How Can We Transition to a 5-Day Work Week Without Disrupting Operations in FMCG?

Dear All,

I would like to request all of you to provide valuable suggestions on the implementation of a new policy in our company regarding working days.

Current Work Schedule

Currently, we work for 6 days, from Monday to Friday, for 8.5 hours, and half a day on Saturdays, with one Saturday off per month. We are considering a change to a 5-day work week with Saturdays and Sundays off.

Company Operations

Our company operates in the FMCG sector, with a warehouse on the office premises. The supporting functions including Finance, HR, Marketing, Legal Billing, Warehouse, and E-commerce sales teams work in the office. Offline sales employees work primarily in the field and visit the office only when necessary.

Proposed Changes

With this proposed working schedule, we aim to implement changes without disrupting warehouse and billing operations on Saturdays, as customer dispatches also occur on Saturdays. We want to ensure that sales operations are not affected if the sales team is granted Saturdays off.

Plan to Address Challenges

To address these challenges, we are planning to introduce an additional hour of work on weekdays for support functions, with Saturdays and Sundays off. Sales, billing, and warehouse teams will work two Saturdays a month with their regular working hours.

I would appreciate hearing from you based on your experience and expertise about any additional options that could be considered by management, ensuring no negative impact on the company or employees.

Looking forward to your valuable insights.

Thank you!

Dear Colleague,

The working hours should align with business needs while being friendly to employees' work-life balance. This is a positive move. There are a couple of pre-implementation steps that should be considered to ensure alignment with the good intentions of your initiative:

Internal Considerations

For internal aspects, there should be strong communication involving the office Heads of Departments (HODs) and managers. It's important to clearly explain why some departments need to work on alternate Saturdays, while others in support functions will not work on any Saturdays. The focus on customer needs should be clearly communicated. It may be necessary to explain that employees enjoying all Saturdays off are working extra hours during weekdays. While there may be some hurt feelings, as is human nature, these issues need to be managed effectively.

External Considerations

Regarding external factors, you need to check the legal provisions governing working hours, likely under the Shops and Establishments Act. You may need to check the provisions related to working hours for your warehouse. Generally, there are restrictions on daily and weekly hours, such as 8 hours per day and 48 hours per week. If you require employees from certain departments to exceed these hours, you may need to obtain a written exemption from the respective state government authority under the Act. In our previous company, we received a written exemption by highlighting the benefits to employees, such as working an additional half-hour to one hour per day and enjoying a full day off on Saturdays. Authorities instructed us to collect individual consent letters from each employee as a token of acceptance of the proposed system. We submitted the majority of the employees' consent letters. They also requested us to display the new system proposal on the notice board and provide the address of the government authority for sharing objections, if any, within a specified timeline. Once all processes were completed, the authority under the Shops and Establishments Act issued an exemption order to the working hours provision and granted permission to implement the new system. Therefore, you may want to consult with the relevant authority; nowadays, they understand the needs very well and support all good causes. All the best, and it is a good proposal.