- Andrew Barnes, the founder of the New Zealand-based company Perpetual Guardian, found his employees were more energized and productive after he cut workweeks to four days.
- Barnes' book, "The 4 Day Week," argues that collaboration tools like email and messaging apps allow for flexible work arrangements, an imperative part of shortening workweeks.
- Barnes suggests using "Do Not Disturb" settings on apps, limiting notifications on your smartphone, disconnecting from your email, and working in a remote space as much as possible.
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A few years ago, Andrew Barnes shocked the world when his New Zealand-based company, Perpetual Guardian, implemented a four-day workweek.
Barnes said the shorter week led to more energized and productive employees.
Now, Barnes is taking his four-day workweek model global with "The 4 Day Week," a book advocating for shorter work schedules. Barnes argues shortening workweeks allows employees to better design their schedules so as to attain work-life balance. Limiting commute time also reduces carbon emissions, making this model better for the environment.
"The success of the four-day week trial will rest partly on the willingness of staff in an open-plan environment to collaborate on a low-noise, no-interruption plan," Barnes wrote. "A strategy designed for maximum productivity is likely to involve both technological and refreshingly old-school solutions."
It can be done, according to Barnes, if collaboration and collaboration tools are taken seriously, and if all workers are sufficiently flexible with their schedules. Online collaboration tools are also a key part of this making the 4-day week a reality.
How collaboration tools can help workers get five days of productivity into just four days.
Barnes' four-day workweek model follows a 100-80-100 model: Employees get 100% of the pay for working 80% of the time and delivering 100% of the agreed productivity.
In other words, employees must be just as productive in four days as they were in five - which is easier than it sounds, as employees around the world say they can do their job in less than five hours a day, as previously reported by Business Insider.
But to reach the same output in a shorter time, employers must make workplaces less distracting - which is where collaboration tools come in.
A 2018 survey from the time-tracking company RescueTime found that for 64% of employees, the most common distraction was face-to-face interruptions, or when colleagues stop by their desk. Using online collaboration tools, on the other hand, cuts down massively on such distractions.
Barnes suggests using "Do Not Disturb" settings on messaging apps, limiting notifications on your smartphone, disconnecting from your email, and working in a remote space as much as possible.
Why online collaboration makes flexible work easier - thus helping the four-day workweek model.
Barnes' four-day workweek model doesn't guarantee every worker a long weekend.
Instead, workers stagger the days and time they take off so that the needs of customers are not compromised. Barnes also encourages workplaces to make flexible work arrangements so that employees work when convenient, and take time off when they need to. Not all workers can take the same day off, for instance, meaning teams must learn to collaborate to account for irregular team structures.
To allow for better teamwork when employee schedules aren't uniform, workplaces need better cross-collaboration so that one worker being off won't stall the entire team.
Online collaboration tools, like messaging apps and email, make it so that work can happen at any time, any place.
"In almost every workplace, solving the productivity puzzle means first winning the war on technology by inverting its use to enable output, not disrupt it," Barnes wrote.