The nine-to-five Is Dead. Here’s What to Replace It With

It’s no secret that the covid pandemic has had a huge impact on the way that businesses are run - but there’s also been a switch in the way that people, and HR leaders, approach work. Employees have had time and space to reassess their lives and a lot of them have found they much prefer the work-life balance that remote models have created. Some of this attitude is at the core of the ‘Great Resignation’ trend that we’re seeing creeping closer to our shores.

As we start to see the pandemic in our rear-view mirrors, and return to a version of normalcy looks imminent, it’s time to assess what HR has learned from the last two years - and how we integrate that into leadership moving forward.

“As a business, I don’t think we will ever go back to that traditional model of nine-to-five, five days a week,” Robert Stone, chief people officer at global marketing agency Wunderman Thompson, told HRD. “People have assessed what’s important to them in life, and that’s work-life balance and wellbeing.”

The marketing and advertising industry has a turnover percentage in the mid to high thirties. Wunderman Thompson is tracking significantly lower than the industry standard over the timespan of the pandemic – something Stone is certifiably proud of.

Through this situation

“Through this situation, I think employees saw the true colour of businesses, of how they treated their people,” he added. “Employers that may not have handled it the right away are still feeling the repercussions. We had to re-educate our managers to think, it’s all new - how do we work through this? In the beginning, a lot of people tried to remotely replicate culture from what was in an office environment. However, we eventually had to look at things in a different way and redefine what culture is to a workplace.”

The traditional nine-to-five work schedule is becoming increasingly obsolete as more companies adopt flexible, remote work policies. This shift away from the traditional workday has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced many companies to adopt remote work as a necessity.

One approach that companies are taking to replace the nine-to-five schedule is the implementation of flexible work arrangements. This can include options such as remote work, flexible hours, and job sharing. These arrangements allow employees to work from anywhere and at times that best suit their needs, which can lead to increased productivity and job satisfaction.