A global trend that is gaining more ground in the world of work is to work less. Already, several cities have begun to test whether companies and workers could adapt to this model.
The five-day workweek has existed as such, approximately, since the 1980s. In Peru, there are even several workers who work six days, given the country’s high rate of informality -around 75.7% of the total number of employees, according to the latest National Household Survey (ENAHO) of the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics(INEI)-.
Thus, current trends favor wellness, requests to have more free time and be consumed less by work -and avoid job burnout-, especially after having gone through the COVID-19 pandemic in which companies had to institute remote work regimes, which increased sedentariness, anxiety and lowered physical activity, according to a study by the Journal of the Faculty of Human Medicine of the Universidad Ricardo Palma.
Against this, the outlook for what is wanted from the work-life has also changed, and so the four-day workweek proposal is gaining more ground. Did you know that several countries have already conducted pilot tests to see its advantages? That is why Infobae Peru talked to different experts to learn more about this labor revolution and how ready would Lima and Peru be to implement it?
No small number of countries are already actively seeking to test the advantages (or disadvantages) of instituting a four-day work week. One of the most representative has beenIceland, which has carried out several tests between 2015 and 2019, in which this labor change was tested with more than 2,500 workers -representing 1% of the working population-. These involved a reducción de las horas de trabajo, sin disminuir el salario, y resultaron en mayor o igual productividad, más bienestar para los empleados, y menor riesgo de agotamiento (‘burnout’), según un informe la BBC.
So have other countries, including United Kingdom, New Zealand, Finland and Spain. Of the latest pilots conducted and planned, these were in Valencia (Spain), Dominican Republicand Germany. In the first, according to a report by El País, several Monday holidays in the months of May and April 2023 were used to test this initiative, which improved the health and welfare of workers, air quality, but decreased by 20% in sales of stores and there was greater saturation of the emergency medical services-according to the report prepared by the Valencia City Council-.
The next two countries to test it are Dominican Republic and Germany. Starting this February 1, the first country will carry out the “Voluntary Pilot Plan for a Reduced Working Week”, which proposes to reduce the working day from 44 to 36 hours, where the workers will receive their full salary, but will work 20% less than the usual working day, trying to maintain 100% productivity.
In the case of Germany, since February also 45 German companies and organizations will test the four-day work week for six months with full salary-the initiative there is led by the consulting firm Intraprenör, in collaboration with the NGO 4 Day Week Global, one of the organizations seeking this change. In this country, it is hoped that this could prove useful in addressing talent shortages as well as increasing worker productivity.
The four-day workweek initiative has proven effective in certain respects, and has even spread to Latin America: in April the Chilean Congressapproved the reduction of the workweek from 45 to 40 hours, enabling this possibility. However,Latin America is not the same as Iceland, and Peru, with a formality of more than 70%, lives an extremely different context.
A few months ago the portal Bumeran released a study where it was revealed that a 73% of human resources specialists, a large majority, believe that it is possible to reduce the workday without affecting salaries. However, despite this, the survey showed that 68% believe it is possible to reduce working hours, while 33% believe it is possible to work four days. Therefore, Infobae Peru contacted Bumeran to get more information about this survey and the proposal of the four-day work week.
Despite this, 84% said that their companies have no immediate plans to implement this reduction, but “94% said that companies with shorter working hours are more attractive to talent”. Pinero also noted that this trend is related to the need to work-life-balance, as well as a way to adapt to new social dynamics; all this, crossed by the way technology is transforming the way we work.
This is why “88% of HR specialists do believe that thefuture trend points to the reduction of the workweek“, as has been seen to have begun to sprout around the world. Susana Sugano, director of the Academic Area of Human Factor and Public Management at the UPC Graduate School, commented to Infobae Peru that this trend “has been born through this need to adjust to what talent is now looking for in jobs, which is to have greater flexibility; and also as a result of the pandemic people have realized that they need that balance to be able to better balance both personal and professional.”
Peru is among the countries that work the most, but, likewise, among those that are the least productive. “What reports report is that there is still a lot of informalityd. So, in that sense perhaps also the lack of professional training in several sectors could affect those indicators, that we have to work harder to be able to achieve the productivity levels that other more advanced countries, such as in Europe, where the labor flexibility scheme has had several indicators of success, where it has been proven that companies and workers recognize that there has been an increase in productivity by reducing the number of days to four,” explains the expert Susan Sugano.
For Dora Pinedo of Bumeran Peruthe four-day workweek is the trend that will prevail. “According to our study Burnout 2023, 43% of working people indicated that they work between 45 and 50 hours per week; 29% of them indicated more than 50; 19% of workers between 35 and 45; 5%, 25 and 35; and 4% less than 25 hours,” highlighted the company’s marketing chief.
