Family Resources champions 32-hour work week

What if you could work four days a week and get paid the same amount?

Since last July, that’s been the practice for the Quad Cities nonprofit Family Resources, which shifted to the 32-hour work week for all its 153 total employees. It’s an option that’s being put in place worldwide.

“It was watching trends and part of our strategic plan is to be the nonprofit employer of choice,” Family Resources CEO Nicole Cisne Durbin said Thursday. “There’s only so much you can do with funding and salaries. We were working quite diligently on other ways we could support our employees, knowing the work they do is very difficult.

“You’re working with trauma victims on a daily basis,” she said of the social services agency that’s been around since 1849. Durbin has worked for them 17 years, and has been CEO since October 2019.

They researched the issue even before COVID hit in early 2020, which changed the landscape of work for everyone. Family Resources implemented an entrepreneurial operating system, to become more lean and efficient, and maximize employees’ time. Durbin led studying that for a year, and tried to poke holes in it.

They wanted to streamline things from the top down.

Family Resources runs a 24-hour shelter for victims of violent crimes, as well as a 24-hour crisis center for youth with mental health issues. They also respond 24/7 to hospitals and police stations if needed in its five-county service area in Iowa and three counties in Illinois.

Most other programs offer an on-call phone number if clients are in need, as well as a 24-hour crisis line, Durbin said. Those employees work staggered shifts, and Family Resources added a few employees to staff the shelters round the clock to adjust to the 32-hour week.

Employees have the option of taking off Monday or Friday. If they’re an hourly employee, they do not qualify for overtime pay until they hit 40 hours a week, Durbin said.

“It’s about offering flexibility, not rigidity, especially for our hourly employees,” she said. “To have those extra eight hours in the week to take care of family, their own self-care, it was really important.”

Of the total split, it’s now half and half in people taking off Monday or Friday. None of the salaries or benefits changed with the schedule shift.

National impact

Durbin did a lot of research when planning the change. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, has proposed employers nationwide take up the four-day work week.

Given advances in automation, robotics and artificial intelligence, Sanders says U.S. companies can afford to give employees more time off without cutting their pay and benefits.

Critics say a mandated shorter week would force many companies to hire additional workers or lose productivity, according to the Associated Press.

Sanders says the worktime reductions would be phased in over four years. He held a hearing on the proposal last month in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, of which Sanders is the chairman.

One study of British companies that agreed to adopt a 32-hour workweek concluded that employees came to work less stressed and more focused while revenues remained steady or increased.

In 2022, a team of university researchers and the nonprofit 4 Day Week Global enlisted 61 companies to reduce working hours for six months without cutting wages. Afterward, 71% of the 2,900 workers said they were less burned out and nearly half reported being more satisfied with their jobs.

Meanwhile, 24 of the participating companies reported revenue growth of more than 34% over the prior six months. Nearly two dozen others saw a smaller increase.

“The majority of employees register an increase in their productivity over the trial. They are more energized, focused and capable,” Juliet Shor, a Boston College sociology professor and a lead researcher on the UK study, told Sanders’ Senate committee.

Critics say a 32-hour workweek might work for companies where employees spend most of their time at computers or in meetings, but could be disastrous for production at manufacturing plants that need hands-on workers to keep assembly lines running.

Some QC manufacturers have switched to four-day work weeks, of 10 hours a day, according to the Quad Cities Chamber.

“These are concepts that have consequences,” Roger King, of the HR Policy Association, which represents corporate human resource officers, told the Senate committee. “It just doesn’t work in many industries.”

Over the past year, 4 Day Week Global has conducted extensive research, revealing the positive outcomes of companies participating in their 4-day week trial programs across multiple countries, including the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Portugal, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.

Additionally, trials in Brazil and Germany continue to yield impressive results, showcasing significant reductions in stress, burnout, and fatigue, according to the organization. Notably, participants also experience enhanced business performance, including increased retention rates and decreased absenteeism. The organization has recently launched its partnership network, with plans for pilots on all continents in 2024.

More time with family

Family Resources gave staff a year to plan before the schedule change. Durbin created an FAQ document for employees. Some people were resistant to the change or nervous.

“The generations entering our workforce now want more flexibility and want more time with their family. We can’t ignore that,” she said. “I think COVID changed all our thresholds for stress and what we can handle, almost permanently.”

“I really believe that working less is going to make happier, healthier employees and provide better services for our community,” Durbin said.

The change has helped attract more applicants for open positions and resulted in the highest employee satisfaction survey results in years, she said.

