HR leaders are currently faced with a variety of different choices when it comes to designing the right flexibility model for their business. 🤹‍♀️

They know that, in most industries, offering some form of flexibility is necessary in today’s labor market if they want to be competitive.

So why opt for a shorter working week structure instead of a pure flexibility model where people can work where they like, when they like?

The answer lies in the virtues of structured flexibility.

Often, when “total flexibility” is offered without clear structure, and in a way that is silent on the average hours people work or changing the way they work, this model can be so discretionary and individualized as to be effectively meaningless.

Like with many examples of unlimited holiday/PTO policies in the United States, the benefit tends to be unevenly distributed, and the level of take up and access can vary widely depending on how your manager interprets the policy, career progression dynamics, team dynamics, individual roles and personalities, and even gender.

It also fails to provide an incentive for collective, structural change.

The #4DayWeek is so universally life-changing and transformative that it drives engagement, collaboration and collective responsibility across teams to find a better way to do things.

Instead of leaving it up to individuals, people are motivated to work together to change how they meet, how they communicate, how they use technology, and how they address inefficiencies.

Whether you see the future of work for your organization as being remote-first and asynchronous, in-person and on-site, or somewhere in between, work time reduction can be a powerful driver for collective action where everyone benefits materially from finding solutions to the challenges facing your business.