The 4-day work week in practice with ICE Group HR Manager Breann McGarry
This time on The Work Well Podcast we’re delighted to have Breann McGarry with us to talk about her role at ICE Group and the development of the 4-day working week initiative.
Since 2011, Breann has been part of the HR team at ICE Group, the first company in Ireland to introduce the 4-day working week back in 2019. Now a little over two years into this initiative, we talked about the impact it has had on the company’s productivity and wellbeing.
ICE Group in the words of HR manager, Breann McGarry
ICE Group are an award-winning recruitment, training, and outsourced HR and Payroll Business partner to many successful national and multinational organisations.
Founded in 1972, in Galway, Ireland, ICE Group has focused on providing their clients with human capital solutions, holding change and the never-ending quest for perfection as their ultimate goals. They have adopted the ethos and motto “Be bloody brilliant” as a way of work and their 4-day week is proof of it.
The 4-day week model, how does it work?
In 2019, ICE Group were planning for the future when they launched their trial of the 4-day week. Breann walks us through the process of making this initiative successful, which began with the director’s belief that there is more than one way to invest in an organisation. “What better way to invest in the organisation than in its people”, says Breann.
The logic behind this 4-day week model is that, as employees, people spend the majority of their time at work, and they are not spending sufficient time at home, at rest, or enjoying their free time with family, friends, hobbies, or other self-improvement activities.
Having only 4 consecutive days for work and 3 days to rest allows employees to fully recover and get back to the office more refreshed and ready to do their jobs.
What do these 4 days of work really look like?
ICE’s 4-day week changes the standard of an eight to eight and a half hour working day to a nine-hour working day. This translates to slightly longer days, but the actual hours worked are less, being around 36 hours of focused work per week on those four days.
The idea is to increase productivity and efficiency in all processes, and one of the challenges ICE’s team faced was keeping the service level and standards the same. Breann admits that the system isn’t always perfect, but the amount of people that report to work on the fifth day is a minuscule percentage.
Measurements of success for the 4-day week model
Breann explains ICE Group’s performance indicators to measure the initiative’s success. The model is in place for two years now and Breann assures us that this model is something that is here to stay thanks to the positive response they’ve received, which is evidenced by their performance indicator reports.
KPIs such as productivity, efficiency, customer satisfaction, and others are measured with a survey every six months. This data is then analysed to determine whether any changes or tweaks are needed.
Even during the pandemic, ICE’s team managed to continue the 4-day week model working from home, and now it is time to implement it in the post-pandemic context.
Adapting to hybrid work modalities
The term ‘hybrid’ has become quite popular lately as a potential working model for many organisations and Breann believes the type of hybrid model chosen will depend on the characteristics of each organisation and its capacity to successfully adapt to a new way of working.
“It's absolutely possible. But I think it depends on your organisation, your culture, what type of work you do, obviously. This sort of idea of working remotely won't work for everyone, necessarily.”
Apart from that, Breann has found that most people want to come back to the office in some capacity and this is an important consideration for companies looking at different hybrid solutions.. We’ve already proven that it works, but what is it that people actually want?
What’s coming next for the recruitment and HR industry
We are at a crucial point in time where the only thing we can be sure of is change and the HR industry is no exception. One of the recent consequences of the pandemic was a wave of career changes that has started to weigh on the recruitment sector, sometimes dubbed The Great Resignation.
Breann believes we are only in the middle of that change, as more and more people review their career opportunities over the coming months.
Time will tell what the future of work will look like but one thing is for sure, we’re going to hear a lot more about hybrid working and the 4 day work week over the coming years. Is your organisation ready to debate and embrace the changes that are coming?
If you’d prefer to watch our conversation, you can view it on YouTube through this link.
If you liked this episode and want to know more about ICE Group, you can visit ICE Jobs and follow them on Facebook.
Our Partners
This episode is brought to you in partnership with AJ Products who are leading the way in Ergonomic and Active workplace furniture solutions at ajproducts.ie
About Your Host
Brian Crooke is a wellbeing educator, speaker and adviser, empowering organisations to promote and sustain wellbeing within their workplaces.
He is the founder of The Work Well Institute and the Work Well Community and is Course Director of the Postgraduate Certificate in Workplace Wellness at Tangent, Trinity College Dublin. He is the host of The Work Well Podcast.
If you’re looking to bring sustainable wellbeing to your workplace then check out The Work Well Institute’s flagship programme, Developing a Workplace Wellness Programme that Lasts.
In his spare time, Brian is bringing free resistance training to every county and community in Ireland through his parkHIIT social enterprise.
If you have any suggestions for future topics you'd like to hear on the show, email Brian directly, brian@workwellpodcast.com