Local businesses sign up for South Africa’s 4 day week pilot

Businesses are signing up for the 4 Day Week SA Pioneer Pilot, the country’s first trial of the four-day week beginning in February 2023. With the pioneer pilot’s sign-up deadline extended and a second pilot planned in 2023, interested parties now have more time to sign up.  

South Africa’s largest management and technology consulting firm, IQbusiness, announced last week that it will participate in the pioneer pilot program from February – July 2023. Among the forward-looking companies to join the trial are KLA, a full-service market research and insights consultancy; Big Beard Web Solutions, a web design and development company; Semco Style Institute South Africa, a business change maker; Licia Dewing, a career strategist; and Valuesmart Business Solutions, a cloud-based financial solutions provider. 

Together with digital marketing agency – Social Happiness – 3Verse takes the leap into the digital world. An innovative accounting and business advisory firm, Intigrate Business Solutions, as well as Nkwali Compliance Consultants have signed up to pioneer the four-day week. Social Impact Insights provides social impact planning and measurement services. Entrutech provides managed IT solutions. 

Pioneer pilot sign-ups will now be accepted until 15 January 2023. According to Karen Lowe, Director of 4 Day Week SA, participants will undergo a two-week intensive onboarding period before the trial begins in February.  

With growing interest in a reduced hour working week, a second pilot is being planned to  start in May 2023. “Smaller companies, and those in the professional services sector are  generally the early trialists of a four-day week, because it’s easier for them to make big  changes. But we are here to help all sizes of company, across different industry sectors, take  a carefully imagined approach to adopting this new way of working. We are actively recruiting  for the second pilot – providing further opportunity for organisations wanting to be part of  this groundbreaking workplace experiment” says Lowe. The deadline for sign up for the  second pilot is 28 February 2023. 

Research findings from trials across the globe are making a clear case for the four-day week.  Midway through the trial currently being run in the United Kingdom, most participating  companies say they have seen no loss of productivity during the experiment, and in some  cases have seen a significant improvement. Positive results from trials run in Ireland and the  United States (US) are expected to be released at the end of November.

The South African pilot participants will test out a new way of working recognized as a way to empower employees, enhance productivity, and positively impact society. Based on the 100-80-100TM model, the employee receives 100% of the pay, 80% of the time, in exchange for delivering 100% of the output.

What this means is that employees will receive 100% of the pay, but work 80% of the time, in exchange for a commitment to delivering 100% of the output. So instead of working a 40 hour week, you will work a 32 hour week, receive the same pay, and produce exactly the same as you did before.  The aim is to work smarter, not harder.

A growing base of South African organizations are supporting the four-day week as an essential part of the future of work, with the support of 4 Day Week Global, the experts running trials around the world.

All those interested in being part of this experiment, can do so by logging on to: www.4dayweek.co.za 

Participants in the 4 Day Week SA Pioneer Pilot have the following to say: 

IQbusiness (SA’s largest management and technology consulting firm) – “Trialling the four day week, and the data behind it, is something every leader needs to seriously consider in  their business. A reduction in working hours has been proven to increase business  productivity, improve employee health outcomes, while working towards building a more  sustainable working environment. This offers people the time and solitude to simultaneously  build stronger families and communities, while remaining fulfilled and successful at work. Our  participation in South Africa’s pilot is going to be enhanced by the supervision of respected  experts at the Stellenbosch Business School as we boldly embrace the future of business”  Adam Craker, CEO 

KLA (market research and insights consultancy) – “KLA is proud to be part of the four-day  week pilot in South Africa. As a world class insights consultancy we are committed to  contributing to a healthy and flourishing environment. We understand that modern day  pressures and changing value systems require a re-think of traditional approaches to work  and work life balance. Innovating to be better is in our genes. We are excited to be in a  position to take advantage of the opportunity to learn from the wealth of learning and  experience that this pilot will offer. Our aim it to discover more effective models of  productivity within which both our business, our clients and people can thrive.” Jenni  Pennacchini, Director: Business Solutions 

Big Beard Web Solutions (web design and development company) – “As part of a personal  2022 mission to be more organised, structured and consistent, I happened upon the pilot  programme. In chasing after the Big Beard Web Solutions “why”, the main motivation is to  adopt a people-focused approach in answer to our most pressing challenges.” Nathan L  Simons, Founder & Managing Director .

