New World to pilot 4.5-day work week to adapt to new normal in workplace
To help employees maintain a healthy work-life balance, New World Group set to experiment with a four-and-a-half-day work week and a work-from-home day in the summer.
The Group will introduce “Summer Fridays” for several suitable business units. The employees concerned are entitled to half-day leave every Friday with no adjustment in salary. In addition, they may also choose to work remotely one day per week.
The pilot measures will be implemented from July to September and they will be evaluated thereafter.
While adopting a hybrid work model to allow employees flexibly arrange their working hours and locations, the Group hopes the measures will improve employee wellness so that they will be better motivated at work and perform efficiently, creating a win-win situation.
In recent years, numerous large multinational enterprises have introduced measures to shorten the work week or reduce working hours to help their employees achieve a healthy work-life balance. For example, a four-day work week is being piloted by approximately 70 companies in the United Kingdom, including software developers, recruitment agencies, charitable organisations and local restaurants this June.
Multinational sportswear brand Nike rolled out “Summer Fridays” this summer, with every Friday ending at noon. Other companies, such as Japan’s Panasonic Corp. and fashion brand UNIQLO, the UK’s app-based bank Atom Bank, and Korean technology company Kakao, have launched measures to successively reduce working hours or workdays to promote employees’ physical and mental health and boost their business productivity.