Spooky Monday or Magic Monday? Tight labor market calls for 4-day work week. Globalnews.ca

Employees of mobile game developer Square Enix Montreal have “Magic Monday” instead of “Monday Scaries”.

The company established a four day work week Out of necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic but now, the policy remains in place to help the growing company retain workers in a competitive labor market.

“It started a year and a half ago and was meant to help employees deal with stress: working from home, homeschooling, all that work-life balance tackling that new situation of working from home,” Nathalie Gauthier, executive producer at Square Enix, tells Global News.

“Magic Monday” gives employees a holiday every other Monday, with no reduction in compensation. On Mondays when they are on the clock, the policy requires all meetings to be kept to a minimum to encourage maximum productivity with limited distractions.

“People love it a lot, so we decided to make it permanent,” explains Gauthier. “It’s definitely a bonus in terms of retention and acquisition of talent.”

Square Enix has grown from 50 to 150 employees in three years. Gauthier attributes this distinct advantage.

“It is also a way to put your money where your mouth is. We as a company always say that we put employees first and it is a very solid measure to be able to do that,” she said .

Canada’s tight labor market has sparked a war for talent and supporters of the four-day work week, from private firms to municipalities and politicians, say it is an important tool to retain and attract workers. . Companies across a wide range of industries are battling to hire and keep employees amid record-low unemployment and an unprecedented number of job vacancies. High Burnout Rate Driven by Pandemic and Great Rethink It is also prompting many people to leave their current role or job market altogether.

It follows a global trend toward a shortened or narrower work week that gained momentum this month as 3,300 workers from 70 companies across Britain began a pilot to test a four-day work week for half a year. Notably, this test, which is believed to be the largest of its kind in the world, does not include a reduction in pay and covers a wide range of sectors, including retail, software and financial services.

The four-day work week was unanimously flagged off by the council of the township of Zora in southwestern Ontario on the heels of its eight-month successful pilot in late 2021. Researchers from Western and York universities tracked the project and found that similar to large-scale trials in Iceland between 2015 and 2019, productivity remained the same or higher and satisfaction rates between workers and the customers they serve were higher.

At the time, Joseph Lyons, a political science professor and director of Western University’s local government program, said, “One possible lesson here is that organizations with good cultures and strong leadership are more likely to be innovative.”

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The study in the eastern city of London, Ont., was one of the largest trials of a four-day public sector work week in Canada. This included 30 employees of Zora municipality who worked 10 hours a day from Monday to Thursday or Tuesday to Friday.

Zora’s chief administrative officer Don McLeod said he continues to receive “weekly” calls about the project from municipalities and private businesses spanning B.C. to Ontario.

“That extra day just meant a world of difference. We got a more relaxed atmosphere at work. People seem to be more engaged and it seems our workforce is happier,” he said.

McLeod said the compressed work week has been instrumental in attracting and retaining senior employees and junior employees alike.

“Now we hear how difficult it is to recruit senior staff. We felt there was another tool in our toolbox for recruiting, but also for retaining key staff members,” he said.

“We now have some young staff members who have said they won’t go anywhere else who didn’t have a four-day work week.”

McLeod said on his Monday off that he usually takes his elderly father to medical appointments, running errands, playing golf in the summer or enjoying an extra day of downtime.

During this year’s Ontario election, the two major parties, the NDP and the Liberals, put a four-day work week on the table as part of their campaign promises. Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford was re-elected and his stance is that scheduling is best left to the private sector.

McLeod recognizes that compressed work weeks aren’t for every field, every type of employee. Zora’s four-day workweek mode doesn’t apply to all departments throughout the year. Public works workers are on a nine-day program every other Friday from April through October for spring, summer and fall. But when there may be snow to plow, they go back to the regular schedule for five months.

“We found that we were unable to make it one size fits all, but tailored per department,” he said.

Flexibility is important, and so is common sense.

According to a recent survey of Square Enix Montreal employees, most are using the extra day every two weeks to spread out chores over three days instead of Saturdays and Sundays. But others tell the company that from a mental health and wellness standpoint, it has been invaluable to relax.

“Play video games, do DIY projects,” Gauthier said. “It’s very, very admirable.”

She said a key policy implemented to ensure the ongoing success of Magic Monday is adjusting the production calendar to reflect the narrower work week. This took the burden off the full-time production schedule of the employees.

“Forcing workers to pay compensation for production would be counterproductive,” Gauthier said.

She knows firsthand what a four-day workweek can be a game-changer, especially for working parents who were disproportionately affected during the COVID-19 lockdown.

“As a mother of three kids, it has definitely been helpful for me with work-life balance. It gives me an extra day to work for my family and spend time with my girls,” she said.