Decreases in birth rates have become a global concern. The problem has reached such a dimension that it has even reached countries that in the past had applied birth control policies, such as China. Now, research has revealed one of the possible solutions for China to regain its pace of population growth: implementing hybrid work and the four-day work week.
Too long days. According to the November 2024 report of the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the average working time of employees in companies across the country is 48.9 hours a week. With this figure, the working day in China shows its tendency to lengthen since in 2019 it was 46.7 hours.
With such days, it is not strange that Chinese citizens are exhausted even finding a partner, much less thinking about having to take care of their offspring. “They barely have time to rest, much less energy to think about dates,” Wu Ruoshi confessed to SCMP28 years old
A study found the key: more free time. Researchers from Stanford University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Peking University have studied the application of labor flexibility models to the Trip.com Group workforce in China. The study has analyzed the impact of a hybrid shift on profitability, productivity and, incidentally, on the increase in birth rates among its employees.
“Family balance has become a very important issue for many countries, including China. We are all facing the crisis of low birth rates. We are constantly exploring how to allow our employees to have a more flexible schedule and organize their family life “said Trip.com President James Jianzhang Liang in a speech at the company’s global conference in Abu Dhabi.
Teleworking does not affect productivity. In his study published in Natureresearchers observed the performance of 1,612 Trip.com employees between 2021 and 2022 applying a hybrid workday, and compared the results with those of their colleagues with in-person workdays.
The result was greater employee satisfaction and retention, with no differences found in performance and productivity between in-person and remote employees. That is, by making the working day more flexible, employees were more linked to the company because they were able to reconcile their family responsibilities, and it did not have a direct impact on their performance.
They study the four-day work week. Given the evidence of the data offered by the study, Chinese companies are already considering changes to their working hours as a measure to improve their competitiveness in the labor market and as a measure of support for incentives for birth from companies, promoted by the Chinese government. “I hope that this hybrid working day model can be promoted to more employers,” said the Chinese manager.
The China-based company would be studying a model change in the workday of its 36,000 employees who, since the publication of the study, adopted the hybrid workday. Among the new proposals, the implementation of the four-day work week with 10-hour days is included, as published by the company’s CEO last December, inspired by the attempts in Tokyo and its implementation of the work week of four days to improve birth rate.
In Japan they already achieved it. This is not the first time that a change in a company’s working hours results in an increase in the birth rate of its employees. The Japanese company Itochu Corp eliminated the night work shift in its factories, and the result was an increase in the number of children of its employees, as published Bloomberg.
Birth trend of Japan, China and South Korea versus Itochu employees. Source: Bloomberg
With Japanese birth rates in free fall, the company repeated the experience after the pandemic, and in 2022 it allowed its employees to telework, applied hybrid workdays and more flexible schedule control. The trend of having more children continued among its employees. The measure was complemented by creating daycare centers for employees’ children near their offices.
In WorldOfSoftware | Working more than 60 hours a week is not healthy: Japan is beginning to learn it the hard way
Image | Unsplash (charlesdeluvio)
