News
Greater Manchester firm adopts four-day working week so employees can ‘focus on themselves’
After seeing major success from a 2019 trial, the company has decided to make shorter hours a permanent fixture
A Greater Manchester-based company has adopted a four-day working week in a bid to give its employees more time to ‘focus on themselves’.
Belmont Packaging and its e-commerce sister business, Boxed-Up, both based in Wigan, initially trialled the four-day week in its manufacturing departments before the pandemic in late 2019 with the aim of ‘giving staff more time to focus on themselves, their mental health and their loved ones’ without any pay cut.
And, after the trial proved to be a major success, the company has announced that it will now be making the shorter hours a permanent fixture for its thirty-one staff members this coming week onwards, Business Live reported.
Belmont Packaging / Facebook
Commercial manager Gareth Rollo said on the new working hours: “As well as valuing our customers, business trade partners and suppliers we also value our biggest assets, the employees whose hard work, and the commitment and dedication that makes our business the success it is.
“In order to further recognise this, and to lead the way in employee health and wellbeing, we are delighted to announce an industry-leading change to ways of working which is intended to give our employees a better work-life balance while allowing us to continue giving our customers the first-class products and service they are accustomed to.”
This news comes just weeks after Scotland announced it would be trialling a four-day working week across a number of its sectors.
IPPR Scotland (the Institute for Public Policy Research) said the reduced hours would be handed to workers as annual leave entitlement, as more public holidays, or as parental leave for those who qualify.
The IPPR suggested a Low Hours Commission to help drive this forward, and a Scottish trial across sectors with the aim to see how this works in non-office employment, on lower pay, and among those with condensed or part-time hours.
Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon had previously promised to provide funding for Scottish companies to offer staff a four-day working week, as per The Independent.
She said: “Before the pandemic struck, many people were already worried about work-life balance. We want to do more to support people to achieve a better balance and help businesses employ as many people as possible.
“As part of that, we will establish a £10m fund to support willing companies to explore and pilot the benefits of a four-day working week.”