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Oct. 15, 2020

066 - How Employers Can Safely Offer a 4-Day Work Week to Their Employees

Attract, Retain & Motivate employees with opportunities that allow them to earn additional paid time off.

If you're an employer who's considering offering a 4-Day Work Week or other similar flexible working situation to your employees, it can feel extremely uncertain and financially unwise or scary.

With one simple strategy, you can take a huge amount of the risk out of the equation and ease into this, rather than taking a huge blind leap of faith.

The opportunity for employees to earn more paid vacation makes your job offering more competitive when you recruit top talent.




HIGHLIGHTS

1:30 ACHIEVE to RECEIVE - Setting Up Conditional Results

2:47 Create Bonus Reward Levels for SALES Employees to Earn Time Off

3:41 Create Bonus Reward Levels for SERVICE Employees to Earn Time Off

5:30 Ground Rules to Keep Things Simple

6:48 How Long-Term Achievement Can Lead to Long-Term Agreements

7:36 Why Should You Even Bother Considering This

8:26 Get Employees to Care About Your Business Like You Do




NEXT STEPS

If you'd like help implementing this strategy or related 4-Day Work Week strategies, you can schedule an implementation blueprint call.

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Attract, Retain & Motivate employees with opportunities that allow them to earn additional paid time off.

If you're an employer who's considering offering a 4-Day Work Week or other similar flexible working situation to your employees, it can feel extremely uncertain and financially unwise or scary.

With one simple strategy, you can take a huge amount of the risk out of the equation and ease into this, rather than taking a huge blind leap of faith.

The opportunity for employees to earn more paid vacation makes your job offering more competitive when you recruit top talent.

 

HIGHLIGHTS

1:30 ACHIEVE to RECEIVE - Setting Up Conditional Results

2:47 Create Bonus Reward Levels for SALES Employees to Earn Time Off

3:41 Create Bonus Reward Levels for SERVICE Employees to Earn Time Off

5:30 Ground Rules to Keep Things Simple

6:48 How Long-Term Achievement Can Lead to Long-Term Agreements

7:36 Why Should You Even Bother Considering This

8:26 Get Employees to Care About Your Business Like You Do

 

NEXT STEPS

If you'd like help implementing this strategy or related 4-Day Work Week strategies, you can schedule an implementation blueprint call.

https://www.4dayworkweek.com/implement

 

E-BOOK

 

GAME PLAN

 

 

Transcript

Hi, everybody. Welcome. Today, we're going to talk about a very simple conversation that actually gets a lot more complex than it needs to be. When I talk to business owners and we talk about the idea of a four day work week, a lot of them are excited about it for themselves, but they really don't seem to understand how they could make that a possibility for their team members. Now, there's this concept that we want to try to have people look out for our business the way that we look out for our business. But of course, there's a big gap to that. And if your name is on the door and their name is not, it's sometimes not very easy to make that happen. So what I want to do is share with you some ideas about how you can help create a situation where you can safely offer a four day work week or something similar and allow your team members to have a chance to thrive in that. And really, so much of this comes down to being willing to show them that you're willing to share. So it's not always about whether or not their situation is going to be exactly like yours.

 

It's not. You're the owner, or if you're a CEO in a company, or if you're a high level exec and you're making the decisions about how people are compensated, the rewards that they have, again, they're going to look at you as somebody that has more power, more influence, and more decision making ability than they do, and that's accurate. That doesn't mean they can't be engaged, and it doesn't mean they don't want to help. So what we want to be able to do is set up a situation where if they can achieve, then they can receive. And really this comes down to setting up a conditional result where you say if you can get a conditional result, if you can achieve X, then you can receive a reward. Now it depends how you measure results in your culture and in your business. But to give you an example, let's say you're in a sales situation. If every month you make 20 sales, let's say that's a great number for a monthly sales total, you receive Fridays off, or maybe it's just one Friday off the following month. So this is something, again, that's conditional. It's not something that's guaranteed.

 

It's not something I have to pay out. It's not something I have to give. There's no giving in here. This is not charity. This is acknowledging people who perform at a high level and giving them an opportunity to get rewarded for this. As somebody who has a software company now for 20 years that helps reward people, a lot of it very often is financial, but more and more people are looking for nonfinancial rewards. Most people are okay with the idea that if somebody sells more than me, well, they're going to make more bonuses than I am. Yeah, that's fine. Well, similarly, if somebody can get results that are important, there's other ways they can earn time off. And so you can play with this and you can have different ways of expressing this. So let's say you wanted to create some levels. You say, what I want to do is I want to have it be that if a person performs at higher levels, they're going to get more rewards. This is something that's very commonly effective for people who are sales producers, because usually they're trying to produce a certain number of results in a certain period of time.

 

And so you could say if that target measurable, that result is sales, well, if you get 10 results this month, let's change the conversation, let's say 10 results for a month is really good. Okay, we'll get you one Friday off next month. If you got 20 results or sales or whatever it is you're measuring, you get two Fridays off next month, three gets you 30, and four gets you four Fridays or all Fridays because sometimes it'll be five Fridays in a month. And so that can be a simple way to make sure your salesperson is always motivated to get to whatever that top level is. Now, if you're talking about a team member that's focused on more service oriented tasks or support people, what you really want from them is you want consistency. And so now what you could say is, let's say the target result is some quality measure, customer satisfaction, or customer retention, or whatever other measures you have to make sure somebody's doing well. And you could say, look, if you do this for one month and you hit this target number, you get a Friday off the following month. If you do this two months in a row, now you get two Fridays off the following month.

