After nearly three years of working from home or in hybrid office settings, some employers around the world are finally considering the four-day workweek.
The practice means you work four out of the conventional five work days and get three days of rest and leisure to yourself. Several Canadian companies have adopted this work structure, and it has shown some shocking results – higher productivity, better morale, and easier employee retention being just a few.
Often when you do hear about the four-day workweek in action, it’s happening in an office setting. Just last month, the city of Merritt, BC, launched a one-year pilot program for all city staff. There’s even a massive global program to promote the structure, with 38 companies participating.
Now, a BC-based cleaning company is seeing the benefits of a four-day workweek in the field of trades, which employs about one-in-six Canadians, according to Employment and Social Development Canada.
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Men In Kilts performs exterior home and commercial building cleanings, gutter and drain cleaning, and pressure washing. Nicholas Brand, who owns five Men In Kilts franchises across Vancouver’s Fraser Valley, spoke to Daily Hive about how the four-week workweek has revolutionized things for him and his staff.
Brand already has morale-boosting perks for employees, such as trips to Mexico upon meeting certain targets. But he warmed up to the idea of the four-day workweek when one of his managers talked to him about it. “This is the future,” the manager told him. And so it was.
“A lot of companies talk work-life balance, but don’t really mean it. We really mean it,” he said, adding that his staff does not have to work 10 hours a day to make up for time. They actually get a 32-hour workweek.
Brand first adopted the alternative work model for his on-field staff in the spring and immediately saw a morale spike in his team. By August, the new system had shown enough promise to also be applied to his in-office staff.
“There’s no reduction in pay, and we’ve found a way for our field staff to through technological and operational efficiencies so that they can still make the same amount of money on their four-day workweek as well.”
Of course, profitability was also on top of mind to keep the company operating. To ensure things were smooth on the money front, Men In Kilts invested in equipment that made staff’s tasks take lesser time and resources. They found that carbon fibre poles made window cleanings much faster, without compromising the quality of work.
Even though it’s only been a few months since Brand applied the four-day workweek, the company is already making 90% of the revenue it used to make in five days of work.
The trajectory of profits is only one of many things that have shown a remarkable improvement. Workers are happier and it’s made customer service much better.
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Depending on the season, Brand’s on-field staff varies between 12 to 15 people. The company also focuses on training complete rookies and believes that academic achievement and degrees are not the end-all-be-all for everyone.
“I’m a high school graduate. I never went to university or college myself,” shared Brand. “School was hard for me and it didn’t come naturally to me. So the idea of doing four more years of school was painstaking.”
That’s what inspired Brand to step into the trades and start this business.
“If you don’t fit into the education box, and you find school challenging, you get the crappy job you’re treated poorly,” he concluded. “And that’s not fair.”
Employees continue to get extended health benefits, commissions, and base salaries ranging from $45,000 to $58,000 a year, without ever having to rely on a diploma or certificate.
All that for a four-day workweek sounds like a deal to us! What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.
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