Short 4-day week, one manager out of two is in favor. Where are we in Italy? – Corriere.it

53% of personnel managers declare themselves in favor of the introduction of the short week, from 5 to 4 working days, while the remaining 40% only partially and 6% say they are against it. Among those in favor, 79% indicate the possibility of improving the work-life balance as the main reason for choosing this way of working. According to 49% of those in favor, the short week increases the psycho-physical well-being of employees and according to around 27% it increases work motivation.

Those who say they are only partially in favor (40%), highlight the critical point need to define a measure of productivity based on performancewith guidelines defined by national bargaining (for 41%), the preliminary assessment of economic sustainability (for 34%) and difficulties at the level of organizational implementation (for 25%).

Because some are against the short week

For those who are against the short week, there are three problems: the incompatibility with the economic-productive situation of companies (50%), the difficulty of implementing the short week at an organizational level (37%) and the fact that it would imply 9/10 hours of daily work (28%). what emerges from a survey conducted by the Italian Association of Personnel Managers (Aidp), which asked managers who deal with personnel management which would be the best way to implement the short week in their company. 62% of those interviewed answered that they would start with experimental solutions, as some companies are already doing.

The issue of salaries

With regards to the issue of wages, 26% of those interviewed believe that the short week could be implemented by maintaining the same wage but reducing the number of days, while for about 8% the wage should be partially reduced in proportion to the days worked. 20% believe instead that it is necessary to maintain the same number of contractual hours by reducing the days. Among workers, according to data from Adecco’s Global Workforce of The Future research, 66% of those who declare themselves interested in the short working week would be willing to adopt it only for the same salary. According to the survey by Adecco sOnly 10% of workers would accept a pay cut in order to work one day less.

Where are we in Italy?

In Italy, some companies have already adopted the four-day working week on an experimental basis. Above all, these are large groups that compete with models already established abroad. Intesa Sanpaolo started in January and has recently extended the possibility of exploiting this working method to the insurance sector as well. Even the multinational Mondelez International, which controls the Oro Saiwa, Oreo, Toblerone, Milka, Fattoria Osella, Sottilette and Philadelphia brands, has chosen to follow the line traced by Belgium, Spain and other European countries also in Italy to start a one-year trial of the short week. For now, the experiment involves employees of the company’s Milan offices. And again Awin Italia, a digital marketing company, from 1 July 2022 introduced the short 4-day week in all its offices, with the same salary. While Tria spa, a company that produces plastic recycling machines, has adopted the short week starting from January 2023. But other companies have also expressed interest in this working method.

An opportunity that divides companies

The companies that allow more flexibility are the ones that are more interesting in the eyes of younger people and that manage to attract new talent more easily. As highlighted by Rita Querz on Courier della Sera the risk that the four-day week will divide businesses: on the one hand those in the sectors with the highest added value which, in order to attract qualified personnel, will be willing to introduce this or similar forms of flexibility and on the other those which aim to compete on low costs, often investing little or nothing, which risk being left out. The consequence could be a new disparity (in terms of flexibility and work-life balance) between jobs, which depending on the sector or company they work for could have more or less difficulty in accessing the short week.