Semco Style (business change makers) – “At Semco Style Institute we believe, that, by  devolving power to employees, we’re able to create wiser companies – ones that are  simultaneously more productive and have a happier workforce. We believe that the 4 Day  Week movement plays a vital role in the creation of productive and rewarding working  environments. We are very excited to partner on Strategic Counsel level and to offer our  expertise in shaping the future of the South African work place together!” Christiaan Grové,  Partner & Co-Founder 

Valuesmart Business Solutions (cloud-based financial solutions provider) – “We’ve joined  the four-day week in the hope that we can improve the overall wellness of our staff. People  are the most important part of our business and if we don’t have happy people, we don’t have  happy clients. ” Willie van Dyk, CEO 

3Verse (advertising agency) – “When we founded the agency, one of the pillars the three  partners agreed upon was that family was all important. We had spent our careers at multi national agencies where ‘work hard, play hard’ was the ethos. We chose to separate the two  – work hard, then go home and play. Go play your sport, watch a movie, write your book, go  shopping, support a local band, be creative with dinner, and don’t be creative when helping  with your child’s homework. Good work happens because of great insight. To be insightful is  to live. To live you need to have a life beyond the office. Great ideas need not take time.  Wandering about and giving free rein to your senses does. The 4-day-week allows us to  indulge in the suburban cliché to ‘Live, Laugh & Love’ – fuel to work smarter, more efficiently  and with more insight.” Ivan Johnson, Creative Partner. 

Licia Dewing (career strategist) – “Working with established and emerging leaders across  industries to help them identify and attain their work for purpose includes defining a work/life  balance. Increasingly, my client base arrives at burnout before they know it, which means a  longer road to recovery to identify their purpose mission before they can get to do their best  work. Change is needed fast. The 4 Day Week is a universal answer to this conundrum.” Licia  Dewing, Founder. 

Social Happiness (digital marketing agency) – “I focus on promoting digital downtime with  my team, as we are in an “always on” environment, we look forward to new ways to promote  the rest we each need to reach better creativity sustainably for our clients.” Tamsin Haley,  Founder and Strategist. 

The OMG (business consulting firm) – Our clients demand quality over quantity. In  recognition of this reality, it’s fantastic to embark on an initiative that focusses us on  productivity and rewards us with the time to recover, and recharge, to be at our best to  deliver the best. Our uncommon sense proposition brings to the world, the counterintuitive 

power of better quality of growth. I encourage other companies to join us.” Mqondisi  Gumede, CEO. 

Social Impact Insights (social impact planning and measurement company) – “We are an  experienced team of senior consultants, researchers and facilitators starting a new social  impact company because we expressly want there to be coherence between our personal  values and lives and the work we do. The 4 Day Week pilot gives us the opportunity to think  collaboratively about how we structure our new venture so that we don’t exploit or burn out  ourselves or others.” Lebogang Shilakoe, CEO of Social Impact Insights Africa. 

Entrutech (Managed IT solutions provider) – “Happy Employees result in happy clients. At EntruTech we believe in creating the best environment for our employees and are proud to  be a part of this global initiative.” Chantel Cloete, Operations Manager. 

Intigrate Business Solutions (Innovative accounting and business advisory firm) -“At Intigrate we believe that our employees are the most important. We need a balanced life in  order to be productive and efficient. Together with other initiatives, we are eager to adopt  the 4 Day Work Week initiative!” Arno Kleingeld, CEO. 

Nkwali Compliance Consultants (governance risk and compliance consultants) – “As a company, we are moving towards a more productivity focused strategy with greater focus on  the output of our employees. We believe that the future of the workforce rests in employee  wellbeing. This is what has prompted us, as a company, to take part in this trial. We believe it  will have a meaningful and positive impact not only for the company but for its employees.”  Amandla Mkhwanazi, Director.