Health insurance giant Medibank to trial four day work week in Australia

One of Australia’s largest health insurers is preparing to trial a shorter working week for employees.

Medibank is preparing to become the latest company in Australia to trial a four-day working week for its staff, with the time off being branded a ‘gift’.

By the end of October, 250 Medibank employees will switch to a 100:80:100 model in 80 percent of the cases, or 100 percent of the salary, at 100 percent productivity.

The trial will last six months, after which it will be re-evaluated and then scaled up to the wider organization of almost 4,000 employees.

The insurance company has described the time off as ‘a gift’ for employees (stock image pictured)

This move follows other major Australian companies such as Oxfam and Unilever.

Bunnings has also offered a four-day working week, but staff will still have to work 38 hours within the shorter period.

The four-day working week is a global push to change long-entrenched working hours, with success already seen in other countries such as Sweden, Spain and Belgium

Medibank’s full-time employees get one full day off, while part-time employees get pro-rata time off.

The insurer describes the leave as ‘the gift’.

“I think it’s important that it is seen as a gift,” Chief Customer Officer Milosh Milisavljevic told The Sydney Morning Herald.

“It’s a privilege, not a right, because it takes work to make it happen and continued work to sustain it, and the teams really enjoyed this gift.”

It’s understood that several teams across the organization, including frontline customer service, have begun participating in workshops to assess their workloads and eliminate low-value or time-consuming tasks such as meetings and emails.

The shorter working week is one of several initiatives underway at Medibank, collectively titled ‘Work Reinvented’, and aims to challenge traditional working practices and increase productivity.

Mr Milisavljevic said a large number of employees expressed interest in taking part in the trial, but Medibank opted to hold the trial on a smaller scale before expanding it to the wider organisation.

“Many of the teams trialling the four-day week are the ones who were really early adopters in the wider Work Reinvented experiment,” he said.

‘They’re already questioning the way work is done, testing different things, and so they were a little more willing to delve into the complexity and possibilities of the four-day working week.

In May, retail giant Bunnings announced a trial of a four-day working week or a nine-day working week

‘It is not best for us to actually work on ideas and suggestions. The process is designed in such a way that the teams can design, discover and learn for themselves.’

The trial against Medibank follows an announcement in May by Wesfarmers-owned Bunnings to trial different working models, such as a four-day or nine-day week, in a first for the retail industry.

Anti-poverty charity Oxfam Australia is said to be the first company in the country to test the 30-hour working week, which will be introduced in March next year.

Oxfam Australia CEO Lyn Morgain said “human capital is precious” and companies should explore different models that promote good workplace culture.

Last November, Unilever, maker of Australian homewares Dove, Rexona, Surf, Omo, TRESemmé, Continental and Streets, announced it would extend the 4-day work week trial to its Australian operations, following an 18-month trial period in Unilevers New Zealand. activities.

In December 2020, Unilever New Zealand introduced a four-day working week in a successful 18-month trial.

The New Zealand pilot found that 67 percent of employees reported better work-life balance, while stress decreased by 33 percent and absenteeism decreased by 34 percent, all while meeting business and revenue targets.