Sandra Moran, Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer at WorkForce Software talks with Corporate Compliance Insights about how companies can get ahead of regulatory and worker demands as the 4-day workweek model grows in popularity. Moran shares her insights around the growing interest and research supporting the transition from a traditional five-day workweek to a four-day workweek and examines the compliance benefits and challenges of this shift across various industries. She highlights the increasing demand from employees for more flexibility and a greater say in their work arrangements, with the four-day workweek becoming a popular idea.
Moran advises that employers must rethink how work is structured, focusing on empowering employees and being open to innovative scheduling, even in roles requiring on-site presence — and shares examples including reorganizing assembly line work and adapting staffing models in various sectors like manufacturing, public agencies, and regulated industries like healthcare and financial services.
Moran says, “Breaking the traditional 9-5, 40-hour workweek seems inevitable, and employers should be open-minded and consider letting actual productivity, retention and engagement be their guide to a final decision. In a change as potentially ground-breaking for workers, it’s far better to be proactive and reap the rewards of early adoption than to be forced to comply when it no longer differentiates them or when regulation forces their hand.”
“Technology will play a pivotal role in allowing organizations to implement four-day workweeks without compliance or productivity pitfalls. Solutions that include digitization, automation, machine learning/artificial intelligence, analytics and communication tools all provide greater flexibility and how an organization configures and fills shifts including the regulations it must adhere to.”