Prerequisites and risks analysis (X)

Before implementing the six-hour workday according to the requirements and following the plan of action, the following prerequisites and risks should be taken into account. In order to guarantee the greatest possible success of a pilot six-hour workday, meaning to be able to objectively and representatively identify outcomes and increase the chances of success, some prerequisites are applicable. There are also certain risks to the pilot six-hour workday that need to be taken into account. The prerequisites are different from the requirements, in the sense that the requirements apply to the implementation, while the prerequisites should be accounted for before the implementation.

First, regarding the legal feasibility, a six-hour workday seems legally feasible in two ways. The first option is a linear reduction of worktime via the CLA. This means that 30 hours per week is the new fulltime and all additional hours and rest need to be adjusted to this. The second option is granting extra days off via the CLA. This means, for the Municipality of Amsterdam specifically, 288 hours or 48 extra days off per employee. It is important for the Municipality of Amsterdam to thoroughly explore these options and make sure it is legally possible before designing the actual pilot.

Second, regarding the financial feasibility, the implementation of the six-hour workday requires an investment in order to cover the expenses. As calculated before, a six-hour workday would cost 910.000 per year for the Municipality of Amsterdam, due to the choices that are made regarding the requirements. This entails employee costs. These costs can be funded either by the organization alone, by

the employees alone through salary reduction, or by the organization and employees together. The employees could use their IKB for this, which would give them 144 hours off, while the organization would need to add another 144 hours. Next to costs, the six-hour workday could also have financial benefits, such as reduction of absenteeism costs and increased productivity, which should be tested. It is important for the Municipality of Amsterdam to determine whether this budget of 910.000 is available, and whether the IKB and additional hours are available as well, before designing the actual pilot.

Third, regarding the practical feasibility, the six-hour workday would be practically feasible if employees could perform the same amount of work in 6 hours as they usually do in 8 or 9, provided they are able to (1) work more efficiently or (2) receive support from additional employees. Hereby, it is important that job demand is principally in tune with the time available to employees for work. For knowledge employees to work more efficiently, the work will be evaluated with the teams before implementing the six-hour workday, and distractions will be eliminated. Distractions could be reduced by, for example, making two concrete working arrangements: (1) stay away from internal distractions such as social media, news websites, WhatsApp, interaction and checking the inbox and (2) eliminate external distractions such as unnecessary meetings. For production employees, additional employees could be hired to support them. This is needed for primary process employees, and possibly knowledge employees if it appears that, despite working more efficiently, they cannot perform the same amount of work in 6 as in 8 or 9 hours. It should be discussed in detail with the included teams whether and how the pilot can practiacally be realized, whilst in the process of actually designing it.

Fourth, it should be guaranteed that employees will not work more than 6 hours per day, in order to not distort findings. This way, effects can only be attributed to the six-hour workday and not to other factors. This could be guaranteed by tracking the time spent on their computer account. If an employee does work longer, for example if there is an emergency or if leaving work will negatively affect service, this should be recorded in order to be able to account for this while evaluating the findings. Data from time spent on the account can be evaluated in order to determine the actual worktime of employees.

Fifth, it is important to create an internal and external basis for support, since the six-hour workday will possibly provoke reactions from inside as well as outside the organization. A plan should be geared towards clear communication, via which channels, how employees and citizens can reach out if they have questions before designing the pilot further.

Sixth, a red button should be available in order to terminate the six-hour workday if there are certain consequences, such as problems incompletion of the work or bad service. This button can be used in order to go back to the 8- or 9-hour workday and restore the consequences. This could provide valuable lessons, after which the six-hour workday could be implemented again if the risk is accounted for that time. Note: some effects will be negative, such as job demand, which is not by definition a reason to terminate the experiment, as these findings are important for the evaluation of the six-hour workday, aside from positive findings.

Then, for the risks analysis, three main risks were identified upfront. These are purported to be the only risks; after implementation of the pilot other risks could be revealed as well. First, if it appears employees are not able to work more efficiently and thus not able to provide the same results in 6 hours as they used to do in 8 or 9 hours, productivity could go down. For production employees, this is expected and can be accounted for by hiring additional employees, while for knowledge employees, this can be managed by evaluating their work now and facilitating tools to eliminate distractions and work more efficiently. A decrease in productivity could have consequences for the realization of the work. This could be fixed by hiring additional employees, which will be done in advance for production employees. The other two risks involve the two possible negative outcomes of the 6-hour workday, namely increased job demand and disturbed communication and collaboration.

Second, another risk appears when employees are not able to work more efficiently but they have to meet their findings and therefore job demand increases. This is a possible outcome of the 6-hour workday. However, it should be determined when to use the red button because of job demand. This mainly affects knowledge employees. It could be accounted for by hiring additional employees. It is

important with regards to the production that, in principle, job demand is aligned with the time that is available to employees for work.

Third, when employees work less, there would possibly be less social interaction, which could negatively affect communication, collaboration and social cohesion. This is a possible outcome of the 6- hour workday. However, it should be determined when to use the red button because of communication and collaboration. This again mainly applies to knowledge employees, since these factors are crucial for them to perform their work. Long term effects are not known and could be researched, though this can be accounted for on short term by examining DigiWars, where short daily meetings maintained formal communication, and communal lunch maintained informal communication. If the prerequisites can be fulfilled and the risks can be managed, it is wise to start developing the pilot six-hour workday further.