Unilever extends 4-day working week test in Australia

Unilever will extend its four-day workweek trial to 500 employees in Australia, following a successful 18-month pilot in New Zealand, becoming the largest company to offer a vote of confidence on the shorter schedule.

Placid Jover, director of talent at the British company that makes Dove soap and Hellmann’s mayonnaise, said the decision was due to the positive results of working four days a week, instead of five, with full pay, for about 80 employees. in New Zealand.

“We’ve had strong business performance, high engagement, people feel happier, and time spent in meetings has also decreased,” said Jover.

“When we look at the world of work, we think that companies that have mastered the art of offering flexibility will become more attractive employers with more engaged workforces.”

More than half of Unilever’s 900 Australian workers will start working just four days a week from 14 November. They will not include shift workers at the company’s three factories in the country. The team in New Zealand, where Unilever has no factories, will continue to work for four days.

Unilever’s trial extension represents a boost to the global campaign for four-day rather than five-day schedules, on the grounds that the shorter week makes the team feel happier, healthier and more productive.

“Unilever [está] showing the world that a four-day week with no loss of pay is a win-win scenario for workers and employers,” said Joe Ryle, director of the 4 Day Week campaign in the UK. Ryle said the campaign has seen a “huge increase in interest.” of companies since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to Unilever, absenteeism dropped by a third during its test in New Zealand, which was monitored by Australia’s UTS School of Management. Employees reported marked reductions in stress and work-life conflict.

Unilever asks employees who participate in the tests to continue delivering “100% to the company”, but does not expect them to work longer hours. Employees can choose which day or time off they have during the week.

Part of the time savings came from reducing meetings. Meeting time was reduced by an average of 3 hours to 3.5 hours per person per week during the New Zealand trial, Jover said. The team also sent fewer emails.

Jover said strong communication between line managers and the team proved vital to the success of the test. “Change doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and adaptation,” he said.

Depending on the results in Australia, Unilever will consider adopting the four-day week for more than 148,000 employees worldwide.

The four-day trial will proceed in conjunction with Unilever’s global hybrid work policy, so employees can work two of their four days from home.

The four-day week campaign gained traction, with large-scale trials observed by researchers in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. But it faces challenges, such as allowing employees to actually disconnect from work on their day off.

Another issue is the possibility of two-tier systems, in which certain categories of employees still have to work five days. Jover said Unilever will monitor relationships between office staff on shorter weeks and factory staff with unchanged schedules.

Groups such as Microsoft tested the shorter week, but the UK’s Wellcome Trust in 2019 canceled plans for a pilot, saying it proved “too complex operationally”. Dozens of smaller UK companies, in sectors such as technology, law and non-profit groups, have adopted the four-day week permanently.

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves