Last Thursday [May 19], staff of TN Recruits were invited to a celebratory lunch decorated with ‘4’ balloons, to learn that they would get an extra day off a week from June 6.
It comes after one of the busiest years for the recruitment agency as the businesses in the area bounces back from the pandemic and are trying to fill record numbers of job vacancies.
In the six-month trial run, TN Recruits staff will add 30 minutes to each working day, and get one day off a week, meaning full-timers reduce hours from 37 to 32 – but staff will retain the same pay.
“The idea of it is that they get the same salary,” stressed agency director Neil Simmons. “It is important to us to ensure that our staff are happy. They will be able to enjoy their day off and do their hobbies, do their DIY, do their fitness, their life admin – whatever it is. They will be happier overall.”
A ‘buddy’ system will ensure that clients and recruitment candidates would be covered every day. At the same time, the office would continue be open during lunchtimes and ‘on hand’ for clients and candidates five days a week.
And in the email being sent to customers over the weekend and early this week, he urged businesses to be candid about any problems the change causes.
“One of the things we discovered from our research is that a three-day week will make things challenging, so we need to be consistent with the four-day week.”
The question of commissions was also ‘all in hand,’ he added. “There will be no concerns with that. Everyone will have the same amount of holiday and in addition an extra 43 days off per year with the extra day.”
The initial reaction from staff was ‘very good’, he said. “It went down very well.”
However, Neil said the company’s research had already pre-empted some potential problems.
“One of the things we discovered from our research is that a three-day week will make things challenging, so we need to be consistent with the four-day week.”
Bank holidays would be observed by the office, but, he said, ‘no one will have any other day off that week.’
For me, I will alternate between Monday and Friday off, so every other week I get a four-day weekend, which is nice!
“In 1926, Henry Ford introduced a five-day week, and at the time that was quite groundbreaking.”
