If Companies Really Want To Attract Candidates, Offer Them Five-Hour Workdays

Companies concerned about the Great Resignation and trying to find, attract, recruit and retain talent should first do one thing: ask the candidate what they want. It sounds simple, but this doesn’t happen. Businesses offer a take-it-or-leave-it package. Instead of customizing a total salary and benefits plan, they offer a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all policy.

The pandemic has made us think differently. While we want to be paid well, there is more to the picture. Here are some of the things that management should take into consideration when they are interviewing applicants. If businesses are serious about getting the best talent, they need to think outside of the box and become creative. A good place to start is by offering a four or five-hour workday.

The Four Or Five-Hour Workday

There is no reason why a person has to work for eight hours a day. It's an outdated construct from the past. During the last two years of the pandemic, people have worked remotely and spent considerably more than eight hours a day working. They also put in late nights and weekends. Partly this was done, as there wasn’t much else to do during Covid-19 lockdowns. Also, there was the prevalent fear of losing your job.

It became crystal clear that pre-pandemic workers were judged by face time in the office. Now, at home, the metric is output and production. It's more important what a person does than how many hours logged in at the office or on the computer.

Since output and productivity is paramount, why is it necessary to put in eight hours? If you are able to get your work assignments accomplished and exceed expectations within five hours, wouldn’t it be fair to call it a day? Businesses have no qualms about making you work late hours if a project needs to get done. If you're ordered to put in the extra hours, it's only fair to clock out when you finish your work, and the work product is exemplary.

A four or five-hour workday would be seen as an employee benefit. It doesn't have to be for everyone. For those interested, the tradeoff is that they will have to get in on time, work diligently without any internet shopping searches and remain dedicatedly focused. If you are able to produce what is expected or exceed expectations, you’re out by around 2 p.m. or 3 p.m.

Flexible Staggered Hours

A record number of women left the workforce due to school closures and the lack of affordable childcare. A big issue during the pandemic was that many working mothers felt the pressure to leave their jobs to take care of their children. It was particularly challenging as public schools closed and the kids had to endure irritating online video classes that necessitated parental help. A flexible and staggered work schedule would smooth out these types of problems.

To accommodate working parents, particularly mothers who usually bear the brunt of childcare, wouldn’t it be reasonable to offer flexible, staggered hours? Let’s say there are dual-working parents with demanding jobs. One of the parents could start their day at about 10:00 a.m. after dropping the kids off at school. At the end of the workday, at about 3 p.m. or 4 p.m., the partner would leave to pick their child up from daycare or preschool.