Unilever will trial a four day work week for its Aussie staff later this year after a successful trial in New Zealand. If even this anti-strike company reckons its workers are better off with a four day work week, that’s probably a good sign that it works!
The multinational mega corporation includes well known brands like Dove, Magnum (the ice cream, not the condoms), Lynx, Sunsilk, Rexona and Ben & Jerry’s. Basically, it’s huge (it operates in 190 countries) so it has *a lot* of staff.
Unilever completed an 18-month trial of the four-day work week in its New Zealand branch and lo and behold, the results were pretty damn successful.
The 80 staff members involved all retained their full pay but worked four days a week instead of five.
The trial finished in June and saw a huge 34 per cent drop in people ditching work, a 33 per cent drop in stress and a 67 (!!) per cent drop in work-life conflict.
On top of all that, the staff still delivered 100 per cent of the business’ targets despite only working 80 per cent of the time.
A 4 day work week. 2 days to attend to home and family issues. 1 day completely for yourself. We don’t need to debate this for the next 5 years.
Global outputs will soar.— Lorenzo Davids (@UrbanLo) October 29, 2022
Australian employees are next to take part in the trial, which will start on 14 November and run for 12 months.
Staff will be able to choose the day they take off and its hours, so long as it meshes well with the rest of the team’s preferences. Obvs not every single person can have the same day off.
Part of the trial also includes ditching unnecessary meetings to free up time for staff to work during their new hours.
“By removing project processes and protocols that add less value, throughout our week, we are able to free up time to work on items that matter most to the people we serve, externally and internally,” CEO of Unilever ANZ Nicky Sparshott said, per News.com.au.
“The experiment builds on Unilever’s ambition to enhance the wellbeing of both its people and business.
“Bringing the trial to Australia is an opportunity to explore different ways to unlock more value for the team and the business across both markets.”
It’s probably a good time to note that Unilever doesn’t have the greatest track record in how well it’s treated staff. In fact it’s pretty atrocious.
Unilever security guards attacked workers on strike while they were peacefully picketing with rubber bullets and pepper spray, leaving several of them seriously injured.
The company sent Sri Lankan influencers skin-whitening products from its White Beauty range to promote in 2020. When the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine’s Sri Lanka branch called the company out for it, its representatives tried to get her fired.
And that’s without mentioning all the companies’ environmental issues: it dumped toxic mercury waste in a densely populated Indian town which poisoned over 500 of its staff and its palm oil supplier reportedly used child and forced labour as well as exposed workers to dangerous chemicals.
The point here is: if a corporation with this kind of background can support a four-day work week, it means that shit probably works. C’mon everyone else, catch up.
