On Tuesday, the distributor of Lipton’s Tea, Dove Soap and Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream announced that it would test short working hours for all its employees in New Zealand, so they can decide which four days they prefer to work each week.
The trial begins this month, and lasts a year. The consumer giant has staff1 staff members in the country, who will be allowed to work on a compact schedule with full pay, as the University of Technology Sydney in Australia helps track their progress.
Unilever said that if all goes well, the company will consider whether to streamline its workflow on a large scale.
“We hope the trial will be the first global company to adopt the way Unilever works, with tangible benefits for staff and business,” Nick Bangs, managing director of Unilever New Zealand, said in a statement.
“This is an exciting moment for our team and the Covid-19 has been instrumental in shaking up standard operating practices.”
Bangs said his team is inspired by the findings of that case study, and “believes the old way of working is old.”
In May, Ardern shared this suggestion while discussing ways to revive domestic tourism in his country. He said that while businesses had their own independent idea of making such decisions, the idea is appropriate that it gives domestic travelers “relief in terms of their travel and their vacation.”
The results were promising: when the amount of time spent at work was dramatically reduced, productivity – measured by sales per employee – increased by about 40% compared to the same period last year, the company said.
As a result, MicroFT announced that it would conduct a second experiment in Japan, and asked other companies to join the initiative.
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