Hundreds of operators in a high pressure call centre are set to switch to a four-day week with no loss of pay. An insurer becomes the biggest UK company yet to trial a reduction in working hours.
Simply Business employs more than 500 people will launch a trial from September involving call operators in its Northampton contact centre which could lead 250 people getting an extra day off each week. Bosses say they see call center jobs are intense and they hope to improve staff well being.
Simply business is owned by the multibillion-dollar US insurance firm Travelers. A New Zealand firm did switch to a four-day week last year and claimed it helps boost productivity.
A Brighton recruitment consultancy, MRL, has announced that from this month its 56 staff will work Monday to Thursday for the same pay. Its chief executive, David Stone, said: “I want to hire people who are good enough to do five days of work in four.”
Debs Holland, the general manager of the Simply Business call centre, said: “Working in our contact centre is really hard. You have very little autonomy. In the rest of the business, people have significant flexibility. I believe we should create a world where they have the advantage we have.”
The move from a 37.5 hour week to a 30 hour week will require a 20% increase in productivity if a business performance is not to suffer. Bosses believe that a larger use of data analytics and web and email contact means fewer calls should be needed.
Call centres have been considered the factories of today, there are around 6,200 in the UK and are employing nearly 1.3 million people.
The five day work model is often credited by Henry Ford’s proposed switch from a six day 48 hour week to a 40 hours on a Monday to Friday car production line in 1914.
