PwC to trial four-day week for staff this summer

The plan is for the company’s offices in Guernsey, Jersey and Alderney to remain open during normal working hours five days a week during the summer while staff will be given the opportunity to adopt a shorter working week.

‘This trial of adopting a shorter working week for its people, crucially with no loss of pay, while aiming for higher productivity per hour, will help lead the way locally as companies re-examine their working patterns,’ PwC said.

It said the trial was ‘in recognition of the dedication, commitment and diverse needs of local PwC staff’.

PwC CI senior partner Nick Vermeulen, pictured, said that workers generally have come out of the pandemic with different expectations over what a healthy work-life balance is.

‘Although we’ve had strong flexibility policies for our own people here at PwC for some time now, we’re determined to do even more to be a great, innovative employer, rewarding and retaining both our current teams, as well as being a magnet for future talent on the islands,’ he said.

‘The pilot is based on a UK model of focused work, where there’s 100% pay for 80% of hours, but with 100% productivity.’

A measure of success of the trial would be in having a team of people who were both physically and mentally healthier, ‘focused, engaged and determined to get the job done in a way that suits their diverse needs’.

‘We’re keen ultimately to embrace a new model of work which focuses on quality of outputs, not quantity of hours.’

Economic Development committee member Sasha Kazantseva-Miller has previously highlighted the idea of a four day week, citing the work of 4 Day Week Global, a not-for-profit group that was set up to promote the benefits of reduced working,

This ran trials in Iceland several years ago where workers were paid the same amount for shorter hours and which were said to be a big success.