Business_Spotlight_No3_202..

30 Business Spotlight 3/2020 INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Fotos: Martin Pelanek/Shutterstock.com; LysenkoAlexander, huafires/iStock.com; Jane Ussher; privat

INTERVIEW

“A happy, healthly workforce will be more productive”

ANDREW BARNES is both the founder

and chief executive of Perpetual Guardi­

an, an estate planning company. His em­

ployees trialled working four days a week

instead of five and found that stress

levels went down, productivity went up

and there was a much better work­life

balance. Born in the UK, 60­year­old

Barnes has lived in New Zealand for dec­

ades and is convinced that his four­day

week initiative is the future of work.

How did you get interested in the four-day week?

I read some research that British offices were productive for only

two and half hours a day. I questioned why that might be. I thought

about inefficiencies: people attending meetings they didn’t need to

attend, disruptions in the workplace, such as mobile phones and the

internet. I did a six­week trial, which became eight weeks, where I

gave my staff a day off to see if they could be as productive in four

normal working days, rather than the usual five. I just wanted to see

if it was possible. University researchers monitored the trial and it

was successful. After that, we started to go on this broader journey,

arguing that the four­day week is a solution for today’s working

environment.

Were you surprised by the results?

Intuitively, it’s not a big step into the unknown to understand that

a happy, healthy, engaged and enthusiastic workforce will be more

productive. The question was whether the additional pressure of

trying to compress work into four days rather than five would create

additional stress.

Why is a four-day week more productive?

Imagine a typical day: people go to the office, sit down, have a cup

of coffee and a chat, go on the internet and do some work. Then

they get disturbed. One study found that, on average, you get

disturbed in the office once every 11 minutes, and then it takes you

22 minutes to get back to being productive. All we are saying to staff

is: “Do things differently.” The best example of this is a Microsoft

trial in Japan. They cut down meetings to half an hour, with no

more than five people in a meeting. It generated an improvement

in productivity of around 40 per cent. All they did was get rid of

unproductive downtime within the working day.

What was the impact of the trial on your business?

Firstly, we have a “100–80–100 rule”: 100 per cent pay, you only

work 80 per cent of the time and we get 100 per cent productivity.

I am not doing this as a bleeding­heart liberal. I own my own

business. My approach was to tackle this from a business

perspective. I am saying this to all businesses: just try it. If you

do a trial, what’s the worst that can happen? You’ll get better

engagement scores from your staff. The best thing that can happen

is that you get a massive improvement in productivity. And if I’m

wrong, you cancel the trial and you go back to working five days a

week. Secondly, your staff turnover drops and your ability to attract

talent improves. One in four people in your workforce at any point

in time has a stress or mental­health issue. But if you give them

additional time off, you’ll find that their productivity improves and

sick days go down.

What about the environmental impact?

With the four­day week, you take 20 per cent of cars off the road

during the week. If you can get a free flow of traffic, there is an

economic benefit. In Auckland, this would add two per cent to its

economy. You also get a drop in emissions. So, by reducing cars on

the road, you reduce congestion and have an impact on climate

change.

Innovator: Andrew Barnes

argue that...

[(A:gju: DÄt]

, den Standpunkt

vertreten, dass ...

bleeding-heart

[)bli:dIN (hA:t] ifml.

, sentimental;

hier: gutherzig

chief executive

[)tSi:f Ig(zekjUtIv]

, Geschäftsführer(in)

compress sth. into sth.

[kEm(pres )Intu]

, etw. in etw. hinein-

pressen

congestion

[kEn(dZestS&n]

, Verkehrsbelastung,

Stau(s)

disruption

[dIs(rVpS&n]

, Störung

downtime [(daUntaIm]

, Stillstand;

hier: unproduktive Zeit

engaged

[In(geIdZd]

, engagiert; hier auch:

gut eingebunden

estate planning

[I(steIt )plÄnIN]

, Erbschafts-,

Nachlassplanung

mental [(ment&l]

, hier: psychisch

monitor sth.

[(mQnItE]

, etw. überwachen

perpetual

[pE(petjuEl]

, ewig, immerwährend

score [skO:]

, Punktezahl;

hier: Ergebnis

staff turnover

[)stA:f (t§:nEUvE]

, Mitarbeiterfluktuation

tackle sth. [(tÄk&l]

, etw. angehen

trial (sth.) [(traIEl]

, Erprobung, Test(lauf);

etw. erproben

workforce

[(w§:kfO:s]

, Belegschaft

Top tourist attraction:

Auckland’s harbour