NEWS RELEASE
COMMUNITY BUILDERS
*************************
Community Builders is the leading not-for-profit, construction-based social enterprise in Simcoe County and Greater Sudbury. Providing training, employment, and affordable housing to meet the growing needs of their community’s most vulnerable and at-risk populations.
Community Builders has just implemented a new four-day work week pilot program as a way to improve the overall health, happiness and productivity of our people and the organization. We have always believed in a work-life well-being ethos and while this talk generally seems to be reserved for office jobs we hope to prove this can work in the construction industry as well.
Studies show that organizations can be even more productive and profitable within a four-day work week. The increased employee health and happiness that comes from an additional day to be with family, schedule personal appointments, pick up a new hobby, exercise or work around the house all equates to more productive hours and better planning of the work days.
Community Builders’ co-founder and CEO reported that employees were all part of the process in determining how this pilot will look and how it will be measured, and that there is autonomy and accountability built into this plan for the best chance of success.
“It was really important to me that our whole team be part of the decision making process for what this four-day work week could look like and how we would collectively ensure its success for not only ourselves but our clients and stakeholders.”
“There have been variations of four-day work weeks like this done successfully in many other countries and industries for decades, but we don't see it being done too much in North America or in construction,” Day comments. “However, the future of work is changing and we want to be on the cutting edge of that in Ontario.”
Over the next six months, Community Builders will test its theory as they begin their journey to see if a three-day weekend will result in improved health, happiness, and productivity. The organization will be working Monday through Thursday and will be closed for a dedicated three-day weekend on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. This pilot bolsters our “nothing wasted” culture. We don’t waste time, materials, resources or lessons learned.
Community Builders’ hopes to have positive results to share as they track the data and feedback over the next six months, and they are happy to share this information with anyone who’s interested. It’s anticipated that the plan may need to be tweaked here and there, but the organization is excited about this innovative pilot. Some of the metrics tracked will include employee health and happiness, customer satisfaction, productivity and profitability.
The construction industry has been in need of a renovation for a long time; people are no longer willing to work 60 hours a week, get yelled at, and feel unappreciated.
People are craving purpose, flexibility and a little autonomy over their own lives.
“Our work is important, and just to be clear, work is a good thing! Work is how we provide for ourselves and our families, it's how we use our gifts and talents to serve our community and it's part of a fulfilling life,” says Day. “However, we need a more holistic look at what a fulfilling life looks like making sure we are not out of balance with our other needs, goals and priorities. Once we give ourselves permission to look at work differently, we can see the scales are off and that overwork is not achieving what companies think it is for their bottom line. Overwork can create bad company culture and is less productive, causing workers to be less engaged, feel unvalued, and burned out.”
After two-plus years of living through this pandemic people have seen significant damage done all around in every other area of heath and wellness: mental, physical, emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual, occupational and financial to name a few. People are starting to understand and value how important a full and healthy life is and that being healthy is not just a lack of getting a virus.
“If COVID has taught us anything,” says Day, “it’s that we can work differently and that we’re capable of balancing our priorities when given the opportunity and trust to do so. We can care about our work and still make ourselves, our families and our community a priority.”
*************************
