The introduction of the four-day working week – with continued pay – on the Dutch software program firm AFAS is arousing nice curiosity each inside and outdoors the corporate.
Within the information : AFAS introduced on Tuesday that from January 1 it would introduce the four-day working week, Monday to Thursday.
- “The workplace will probably be closed on Friday and everybody who works for AFAS could have a growth day. Working circumstances stay the identical. For purchasers, the software program supplier will stay out there on Fridays,” it was said.
- “AFAS desires to encourage its workers to pay extra consideration to themselves, household care, youngsters, volunteering and people in want. For that reason, we name it a growth day. »
- “Time is a uncommon commodity for everybody. We appear to be in a rat race and may’t all the time deal with what’s actually necessary in life. By introducing this present day, there will probably be extra time for this,” says CEO Bas van der Veldt.
Concretely : AFAS workers should not anticipated to work longer hours in the course of the 4 days.
- Staff will proceed to work eight hours a day.
- They won’t lose by way of working circumstances resembling wage, thirteenth month, pension and trip pay.
- The brand new working regime applies not solely to the 700 workers within the Netherlands, but additionally to the 60 workers at Kontich.
The response : In keeping with the Dutch press, the workers reacted with enthusiasm and functions had been pouring in. Nonetheless, the software program firm has no plans to recruit extra individuals following this introduction.
Productiveness
The problem : At first look, the four-day pay-continued work week leads to an enormous enhance in common prices for a enterprise. Wage prices per hour are growing considerably.
- That is solely economically viable if workers carry out extra throughout these 4 days and productiveness will increase. That is additionally what AFAS depends on.
- Synthetic intelligence, resembling ChatGPT, may result in a quantum leap in productiveness.
- “Now we have already achieved many milestones in clever automation, AI and different instruments. We’re satisfied that this new rule will result in much more creativity and innovation,” says Machiel den Dekker, director of AFAS Belgium.
- Further advantages for the employer are larger workers loyalty and maybe additionally a optimistic picture impact for the corporate.
Recoil: “We’re the primary giant firm within the Netherlands to introduce the four-day working week on this means, and we in fact understand that this isn’t possible for all firms. However we hope this would be the begin of a motion,” says CEO Bas van der Veldt.
And even : “It’s a superb work-life stability, a pretty employer and a brand new imaginative and prescient of labor. Rigorous and revolutionary. And most significantly: do what makes individuals comfortable and what makes others comfortable. »
Excellent : In keeping with Piet Mars, founding father of AFAS, the measure is impressed by Christianity. He calls him ” a present of affection« .
