D’Youville President Lorrie Clemo Talks Pros, Implementation of Four-Day Workweek
D’Youville College President Lorrie Clemo says she is embracing the future world of work.
On Jan. 3, the college started a six-month trial period of a 32-hour, four-day workweek with no reduction in pay or benefits.
“We are a knowledge economy and, as a result, I think people can work smarter, not longer and harder,” she said.
The four-day workweek applies to D’Youville’s 140 employees and library staff, but does not include instructional faculty. Total employment is 325 faculty and staff.
The college tried a shortened workweek during the pandemic to offer more flexibility to take care of children and family at home. That experiment went well, she said, which prompted a longer trial period.
Clemo said she expects the four-day workweek to offer a better work-life balance; help the college retain and attract more workers; reduce parking congestion; and help employees develop a broader skillset from the training program that’s required.
“We’re looking at what is best for the health and wellness of our employees and what their expectations of work will be in this sort of changed world of work,” she said.
With the shortened workweek, the college is using the scheduling change to expand daily business hours to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The path to implementation
Before switching to a four-day workweek, D’Youville first surveyed employees to ensure there was interest.
Next, the college sent out a template for managers and their staff to create work schedules, arrange business hours, manage workload with no disruption to services, identify work performance indicators and select training needed to meet those benchmarks. Employees were asked to explain how to shave off inefficient uses of their time so there could be a 32-hour work week. Then the template was used to create a plan, which went through modifications and sent back to departments to make changes.
D’Youville's IT department is starting with trainings on Microsoft Office365 collaborative functions and Google certificates for project management and data analytics. A D’Youville committee will evaluate and approve additional professional development programs.
The college will monitor the four-day workweek outcomes using a digital ticketing system that assigns, manages, assigns and reports workflow. Students will take a survey in May to assess the quality of D’Youville services.
“We are switching to a greater infusion of technology across our institution,” Clemo said. “This is one way to meet the expectations of employees and also bring the institution up to the technological levels we need to operate in for cost-effectiveness but also effectiveness in our mission.”