4-day work week at DEGUMA
Since April 2023 we have been testing a 4-day work week in the entire company. Originally, the test, scientifically monitored and evaluated by Technical University of Ilmenau and research project InnoFARM was supposed to take 6 months. Afterwards, we wanted to decide whether to continue working with this working time model or not. Shortly, before the end of the 6 months period we had been noticing that the time hasn’t been enough to render a conclusive judgment yet. At this point the KPIs were not explicit enough or not measurable at all. i.e. because the adherence to delivery dates within 6 months is not measurable if the usual average delivery time of a machine is 9-12 months and usually in summer there are less days lost due to sickness than in winter.
But we have been seeing advantages, too and that is why we extended the test for 6 more months until March 2024:
✅ more balanced team
✅ more positive spirit
✅ weaknesses and potentials become visible and can be resolved
✅ positive visibility as employer is increasing remarkably
Will DEGUMA still be reachable on all 5 working days?
Yes, we have decided to be reachable to our customers on all usual working days. One part of our team has Mondays off, the other part has their day off on Fridays.
Why is DEGUMA doing that?
It has been known for a while now that people are not working most productively in a usual 40-hour work week. By now, there are a lot of surveys that show that the productivity of a company does not decrease when you reduce the working hours. Moreover, employees are healthier and more content. As we have been working with modern working methods since 2019 it is a logical consequence to take this step.
Are you working 40 hours on four days now?
No, be made the conscious decision against working longer days. We continue working 8,5 hours per day. We did this already before to have a short Friday. A full-time job is now 34 hours, a part-time job correspondingly less the same percentage.
Do employees earn less?
No, we are still paying 100 % of the salary.
Is there more overtime now?
We had this fear before starting. But we developed concepts and solutions for all challenges that might be coming up.
Indeed, it is a challenge to plan all this and to change the usual mode of operation of the whole team to realize a plan like that. We are continuously monitoring the situation of the company and the satisfaction of the team with surveys and ration figures. If the test will turn out well we will, most probably, remain with an alternative time model.