New Ways of Working!
Now that we are back on the 5 days a week wagon does it have you wishing you could always work 4 days a week and have every weekend feel like a long weekend?
You are not alone!
Companies around the world have put this theory to the test! And it turns out there are a lot of factors that come in to play when thinking of switching to a four-day week. For example, the salary, hours worked, type of industry, productivity, second jobs and the list goes on.
Let’s broaden our scope for this blog to the new ways of working.
Research has been done on this new trend - New Ways of Working (NWW) and how it affects the workers lives for better or worst. NWW is described as a work environment that is flexible in hours and location (Kotera & Correa 2020).
Keep in mind that anything with the word new in front of it faces some limitations when it comes to research. The amount of evidence on this topic is low. That said, here is what we found to be the most interesting on this ever evolving upcoming work schedule.
NWW prompted:
- Higher Work Engagement
- Higher Work-Related Flow
- Connectivity among staff
- Blurred lines between work and home boundaries
- Fatigue
- ****Mental Demands
We put **** beside mental demands because one research points towards an increase in mental demand while another a decrease (Kotera & Correa 2020,Van Steenbergen 2018). Don’t you love SCIENCE!
Furthermore, a study suggested that to have a successful change to the new way of working, organizations have to be ready with a plan of execution, have their employees understand the working condition for at home and at the office and evaluate the level of commitment to this process by everyone in the company (Kotera & Correa 2020).
One company that seems to have done it right is Microsoft Japan. It has reaped the benefits of a change in their work style by gaining an astonishing 40% in productivity (Jackman, 2019)!
The countries that have done the most research and embraced the NWW are the Netherlands and Japan (Work-Style Reform). They have had an increase in interest in their employees well-being in the past years due to their countries high counts of poor mental health.
That said, with Covid-19 changing the way most office workers in North-America do their job, the transition might already be on its way for Canada. We know that there are a lot of uncertainties when it comes to keeping the employees working from home or going back to the office or having a schedule for working at home and at the office. But this seems like it’s going to spark a major shift in the way office workers do their jobs.
So many questions still left unanswered that only time can tell.
I know a little bit of a cliff hanger on this blog but it is important to know what the future of office work may look like and how to adapt to the best of your capabilities with the most up to date research!
THIS TOPIC IS SO INTERESTING! WE CAN NOT WAIT TO HAVE MORE RESEARCH AVAILABLE!
We are always interested in hearing what you think about the NWW, please reach out and let us know!
ErgoMania Team
References
Jackman, S. Microsoft Japan Says Four-Day Work Week Boosted Productivity 40%. Bloomberg. 4 November 2019. Available online: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-04/microsoft-japan-says-four-day-work-week-boosted-productivity-40
Kotera, Y., & Correa Vione, K. (2020). Psychological Impacts of the New Ways of Working (NWW): A Systematic Review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(14), 5080. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17145080
Van Steenbergen, E. F., van der Ven, C., Peeters, M., & Taris, T. W. (2018). Transitioning Towards New Ways of Working: Do Job Demands, Job Resources, Burnout, and Engagement Change?. Psychological reports, 121(4), 736–766. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033294117740134