STAFF at a UK. business are to see their working days cut from eight hours to six – with no loss of pay.
Bright Horizon Cloud Accountants is emulating the example of some Swedish employers in cutting the working week.
The idea has been gaining popularity in Scandinavia as a way of improving productivity and increasing staff wellbeing.
The accountancy company already offers flexible working but says cutting the day could help motivate staff.
Company director Emily Hyland, who founded the business, said: “We are a modern breed of accountants and as such our business practices should follow suit.
“We are hoping that this new policy will mean that we can recruit top people, reduce sick days, improve staff morale and productivity. However admittedly, we are taking a bit of a gamble."
The average number of hours worked per week in the UK stands at 43.6, compared with just 30 under the new arrangement at Bright Horizon.
The U.K. based company, which already has a “no suit and tie” policy, uses cloud technology to work with clients anywhere in the country.
It decided to try shorter working hours after reading reports that the idea improved morale and profits in Sweden.
It is recruiting for several staff and all roles will include a 30-hour week and flexible working.
Bright Horizon, based at Airfield Road, was set up last year by Emily Hyland to offer a “modern accounting solution to businesses”.
Sweden is said to be moving towards a standard six-hour working day.
Toyota service centres in Gothenburg are said to have reported improvements in staff retention and recruitment, as well as a rise in profits. A retirement home in the same city has introduced a six-hour working day for nurses in an experiment that will run to the end of the year.
Other employers across Sweden, including hospital departments, are trying the same change.
Long working hours have been linked with increased risk of strokes and heart diseas
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here