 

Now, the whole time, you're having to figure out how to balance this because in month one, you now worked one last month the following month, and now you've got to figure out how to get the same result in less time. Now, sometimes with support positions, because people have to cover phones and support lines and whatnot. It might be a little more difficult than when it's a pure sales position. But the bottom line is, is you're allowing the person to earn a reward, and then if the next month they can't keep up with it, well, they go back to square one and they have to earn month one again. But if they got two in a row, now they're on a streak. If they get three in a row now they get three Fridays off that following month and four, again, all the Fridays off the following month. So what we're setting up here is something that's paid rather quickly. It's paid out quickly. We don't have people accumulate time with us because then we don't want somebody taking, let's say, 30 days off in a row. That's not good for the business. What we want is consistency.

 

So a person, in essence, is learning to be more effective. All the training that you do that sometimes they're really not that excited about or interested in, becomes a lot more interesting when they realize not only can they earn more money, but they can earn more paid time off. And for a lot of people, the paid time off is an even bigger deal. Now, to keep things simple, I have a few ground rules, and you don't have to go by these, but it really keeps things manageable and easy. Number one, if you don't achieve, you don't receive. So I'm not going to do you any favors or the business any favors or me any favors if I give you a reward that you didn't achieve. Now, on the other hand, if I try this for, let's say, three to six months and I realize that my targets are simply a little high, adjusting my targets, that's something different. But to outright give somebody something they didn't earn does not set a good precedent. Number two, rewards may be converted to money. And that's something you want to have that conversation from the beginning because number 1, some of your best producers will not want time off.

 

And so this is not about forcing them into a certain lifestyle. This is about offering this. So it might be that the employee says, You know what? Right now, I need the cash. Okay, a paid time off day is worth X amount. I'll give you the money. Also, there might be seasonal situations. There might be times where you're short staffed and you say, Okay, now I need to pull it off the table. I'm still going to give you the money. But what's happened now is we just lost two team members or whatever happened, and so I want to still honor the spirit of the agreement, but I've told people up front, if we become short staffed, then I have to change how I do it. Then third thing, long term achievement may lead, it might lead, to longer term arrangements or agreements. Again, overall, I don't want to guarantee somebody a four day work week at full pay that they're currently making. On the other hand, if somebody says to me, Wait, I'm currently making 100 % of my income. I'd like to make 80 % of my income in four days. In other words, I'd like to be paid the same hourly amount and just work less hours.

 

As long as I can make that work for the business and that person helps me, I never have a problem with that. What I'm more looking out for is that person that says, I want to make the same income but work less hours, I have to make sure the results happen because to do otherwise would be irresponsible. It's to set up a situation where it seems like things are working out, but ultimately I'm probably going to have to pull that back. And then the other part, and this is the part that you might not have this on your radar, but some do, they'll say, Well, Wade, why should I even bother? Why don't I keep things the way they are? Well, the first thing is employee turnover costs. And if you've been in business long enough, you understand that one month, two months, three months of employee turnover cost you. In other words, if you have a person and you need to then hire a new person, but then while you're hiring that new person, the new person is being trained and they're not active, that's costing you money. Number two, I want to keep my employees fresh, rested, and happy.

 

And number three, I want to attract awesome workers. And number four, I only have to reward people if I get what I'm looking for. So if I don't get the result, the reward doesn't go out. So this is set up. This benefits me as well as it benefits them. And now, if you want to get your employees to care about your business like you do, or close, you want to create similar but scale down money opportunities. Well, a lot of people do that. Well, the same thing happens with lifestyle opportunities. Give them similar opportunities, not the exact opportunity, but a similar opportunity. Constantly thank them and appreciate them, and then treat them like they're the biggest and most important investment in your company. And guess what? They are. So what I'm going to suggest to you is this is one simple way to get started. If you'd like help looking at how you can do this, you can schedule an implementation blueprint call with me, and we can just look at what your current situation is and if it's something that might be possible for you. I hope you find this helpful. As always, look forward to helping you make more money in less time.

 

Do what you do best so you can better enjoy your family, your friends, and your life. Thank you.

Wade GaltProfile Photo

Wade Galt

Author, Podcast Host & 3-Day Weekend Coach for Entrepreneurs & Employees

PROFESSIONALLY

With over 30 years of experience working with entrepreneurs, I teach fundamentally sound strategies to help people Make More Money… In Less Time… Doing What They Do Best.
• I help Employees, Entrepreneurs & Business Owners create a sustainable 3-Day Weekend lifestyle.
• Insurance Agency Owners follow my strategies for sales process implementation plus recruiting & accountability enforcement.
• I've been a successful software company founder and owner for over 20 years.

VOCATIONALLY & SPIRITUALLY...
I help people connect with the divinity within, so they can
1. Receive Guidance and Support from the Divine to Create the Life They Most Desire
2. Love Themselves the Way the Divine Loves Us
3. Love Others the Way the Divine Loves Us

AUTHOR, SPEAKER & COACH
I've led retreats and personal growth workshops, authored numerous books on spirituality, personal growth, finance, parenting, business growth & more.

MY BACKGROUND
Pulling from 15 years' experience as a productive employee and over 15 years as a software company founder & owner, corporate consultant, sales process implementation coach, accountability expert, recruiter of superstar talent, provider of mental health counseling (psychology) services, life coach and 3-day weekend entrepreneur - I teach others to create the life they most desire personally & professionally.

As a former Fortune 50 corporation software project leader and sales & management trainer, I've been a lifestyle solopre… Read More