The 10 Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week

The four-day workweek has been making headlines. Countries around the globe — including the United Kingdom, Spain, Canada, and the United States — are partnering with businesses to trial a shorter workweek. Proponents, often pointing to a successful pilot program in Iceland, say the change will improve employee well-being without any loss to productivity.

Senior executives, however, aren’t ready to bite. A recent survey by Gartner found that only 6% of company leaders have implemented or plan to offer a four-day workweek to their employees — even at a time when such a policy would surely help lure workers to open roles in an extremely tight labor market.

Senior leaders, it turns out, are still concerned about productivity. How can employees finish all their work in less time?

Enter Brandon Busteed, chief partnership officer at Kaplan. In an article for Forbes, he suggests that leaders may be “missing the point” when it comes to productivity. “Our gap in productivity,” he writes, “is less about workers slacking off or not working enough and more about simply not having people who are trained or qualified for a particular role.”

Brandon goes on to propose a solution that he thinks will satisfy both rank-and-file employees and leaders alike: a “4 + 1 workweek” that reduces workloads and closes the productivity gap with upskilling. “For some employers,” he explains, “it may literally be four days of work and one day of learning/training per week.”

Intrigued? Skeptical? To learn more about the “4 + 1 workweek,” be sure to check out Brandon’s piece at the top of our list below of must-read articles for talent professionals.

Here are the must-read articles from this week:

1. Why the ‘4 + 1’ Workweek Is Inevitable (Forbes)

2. Google Has a Secret Interview Process . . . and It Landed Me a Job (The Hustle)

3. Why Women Have to Sprint into Leadership Positions (BBC Worklife) 

4. New Research into Gen Z Suggests Updating Hiring Practices (ERE)

5. More People Are Heading Back to the Workplace, But That Doesn't Mean They All Like It (CBC)

6. How COVID Did Away With the Sick Day (The New York Times)

7. Stressed, Sad, and Anxious: A Snapshot of the Global Workforce (Harvard Business Review)

8. A Guide to LGBTQ Terms for the Workplace (HR Dive)

9. This Summer Will Decide Remote Work’s Fate. A White House–Predicted COVID Wave This Fall Could Render It Moot (Fortune)

10. 17 Tips to Increase Your Number of Job Applicants (LinkedIn Talent Blog)

This week’s must-listen podcast:

How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company (The Digital HR Leaders Podcast)

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