Thus, the panorama even shows that Peruvians work more than the usual 40 hours, even adding an extra day of work. The four-day workweek could prove beneficial for the working mass, and without affecting the productivity.
However, for Daniel Robles Ibazeta, labor lawyer and partner at Robles Ibazeta Consultores, this would still be difficult to apply for a context such as Peru. “If you keep the same remuneration of a worker and instead of working five or six days he will work four, it is highly probable that this cost will be assumed by the employer. And his productivity will be lower,” he explains to Infobae Perú.
Although in other countries it has been detailed with reports of the pilots applied that productivity is not affected, Robles Ibazeta points out that it is logical that “if a person produced 36 shoes a week, he will now produce 30. Likewise, for the labor lawyer it is impossible to generate a reduction in the working day, given the amount of vacations, holidays and licencias con goce de haberque asume el empleador, y que ya mantienen la semana laboral más corta durante el año.
There is a contrast in the opinions on the reduction of the working day. For while the labor lawyer details different impediments to the four-day workweek, various country experiences detail that, for example, the productivity is not affected. Why would it be different in Peru?
“If you in Germany as an employer, you don’t care if you have two people, because the cost is the same or lower, and on the contrary, you are having up to two workers, with social security and everything, and it doesn’t cost you more. On the other hand, in Peru it is more expensive to have two six-hour workers than two twelve-hour workers. So, this fact alone makes the four-day workweek in Peru very expensive to implement,” reveals the labor lawyer.
In Germany, given the tests that were done, the researcher at the University of Regensburg and the Institute for Employment Research, Enzo Weber, was skeptical, given that the results of the four-day workweek pilot were revealed data on short-term productivity (they were done for six months), and “companies don’t usually notice the consequences immediately, but in the medium term,” as highlighted by DW News.
However, Sandra Cubas, Regional Managing Partner at Cornerstone, a global strategic talent management consulting firm, responded to Infobae Peruabout how this productivity would indeed increase with fewer days. “The reduction of the workweek could help increase productivity if implemented by analyzing in detail the characteristics of the organization (policies, maturity, culture, among others), as it can encourage greater concentration and efficiency during working time, allowing employees to rest adequately to maintain their performance at optimal levels,” he explained.
Similarly, Infobae Peru contacted Mambo Peru, a business transformation consultancy, which is currently running a four-day work week, instituted on January 1, 2020. Nicolás Aramburú, CEO and co-founder, commented that, as a result of this innovative workday, productivity has been boosted across the board. “We saw between 30% and 40% increase, both in declared and sales per head,” he added. And although difficult to measure given the pandemic (and the very bad numbers that season), Mambo’s CEO maintains that the operation is currently healthier than before COVID-19.
So, Aramburú believes that in most industries this four-day weekis the right design and will gain traction. “Maybe in places where there’s customer service and retail it’s more complex, but I think even there you can innovate and think of new ways to get value out of people,” he adds.
So there is no chance of a pilot at all in Lima? Daniel Robles Ibazeta reveals that a series of changes to Peru’s labor laws would first have to be made. “The legal labor framework, today, is very expensive. It does not support a six-hour workday because you would be forcing CTS, vacations, a series of concepts. If you want to lower the working day you have to change other elements; among them a less expensive hiring,” he emphasizes.
Also, Dora Pinedo, from Bumeran Peru points out that to establish a pilot to test in Lima, you must take into account the factors of each organization, sector, the labor culture, as well as the size and structures of the companies that implement it. It even depends on the type of operations. But a more important point is the readiness of the sector.
“In case of implementing apilot, it will be essential to conduct an evaluation of results during and after the pilot period to determine the effectiveness and long-term sustainability. Thus, the transition to a shorter working week will require not only the adaptation of the organizational structure, but also a cultural change that supports flexibility and efficiency at work,” Pinedo details.
In the case of companies, support from the legal side or a law firm is important if you are looking to implement this journey. “Especially also if you have unions where there are agreements related to the issue of labor flexibility. A pilot is important, workers must be informed, employee participation must be encouraged, a communication protocol must be in place, and the model that best suits the organization’s operations must be reviewed. Having productivity and employee satisfaction indicators is also important,” Sugano adds.
In Island, the BBC article commented that, following the success of the four-day workweek trials, this measure was widely supported by workers, but also by employers. Thus, it has made it easier for more of the country’s workforce to work fewer hours. If it proves effective in other countries in the long run, given the growing trend and concern of people to live healthier and rest more, especially if its sustained productivity over time is proven, soon the global work culture will have to adapt.
