This sound is generated automatically. Let us know if you have any feedback.
Dive Brief:
- The logistics and transport company Fuel Transport has moved some staff to a 35-hour work week no compensation changes, the company announced Tuesday.
- The change makes Fuel one of the few organizations in the US to standardize work weeks below the traditional 40-hour work week. The change is intended to give workers “more flexibility, autonomy and everyone’s most cherished resource: time,” the company said.
- In an email to HR Dive, a Fuel representative said the 35-hour workweek provision does not apply to the company’s truck drivers or front-line employees. Separately, Fuel said it is now offering 12 weeks of paid parental leave to all U.S. parents, as well as increased vacation days for all regular, full-time employees effective January.
Dive Insight:
The shortened work week has been a topic of intense interest in recent years, with the most common alternative to the 40-hour week it’s the four-day work week.
What may have once been a fringe idea is gaining some traction. a 2023 Resume Builder survey of business leaders found that 20% said their companies had a 4-day work week, and 41% had plans to implement the policy. But most companies that had implemented a four-day work week said not all full-time workers were eligible to take advantage of the policy.
A recent pilot program of 4-day work weeks resulted in mostly favorable reviews from participating organizations, according to 4 Day Week Global. The concept of shortened work weeks has even gained some political attention, with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., introducing legislation last month to establish a standard 32-hour work week; in the USA
In a suspension Accompanying Tuesday’s announcement, Fuel said its 35-hour work week has already led to improvements in efficiency, work-life balance and employee appreciation.
“This is more than a one-time trick or a fleeting gesture of appreciation for our employees,” Fuel said. “We are actively changing the way the modern logistics worker is treated, and the 35-hour work week is just the beginning.”
But some in the HR industry have warned against it conscious steps must be taken in order to make shortened work weeks the new standard. A 2023 analysis by The Josh Bersin Co. and the Work Time Reduction Center of Excellence found that such models should be created by measuring work outcomes rather than time-based metrics, enhancing employee focus on productivity and enhancing flexibility as well as employee autonomy.
Fuel’s expansion of paid parental leave, meanwhile, is the latest in a long line of similar announcements by employers across a wide range of industries. Even organizations operating in traditionally male-dominated sectors have added such benefits, while others continue their support for caregivers establishment of back-up care benefits;.