The article in the url below caught my eye, first because of the four day work week (at full pay), and then because it is Unilever making the announcement:
"Consumer goods giant Unilever will trial a four-day working week in New Zealand to enhance worker wellbeing and boost productivity."
Some detail:
"All 81 workers will be eligible to work for four days on full pay, New Zealand Managing Director Nick Bangs said in a statement Tuesday. Most of the staff are based at Unilever's Auckland headquarters and distribution center after the company closed manufacturing operations in 2015."
The motivation for the trial is the shift in working practices that have been accelerated by the pandemic. Unilever sees the 'old' way of working as gone, so plans to use the opportunity to try something new. What is interesting is that most of these kind of stories that I have seen recently tend to involve IT/Silicon Valley-type companies. Much less common to see manufacturing/consumer product companies being similarly adventurous:
"The trial, which starts this month and will run for a year, is limited to New Zealand at this stage. Unilever will work with Sydney's University of Technology Business School to measure results, and will explore the possibility of what it could mean on a broader scale. The company employs 150,000 people worldwide."
As the NZ director makes clear, this is solely a business decision:
"'Maintaining competitive edge, increasing productivity and improving wellbeing sit at the heart of the four-day week,' [he] said. 'This is about removing the barriers that limit value creation and slow us down.'"
There are a few companies that are implementing something close to the Strategic CSR framework (e.g., Salesforce and Nike), but Unilever is the company that seems to get it the most. At least, they did under Paul Polman (who retired in December 2018). I presume they are continuing his managerial ethos, although I haven't heard much from them of late, which is another reason why I was pleased to see this announcement. The research on employee productivity has been pretty conclusive for a while now (see Strategic CSR – Microsoft and Strategic CSR – Productivity), but it is good to see a company as large as Unilever taking the risk. Being a manager is incredibly difficult, but the research shows that a focus on intrinsic (rather than extrinsic) motivation is the key to getting the most out of your employees, while providing them with meaning and purpose in what they do. Unilever has been in this space for a while now. It is not rocket science, but that doesn't mean it is widely practiced.
Take care
David
David Chandler
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Unilever to Trial Four-day Working Week in New Zealand
By Tracy Withers
November 30, 2020
Bloomberg Businessweek
