UK tries out 4-day work week. Can India do the same?

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Four-day work week - that's what the UK is trying out. Is it possible for India to toe the line? Not really.

Getting 100 percent pay for working 80 percent of their work hours, in exchange for maintaining 100 percent productivity, though seems a big leap of faith in work culture, at least for some in Britain, human resource experts and staffing firms back home believe that India is perhaps not ready to adopt such an experiment.

They argue that a massive labour market with its layers cannot be seen with a broad brush and what best companies may look at it is through four prisms – productivity, roles, sectors and geographical locations. Talent managers argue that what is partly possible for some, is almost impossible for another segment. Some also argue that employer psyche in India is tuned to extract five times by paying one time, and a shift to four-day work week needs a mindset reset at the corporate level.

“India, I believe is still not ready for a four-day work culture. It's largely because the labour market is layered, and there is a massive diversity of employers. A broad brush look at four-day week is tentative right now,” said Kamal Karanth, co-founder of specialist staffing firm Xpheno.

“We have to look at whether productivity of all in the labour market are the same. The answer is overall productivity is still low, the per-capita GDP is still low in our country. So we have to look at it from sector, role, city and geography wise,” Karanth told Moneycontrol.

While in some sub-segments it is possible, but it is almost impossible in others, he said. “While an individual contributor can possibly get that flexibility, it’s not the same for a person in a leadership role. Because he or she has several tasks at hand. Similarly, is the role front-facing or back-end? Front-facing roles cannot operate to achieve targets in four days, but it may be the case for back-end roles in parts."

A part of employees, let’s say in the IT sector, can achieve the target in four days, instead of five days, due to the nature of their sector and job roles, it is not possible in manufacturing, according to Karanth.

John Poulose, who founded career consulting and corporate training firm Eclatmax, said India is not a mature market like some of the European or US markets. The maturity and workspace outlook is still evolving. While it cannot be done across sectors and across roles; even where it is possible, it will need a mindset change from the employer, he said.

“A large part of the employers’ ecosystem, here, want to extract five to six times for paying one time. In Indian workspace, working well and being productive in true sense and creating that perception in office are two different things. It is a big friction point. Often bosses behave like managers than leaders, and micro-manage stuff. The trust factor is shaky. These are all net negatives while shifting to a four-day work culture,” Poulose said.

An HR manager in an ITeS firm, who declined to be named, said that it’s too early for the sector as it is still operating in a hybrid mode and experimenting four-day work week, may not be possible in the near future.

“Do we have a mindset to work for four days as yet? Second, can employees manage three days off and come back to work and start running on the first day? Such a shift will need a shift in mindset of both employers and employees,” the HR manager wondered.

Workers from 70 companies from across the UK have started a four-day work week from June 6. The six-month pilot experiment is being touted as the largest of its kind and companies from across sectors - financial services to hospitality - are participating there.