In Sweden, the municipality of Gothenburg is experimenting with a project to reduce the number of working hours per day for a group of civil servants. The goal is to determine if working shorter hours could result in the same overall earnings and performance, by increasing productivity. The method has been proven in the second largest city in the country, at the Toyota company.
This is an experiment that many workers would certainly like to participate in: working less while earning as much. The municipality of Gothenburg is currently offering this opportunity to a group of civil servants in the elderly care sector. They work 6 hours a day while at the same time another group continues to work for 8 hours. The exercise consists of observing the performance of this test sample to know if by working less but better the workers retain the same level of productivity. The sector was not taken at random since today some overburdened employees would be considered inefficient.
On average, a Swede currently works 40 hours per week. According to the latest figures published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in 2012 the average Swede worked 1,621 hours in total. This is more than in the Netherlands, reputed to be the part-time leader at 1,381 hours, or France at 1,381 hours. But it’s also less than the United Kingdom at 1,654 hours or the United States with 1,790 hours.
Reducing workplace absenteeism
According to the experts, spending less time at work should contribute to reducing absenteeism. After one year the municipal authorities will analyze the data to find out whether a 6 hour day allows for savings by reducing the amount of sick leave. It will decide if the experiment should be extended or made permanent by also examining if test group participants improved their mental and physical health. Working less should however by matched by results to remain competitive against the competition. According to the Conference Board, an American business research organization, Sweden currently ranks 11th out of 61 countries evaluated in terms of wealth produced per hour and per person.
Towards the creation of new jobs?
Although the experiment is limited to the public sector for the moment, Mats Pilhem, a Gothenburg municipal councillor, is convinced that Sweden is moving to make shorter work days general. According to him the choice is explained by the fact that workers are undertaking longer and longer careers. It is now necessary to consider how to create a more humane environment in the workplace. Mats Pilhem also hopes to create new jobs like this in the future.
While not a new idea, the initiative by the mayor of Gothenburg has once again launched the debate. Opponents are up in arms against the proposal by taking as an example the mixed results produced by the 35 hour work week in France and Germany. Another argument in their favour is that the 6 hour work day was already experimented with in Sweden. For no less than 16 years, 250 employees of the Kiruna district council took advantage of it. The measure was abolished in 2005 without those behind it really being able to demonstrate its effectiveness.
The successful example of the Toyota plant
However, the project’s supporters predict savings over the long term with employees who take less sick leave over the years and are less fatigued as they approach retirement. They can also point to the success of the Gothenburg Toyota plant. On this site, the 6 hour work day was introduced in 2002 to make its facilities more profitable by dividing the work without breaking it up, between a morning shift who gave way to another shift in the afternoon. Given the results obtained, the company has let it be known that it is not planning to end the experiment. To the delight of its technicians…