SOEs lead Indonesia’s shortened workweek experiment

To improve the wellbeing of employees and encourage better work-life balance, Indonesia has pushed ahead with the trial of the four-day workweek, first proposed by Minister of State-owned Enterprises Erick Thohir this March.

Over the next two months, Indonesia’s Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, through the Compressed Work Schedule, will allow employees to apply to work four days a week every fortnight. This will be eligible for employees who have worked a minimum of 40 hours in four days, have measurable work output and have their supervisors approve their request.

The four-day workweek trial will comprise of two key objectives: To find out if a shortened workweek increases employee productivity, and to identify managers who are effective in managing teams under a four-day work system.

Rabin Indrajad Hattari, Secretary of the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, highlighted, “The team may be working too hard, so the manager must be able to ensure that the team should have the opportunity to have a work-life balance, that’s the point.”

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Thohir, however, has previously emphasised that a shortened workweek is not a reason for employees to be lazy. Instead, it should be seen as an alternative employees can opt for twice a month. There has also been no indication if other government ministries will undergo a similar trial, although Thohir has suggested that Indonesia’s 41 state-owned enterprises, which hire about 1.6 million employees, can consider the four-day workweek, reported CNA.