A Co Tyrone manufacturing firm is one of the first across Northern Ireland to adopt a four day working week – with a company director citing work-life balance as the key to the decision.
Employees at Tyrone Fabrication, which employs more than 100 people across its Ballygawley and Coalisland sites, have already seen the change at their plants.
There has been debate in companies across Northern Ireland and further afield about the benefits of having an extra day off at the weekend, and Antain McDermott from the Co Tyrone company says he believes it will make workers more productive and happier in their jobs.
“For us the primary focus really was to keep the staff happy” Antain told MyTyrone.
“There is some research to suggest that it will help productivity to have longer days as opposed to longer weeks.
“If you have a happy workforce they are productive anyway. Employment is an issue as well at the minute in the construction and engineering sectors, it’s really hard to get staff and it’s really hard to get good staff.”
Recruitment has been an issue for many specialist companies, particularly since the arrival of Covid 19, and Tyrone Fabrication are in the midst of a recruitment drive currently, with the four day week a significant benefit the company wants to shout about.
“I think everybody would like to have that extra day at the weekend, we had a few interviews with some of the staff and everybody came to the same conclusion.
“Whenever people come back in on a Monday morning you’re starting back well rested and raring to go.
“They have had their three days off, and had a long weekend every weekend so when they come in on Monday they are happy to come back to work and ready to come back to work.
“Looking at it from a staff point of view, you get home from work on a Friday and you do the bits you have to do, then you’re into Saturday and once that’s done you start thinking about going back to work.
“I think that work-life balance is important, and for us it all comes back to happy staff being productive staff.”
