Four-Day Work Week Creates Stronger Workforce for The Morrison

Physical Therapist Assistant Christopher Reilly with a resident of The Morrison. (Courtesy photo)

While the pandemic was hard on many businesses, nursing homes felt it acutely. By early 2022, The Morrison, a nonprofit senior living community with two campuses in Whitefield that provides assisted living and memory care, was struggling to find enough candidates to fill its open positions, says Executive Director Shannon Lynch. “At the time we had 27% open positions,” she says. “Our entire second shift was filled with [temporary] agency LNAs and nurses, which was a huge expense.”

Knowing that was not sustainable, Lynch approached her board of directors about converting to a four-day workweek. “We weren’t really giving our staff the attention they deserved. A four-day work week was a means to attract new staff and achieve a better work life balance,” she says.

With the board’s blessing, Lynch put together an internal team to conduct extensive industry research and survey staff about job satisfaction, engagement, appreciation, and work-life balance. However, they could not find another similar facility with a four-day workweek and limited research was available about the impact on a health care setting that provides 24/7 care. They also found implementing a truncated workweek would require a 16% increase in their workforce to ensure enough staff to cover all shifts. Yet, Lynch believed a four-day workweek would attract enough candidates to cover the increase as well. 

“Taking a leap of faith was bold but it was the only thing we could do,” she says. “We focused on efficiencies. People could work 80% of the time and give us 100% of their effort by providing them a toolbox they could utilize to make them more efficient.”

An employee from The Morrison checking the blood pressure of a resident. (Courtesy photo)

For administrative staff that meant restructuring meetings to require a set agenda with start and end times and designating specific times people could be at their desks without being interrupted by others. It also meant establishing other staff members that people could see during those times.

The Morrison educated staff on better protocols around email. “Most of us would check our email throughout the day. I started checking my email twice a day. It was amazing how much more productive I could be checking twice a day rather than every 15 minutes,” Lynch says.

It took five months to fully transition to a four-day workweek, with full-time employees working a 32-hour week and paid the equivalent of 40 hours. Within six months, The Morrison went from 73% of positions filled to 95%. Over time the staff turnover rate has been dramatically reduced, Lynch says, and The Morrison, which has 180 employees, no longer needs staffing agency employees. “It’s so rewarding,” Lynch says. “The staff feel like they have that work life balance. We have gained more staff, happier staff, and more quality staff. A year ago, we would be lucky if got 20 applicants a month and now average 140. That allows us to really take our time in the interview process to hire quality staff.”

Lynch says while the four-day workweek is an important ingredient in The Morrison’s recipe for success, it is not the only one. The Morrison also increased wages to compete for staff with two area hospitals. It also  added incentives for its per-diem staff and invested in leadership training for its management team. “As much as we care for our residents, we equally care about the quality of life for our employees too,” Lynch says. “We gave people the tools they needed to do their jobs.”

For more information, visit themorrisoncommunities.org.