About the 4-day week in the digital age – a podcast episode

Companies are under pressure and are finding it difficult to find new skilled workers, while at the same time they need to be more productive. For employees, on the other hand, stress and strain are increasing. Can the 4-day week be the solution? Tests in Iceland and England have shown positive effects. Could it also be implemented in Switzerland? The guests discuss this in the new episode of the BFH Wirtschaft podcast Let’s Talk Business.

Reduced working hours with the same pay – how will we manage the work? This is one of the many questions that arise when it comes to this topic. On the one hand, there is a shortage of skilled labour and companies are struggling to find new employees. At the same time, technostress and other pressures are increasing in a digitalised working world. Can the 4-day week also be a successful working model for the Swiss labour market?

Yes, say our researcher Caroline Straub and Veit Hailperin from the Zurich-based consultancy Hailperin. Together, they are conducting the study in Switzerland and investigating the impact of working 4 days instead of 5 on employees and companies. They know that the 4-day week has long since arrived in many industries – with success. For example, patients get better faster when staff are more rested.

And yes, says the third guest, and he should know. Thomas Heldner has long since successfully introduced the 4-day week at his SME in Spiez. In the podcast, he talks about how he and his employees are doing, how customers have reacted and how his company is benefiting from it.

We are still looking for companies that would like to take part in the study: Click here to register.

Would you like to find out more about Thomas Heldner and how his electronics company works from Monday to Thursday?

Listen in now:

Guests in the podcast

• Caroline Straub from the New Work Institute, the scientific director of the pilot study.
• Veit Hailperin from the Zurich-based consultancy Hailperin, which is organising and leading the pilot study in Switzerland
• Thomas Heldner, CEO of SH Elektro Telematik GmbH in Spiez. He has completed the CAS Sustainable Corporate Development programme at BFH.

Links to the pilot study

• About the scientific background of the BFHproject
• Partners are the global non-profit organisation 4 Day Week and Hailperin Consulting Zurich.
• Swiss 4-Day Week Study (hailperin.ch)
• Launch of the pilot study

Information events for interested companies

In German: Informationsveranstaltung zum größten Schweizer 4-Tage-Woche Studie / Événement d’information sur la plus grande étude suisse sur la semaine de 4 jours (google.com)

In French: Séance d’information sur l’étude de la semaine de 4 jours en Suisse (google.com)

Reference

Cited work on loss aversion: Daniel Kahneman, Amos Tversky: Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk. In: Econometrica. Vol. 47, 1979, pp. 263-292 (English). https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verlustaversion

This podcast is produced with the kind support of: Audioflair Bern and Podcastschmiede Winterthur.