Four-day working week ‘could solve staffing issues’ at Bristol City Council

New ways of becoming a more competitive employer are being explored

A four-day working week “could solve staffing issues” at Bristol City Council by becoming a more attractive employer. The council has “huge recruitment issues” with a high number of vacancies that are often hard to fill.

The shift to a four-day working week is picking up momentum after a series of pilots across the country. Results from previous pilots suggest that productivity and staff wellbeing both improve, with higher retention rates and less sickness.

The council has a higher than average rate of sickness, and is increasingly struggling to keep hold of its staff. Councillors on the human resources committee called for major changes to working hours, on Tuesday, September 17, to make the council a more competitive employer.

Labour Councillor Zoë Peat said: “There are huge recruitment issues across the council. Prior to Covid we were a competitive employer. We offered flexible working and the ability to work from home, but then Covid came and that became standard across the board and in the private sector too.

“So why would someone with a career as a surveyor come to work for the council, for less pay and the same benefits in the private sector? What we need to start doing is looking at what’s going to be the industry standard in ten years, so that we can jump the curve and become a competitive employer again.

“The thing that comes to my mind immediately is a four-day work week for council staff. There’s numerous benefits to this. It would make us more competitive so we would spend less on recruitment.”

Over 6,200 people are employed by the council in a wide range of roles. Some teams, such as the operations centre which monitors cameras across Bristol, often work long hours despite government rules limiting working weeks to 48 hours, the Labour councillor claimed.

Cllr Peat added: “It was brought to my attention that some areas of the council are not working within the working time directive. On Temple Street is the emergency team, a team of about four people, and they are working 50-hour weeks. No wonder people aren’t staying if they’re working this much. It’s unsustainable.”

Plans to move to a four-day week could be explored as part of the new workforce strategy, an overarching plan to improve staffing, recruitment and retention among the council’s thousands of employees. Green Cllr Paula O’Rourke suggested piloting the changes in one council department.

She said: “I think we should really explore a four-day week, because that would give us the advantage that maybe we want from a recruitment point of view. The pilots that have been done have all been very positive. All these companies who have done four-day weeks, their productivity has held up.”