“It can work and it really does make happier, healthier employees, as long as you have people who are bought into it and help manage your time to make it work,” Durbin said.

Reducing hours does not make it more financially challenging for the nonprofit, since it’s always challenging to run a nonprofit, she noted.

Personally, Durbin enjoys having her time off Mondays, and spending more time with her 11-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son.

“It did take some adjustment, for the first couple months,” said Mary Egger, development director. “You have to be deliberate on the time you spend on work. It’s prioritizing.”

Egger (who lives in Davenport) has an 18-year-old daughter who’s graduating from Assumption High School and a 13-year-old son who plays baseball, and travels to games out of state.

“I have so much more freedom to be able take the time off and go to those things, without having to use my vacation time,” she said. “None of our holidays changed, so we have the same number of holidays.”

If there’s a holiday on a Monday or Friday, the staff only has to work three days that week.

“We’re planning graduation parties now. I think Family Resources is really just a flexible employer, so when things do come up, I’m able to give the time and put my family first,” Egger said.

“You don’t always make as much money as a for-profit job, but those benefits really make it worth it, I mean honestly,” she said. “It’s worth money to have the time off.”

“Truly, the flexibility here is like nothing I’ve ever experienced in a job,” Egger said. “It’s really nice.”

Interest from other employers

Durbin has spoken about the issue to the new Quad Cities Center for Nonprofit Excellence (of the QC Community Foundation), and was honest about challenges they’ve had, and their research.

“I hope lots of employers consider it,” she said. It may appropriate for other nonprofits and crisis responders.

“When you do the type of work that our folks do, and you sit across from folks who’ve gone through extraordinary trauma, and you do that five days a week, it wears on you,” Durbin said. “We know we have a high burnout and that’s why.

“Giving somebody an extra day, so they can decompress, they can deal with their life and come back to work ready to do, is important,” she said. “I think it makes sense for anybody who thinks it would make a happier, healthier workplace, to consider it.”

Employers could also just reduce hours to 34 or 36 a week, to phase it in, Durbin noted. “A little bit goes a long way. Try it with one group of employees and see how it works.”

Moving offices too

The change occurred four months before Family Resources moved their headquarters from the Annie Wittenmyer complex on Eastern Avenue, in November 2023.

The move was necessary in part one of their buildings on the campus flooded after a water main break in December 2022, Durbin said. They had seven feet of water in their most densely used building, on the south side of campus.

Family Resources was in five buildings at Annie Wittenmyer, and still maintains its crisis stabilization residential center (eight beds) for youth and a donation drop-off center there. They also had struggled with parking there. They have other offices in Moline, Muscatine and Clinton.

“We were operating in buildings designed for residential group living,” Durbin said. “We began the journey of saying we’re moving all our community services and administrative offices.” They maintain only about five staff at Annie Wittenmyer.

Family Resources moved to 1414 W. Lombard St., Davenport (a former Genesis-owned ORA clinic and COVID clinic) about 22,000 square feet, with over 60 employees, many of whom work in the community.

New development leader

The nonprofit is looking to hire a chief development officer, a new position (paying $90,000 a year) which would oversee Egger’s job. There are currently three development staff, to raise funds for Family Resources.

“The more people you have, the more money you can bring in,” she said, noting that will help Family Resources serve more people. Egger says their funding comes from state and federal government grants, the community, local foundations and Birdies for Charity.

“I’m really excited to grow our team,” Egger said. “It’s more people we can help, that’s our number one priority.”

Their major fundraiser is “Raising Hope,” which will be Aug. 29 on the Celebration Belle. The first one they had last year raised $150,000.

Durbin said Family Resources impacts about 80,000 people a year, including answering 16,000 crisis calls. In 2023, it served 3,522 clients with free, confidential services for survivors of domestic abuse, sexual abuse, human trafficking, homicide, and other violent crimes.

Family Resources offers employee paid time off options:

• 8 to 16 hours of PTO every month to accrue based on education/experience plus a rollover of PTO every year up to 320 hours.

• After 10 years of full-time employment, they pay you to take 320 hours off to rejuvenate and not use any paid time off options.

• 12 paid holidays.

The longevity leave (of 320 hours or eight weeks) is essentially a sabbatical, Durbin said. “There are requirements that need to be in place in order for someone to take this time off, but it’s to help support the folks who have worked here a long time and need a chunk of time to refresh and come back ready to keep going.”

A complete list of current openings can be found HERE. For more information on Family Resources services, click HERE.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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