Not a three-day week”, Cocone’s way of working, with Wednesdays free.
※This article is machine translated.
It has been reported that the government and the Liberal Democratic Party will add a three-day workweek to their proposed policy to deal with the declining birthrate.
The idea is to correct long working hours and to create an environment in which people can continue to work and balance work even if they have various circumstances such as childcare, fertility treatment, or nursing care.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has also long introduced the ” three-day workweek ” as a measure to realize diverse work styles.
Cocone’s unique alternative to a three-day workweek
Since its establishment, Cocone has been committed to ” building a good company, ” and one of the ways we do this is to “give time back to our employees ” Last year, we started ” 2.5-day workweek on a trial basis, and this year we introduced ” cocone my time / my day, ” a unique cocone system applied uniformly to all employees (regular and contract employees) as a measure to expand on this system.
Aiming at the wellbeing of our employees, we realize a variety of work styles. The following is an overview of this program and how it is utilized.
No reduction in salary. Wednesdays at your disposal.
Under the “cocone my time / my day ” system, Wednesdays in weeks when there are no national holidays are considered to be 8-hour workdays, and are “free to use other days in addition to work.
This would free up about 40 days per year to be used not only for coming to work or working remotely. For example, you can use them to spend more time with your family or run errands to the government office or hospital. We also encourage employees to spend time with their families, for example, by viewing art or attending seminars, and some members come to work on days when there are fewer meetings so that they can focus on their personal work.
Have a common understanding that it is freely available but not a vacation.
The supervisor can instruct you to come to the office, and when it is important to work together, such as during busy seasons or when a new service will start, we design this system in a way that gives you a lot of energy.For this reason, the system is not called a “three-day workweek.”
Since it is considered as time worked, there is of course no reduction in salary.
On the other hand, as far as labor is concerned, we have a fixed overtime pay system, but due to the nature of ” cocone my time / my day ” is regarded as time worked, the unit price of premium wages does not change. Since the prescribed overtime hours are rarely exceeded, the system for overtime work remains unchanged.
However, this is 40 days out of 365, and counting Saturdays and Sundays excluded, there are approximately 200 regular working days per year. We see this program as a challenge to balance the growth of our business and the return of time to our employees.
How do you spend your Wednesdays?
How are employees spending their Wednesdays since the introduction of “cocone my time / my day “?
Here is an example.
Visit hospitals and government offices: Complete errands that require weekday off, such as visiting hospitals and government offices that are closed on Saturdays and Sundays, or taking family members to the hospital.
Refreshment: Work remotely in the morning and use the afternoon for refreshment.
Input: Obtaining qualifications, attending seminars, and going to crowded museums on holidays.
Study meetings: Designers and engineers get together and hold study meetings. It is also an opportunity to interact with members of other departments.
Focus on production: Few meetings are held, so you can concentrate only on production.
Finally.
In light of the current cost burden in Japan in raising children, a decrease in salary, even with more time outside of work, could be a matter of life and death for many families.
In addition, among companies that are in the phase of growing their business, a full three-day workweek seems to be a high hurdle in terms of personnel and labor management, and there seems to be a situation where companies are hesitant to proactively introduce such a system.
We have launched the ” cocone my time / my day” program with these considerations in mind. We will continue to promote a good understanding of this system within the company, while establishing a unique Cocone way of working that considers the wellbeing of our employees.
Please see also this article.
- WEBニュースメディア「OneNews」インタビュー ：社員から愛される企業の「社員が働きたくなる環境づくり」とは？
- 家族のために、自分のために、自由に使える水曜日「cocone my time / my day」を2023年1月より導入
*Cocone is working on various systems through trial and error, based on our founding desire to return time, rewards, satisfaction, and health to our employees. We are currently considering the introduction of a different system to the one described in this article.
