GUEST OPINION by Lee Hawksley, President, Asia Pacific and Japan, UiPath: The change from the traditional five-day to four-day work week is a concept that has gained traction in recent years in a bid to improve workplace culture, promote work-life balance, increase employee satisfaction and retention, and boost productivity. Large Australian enterprises such as Bunnings Warehouse, Telstra, Unilever, and Medibank have tested this idea and achieved mostly positive results, with many more organisations expected to follow suit.
Correspondingly, a pilot program conducted by 4 Day Work Week Global, in which 26 companies in Australia and New Zealand joined in 2023, found 95 percent of organisations favoured the reduced schedule, resulting in employees feeling less stressed and more satisfied with their jobs.
But with this data suggesting a shorter work week is here for the long haul, and to some, the next iteration of the future of work, how likely are we to see the widespread adoption of a four-day work week sooner rather than later?
While its benefits are too significant to ignore, the answer is not so straightforward. According to Australia’s Productivity Commission, national productivity levels are at their slowest in 60 years, so Australia will need to carefully balance the desire for a four-day working week with the ability to boost productivity.
Paving the way to the four-day work week
Artificial Intelligence (AI) at Work is emerging as the solution that could help employees improve their productivity and enhance workplace engagement. This is because it lets employees find and analyse data more easily, respond to customer inquiries smarter and faster, and streamline repetitive, time-consuming tasks. At the same time, AI at Work tools enable organisations to provide, better, more personalised customer and employee experiences and realise financial gains as a result.
To achieve a four-day work week it is necessary to improve productivity. This is where AI at Work truly adds value. It is ushering in a new generation of workers – the Automation Generation. It represents the entirety of today’s workers who are embracing AI-powered automation to be more productive, collaborative, and creative. A recent article from McKinsey notes that “Generative AI could enable labour productivity growth of 0.1 to 0.6 percent annually through 2040.” But that’s just the start. By combining generative AI with other technologies like automation, there is the potential to add 0.2 to 3.3 percentage points annually to productivity growth, according to McKinsey.
This is further supported by a recent UiPath survey that found employees who already use business automation and AI at Work tools say it has enabled greater productivity (51 percent), more accurate work (45 percent), and enhanced job satisfaction (38 percent).
By shifting to AI at Work, embracing an automation-first mindset and paving the way for the Automation Generation, Australia can realise a four-day work week while achieving higher productivity levels. With AI at Work, the future of work is bright.