Small WA town adopts four-day work week to lure workers

A small country shire in southern Western Australia has found that adopting a four-day work week has almost solved the challenge it faces in attracting and keeping key workers. The Shire of Boyup Brook, 260km south of Perth, is six months into a trial of a four-day week for all full-time office workers, with plans to roll out the measure to outside crew next year.

Bid to attract workers

Boyup Brook chief executive Leonard Long said the shire needed to find ways to attract workers to the small town, which has a population of about 1,700 people. "Being in a regional area, it's difficult to attract staff in the first instance," he said.

Mr Long said the trial had already proved successful, with the shire able to recruit for a senior position it had been unable to fill before the trial. "He took it because of the four-day week," Mr Long said. "He did have other options to go to, which would have been closer to home and paying more."

A four-day week model that works

The shire has more than a dozen office staff, split into two teams, with each team taking either Monday or Friday off, allowing no disruption to services. Administrative officer Jimina Shaw-Sloan said working four longer days afforded uninterrupted time to work and meet outside usual opening hours. "I find it really good, just mainly for having some really solid blocks of time that you're not forward-facing to clients," she said.

Attracting staff in a regional area

WA Local Government Association president Mark Irwin said remote councils were trying different ways to attract staff, with nine-day fortnights also common. "Ninety per cent of local government reported a skill shortage in recent surveys we did," he said. "We see a lot of people who are effectively working remotely; I was talking to one shire where many of their staff were not only interstate, but even overseas."

Expert insights

Workplace and organisational behaviour expert Libby Sander said research into four-day work weeks internationally had shown positive results, including increased productivity. While a compressed five-day week had benefits, Dr Sander said it would likely not be as beneficial to staff as an overall reduction in hours each week. "It reduces that psychological pressure to keep working [on a day off], which we know Australians feel quite keenly," Dr Sander said. "That 'I feel like I'm slacking and there might be something my team is dealing with, that I need to deal with'."

Australian Services Union WA secretary Wayne Wood also noted that the Boyup Brook model was different from a "genuine" four-day work week, where employees work fewer hours with no loss of pay. But he welcomed the new approach. "We have long advocated for these types of flexible arrangements," he said. "Particularly for WA local governments facing challenges attracting and retaining skilled staff, especially in regional areas."