Hyro Blog

How do you feel about working 80% of your week, but keeping 100% of your pay?

Medibank is set to trial a four-day working week to improve the health and wellbeing of their staff in the workplace.

They are rolling out a six-month trial program for all 250 employees.

Dubbed “The Gift”, Medibank’s experiment will utilise a 100:80:100 model where employees will retain 100% of their pay but reduce their hours to 80%, keeping 100% productivity.

Companies across the world have been trialling (and implementing) the same model with success over the last 18 months, which have led to record improvements in productivity, a reduction in absenteeism and reduced resignations. RECORD LEVELS….

Medibank, is the first publicly listed Australian Company to trial the model.

“We’re really wanting to bring the future of work into the now of work,” said Kylie Bishop, Medibank’s group lead for people, spaces and sustainability. Medibank have been exploring how they can work smarter, offer greater flexibility, and increase wellbeing for their people. 

Why? To support their customers. 

I am thrilled to hear this news. Medibank has got it right. Your people strategies are in place to support the bottom line. The bottom line is different for everyone, but in this case (and most cases) it’s for their customers.

You cannot keep your customers happy, if your staff are miserable, or heading towards misery. That’s not to say that this model is the only model to keep people happy. But it is saying that you need to have a happy, healthy, workforce to increase your productivity. If this is one way to do it, then why aren’t we doing it?

Some companies might complain that a 4 day work week is unattainable. If our staff are not working full time, 5 days, then who will do the work? It’s the same lame argument about working remotely (before COVID). If I can’t see you do your job, how will I know you are working? 

Look at this quote by Kylie Bishop – “Our hypothesis is that by creating the opportunity for even greater flexibility, our people and teams will adjust their way of working to improve the value of their outputs and reduce unproductive time,” 

Marvellous! You know you’re people want it, so they will work smarter to get it. Medibank knows that their people will adjust their way of working, to not only get the work done, but to keep the perk!

We will get into some of the pros and cons of working a 4 day week for different industries in another blog post, but for now, I’m really looking forward to seeing the results of their trial. I would be VERY surprised if their productivity levels reduced or if their reputation lowered with their customers. 

I am sure we can all agree that they will see a decrease in absenteeism and resignations also. Especially being one of the first to implement this trial.

It pays to be ahead of the trend. 

Medibank, well done.

Be right back, checking Medibank’s career’s page….