{"id":661423,"date":"2023-02-03T16:54:56","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T14:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=661423"},"modified":"2023-02-03T16:55:30","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T14:55:30","slug":"29-businesses-join-4-day-workweek-pilot-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/661423\/29-businesses-join-4-day-workweek-pilot-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"29 businesses join 4-day workweek pilot in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>4 Day Week South Africa&#8217;s sign-up deadline has passed, and 28 <span lang=\"EN-US\">South African businesses and one Botswanan business<\/span> are confirmed to participate in the four-day workweek pilot starting on 1 March 2023.<\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">It&#8217;s the country&#8217;s first-ever trial of the four-day week. This means 500 South African business owners and employees will test out a reduced working week with the aim of improving workplace productivity, well-being, talent attraction and retention, said Karen Lowe, Director of 4 Day Week SA.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The 4 Day Week is based on the 100-80-100 model, developed by co-founders of 4 Day Week Global, Andrew Barnes and Charlotte Lockhart.<\/p>\n<p>The model prescribes 100% of the pay for 80% of the time in exchange for a commitment to delivering 100% of the output.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the companies taking part in the pilot are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Precision Vehicle and Asset Tracking<\/strong> \u00a0&#8211; an ICT security company from Botswana;<\/li>\n<li><strong>jt&amp;a<\/strong> \u2013\u00a0QCTO Accreditation Advisory Services;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dream Team Catalyst<\/strong> \u2013 events and consulting company;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tax Maverick<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>The Tax Ladies<\/strong> \u2013 providing tax and finance services;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Communicare<\/strong><b>\u00a0<\/b>\u2013 specialists in social housing and property development;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Elnatan IT Solutions<\/strong><b>\u00a0<\/b>\u2013 an IT sales and support company;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Marais Software Solutions<\/strong><b>\u00a0<\/b>\u2013 an IT software development company;<\/li>\n<li><strong>2Stories<\/strong> \u2013 marketing agency;<\/li>\n<li><strong>APSO<\/strong> \u2013 employment services company; and<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0<strong>Maties Gymnasium<\/strong> \u2013 Stellenbosch University\u2019s fitness gymnasium.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;To have 29 companies joining South Africa&#8217;s first-ever pilot of the four-day week is a testament to the forward-thinking of business in this country. Pilot participants are embracing the idea that it&#8217;s time to change the nearly 100-year-old convention of a five-day week.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Reduced work hours are a central tenet to the future of work, and there is potentially so much to be gained and nothing to lose from the experiment,&#8221; said Lowe.<\/p>\n<p>Most companies participating in the pilot noted that employee well-being is one of their top priorities in 2023, and the promise of fostering a culture of productivity simultaneously made it very attractive.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Everyone will win. A happy <span lang=\"EN-US\">team creates great work, and great work leads<\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\">to happy clients,&#8221; said 2Stories chief content officer Anelde Greeff.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To enhance our employee value proposition, we believe that implementing the four-day work week could have a further positive impact on mental wellness as it will provide our people with some valuable extra time to spend with their loved ones and ultimately contribute to a more positive experience for our customer,&#8221; said Communicare COO Makhosi Kubheka.<\/p>\n<p>However, Abigail Butcher, an associate in the Employment Law practice at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/604748\/south-africa-will-need-to-change-laws-to-introduce-a-4-day-work-week\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">noted<\/a> that feedback around the change has been mixed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While the idea of a four-day work week appears to increase the morale of employees, the fact that their productivity must remain despite fewer hours could result in burnout and increased stress,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Kirk Kruger, a reward specialist with the South African Reward Association (SARA), <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/625854\/four-day-work-to-be-trialled-in-south-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> that South African businesses as a whole are likely not ready to adopt a four-day workweek permanently.<\/p>\n<p>However, he said it could be viable for companies such as those that have joined the pilot, as they are more likely to be niche organisations, such as smaller and medium-sized technology companies.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, Lowe added that <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/651501\/four-day-workweek-pilot-launching-in-south-africa-soon-with-20-local-companies-on-board\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">research findings<\/a> from global trials continue to make a clear case for the four-day week.<\/p>\n<p>The most notable outcomes from global trials are listed below:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>On average,<strong>\u00a0revenue increased across all companies by 8.1%<\/strong>\u00a0over the trial period\u00a0<strong>and increased by 38% compared to the same period in 2021<\/strong>;<\/li>\n<li>Employee\u00a0<strong>fatigue decreased by 10%<\/strong>;<\/li>\n<li>Employee\u00a0<strong>stress and mental health issues decreased by 32% and 38%<\/strong>, respectively;<\/li>\n<li>On average<strong>, employees engaged in 27 minutes of additional physical activity<\/strong>\u00a0per week;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Work and family life balance increased by 60%<\/strong>, while\u00a0<strong>relationships with colleagues and family members improved by 44.9%<\/strong>; and<\/li>\n<li>Overall,\u00a0<strong>life satisfaction increased by 57.5%<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The reports also noted that participating companies rated the trial a nine out of ten, expressing extreme satisfaction with their overall productivity and performance \u2013 with none of the companies returning to a five-day week post-trial.<\/p>\n<p>Recruitment is already underway for South Africa&#8217;s second four-day week pilot, due to kick off in May 2023. <span lang=\"EN-US\">Organisations wanting to be part of the subsequent trial can sign up by logging on to <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.4dayweek.co.za\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=http:\/\/www.4dayweek.co.za&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1675341171648000&amp;usg=AOvVaw07X508CVsZ-XxGTRlgH1vK\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">www.4dayweek.co.za<\/span><\/a><span lang=\"EN-US\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/661199\/some-good-news-for-businesses-in-south-africa-2\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Some good news for businesses in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>28 South African companies and one Botswanan business are geared up to participate in the four-day workweek pilot starting on 1 March 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":651505,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[17771,26],"class_list":["post-661423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-4-day-week-sa","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661423"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":662213,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661423\/revisions\/662213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}