekar

Two weekly offs are directly related to work-life balance. In companies where there are two weekly offs, people are better placed to manage their obligations and family expectations. A happy person will make for a happy employee. In fact, you can very well refer to Google's "20%" initiative, in which an employee is given 20% of their work hours as free hours to stimulate their thought, body, and capabilities. Most of Google's innovations are a direct result of this particular initiative. The inference is that you can also let your employees have this time as a capability booster initiative.

However, as Mr. Dinesh Divekar suggested, you must ensure that the total number of working hours should not suffer because of this initiative.

There are many advantages of a 5-day working week in any organization. Please find below some of them:

- It boosts employees' morale and energy.
- It increases productivity.
- We can reduce the organization's running costs (electricity, A/C, water, maintenance, etc.).
- Employee stability in the organization will increase, which is again a benefit for the organization, etc.

If your management still faces productivity issues, you can increase the daily login time by 30 minutes to compensate for the loss, but this should be accepted by the employees in writing.

Regards,
Ram Chauhan
HR Manager

If there are 5 days in a week, then what days should be considered for calculating the salary? Is it the number of days in a month (total days in the month minus weekly off days) or 26 days?

Regards,
Ankita Vashi

The Benefits of a 5-Day Workweek

It is a welcome change for every employee. In recent times, a lot of organizations are following the 5-day workweek. This change not only boosts employees by allowing them to spend more time with their families, but it also provides them with ample time to think and work happily during office hours without any mental tension. Nowhere in the legal system is it mentioned that an employee cannot work fewer hours than the prescribed working hours.

Do we need any documents to change from a 6-day-a-week culture to a 5-day-a-week culture?