Press Releases

Budapest, February 13, 2024 16:00

In the summer of 2022, Magyar Telekom launched its pilot program to test the 4-day work week. During a unique experiment on the Hungarian labor market, the company studied the feasibility of a 4-day work schedule in a large company environment with the participation of 300 colleagues. Summarizing and considering the results of one and a half years of experience, it became clear that the 4-day model cannot be uniformly applied to all employees, so the company decided to close the project and continue to look for a solution that can ensure the improvement of work-life balance in a broad circle.

In June 2022 Magyar Telekom announced that it would test the feasibility of whether the same efficiency could be achieved with a 4-day work week - with unchanged basic salary and tasks - as with a 5-day week. The 300 colleagues involved in the experiment covered the whole company, working in areas dealing with customer service, technical fault repair, technology sales support, and SAP systems, according to the new work schedule. The most important goal of the experiment was to collect information, so they examined how the performance and mood of the colleagues changed each week, as well as analyzed the turnover of personnel within the test teams, the changes in sick leave, and the impact of the 4-day work week on recruitment and selection and on the employer brand. Over the course of a year and a half, the company's experts conducted more than 100 questionnaire surveys and nearly 50 in-depth interviews with colleagues, gathering data about the process.

After the initial positive feedback, the surveys revealed that during the long-term test period, not all areas and colleagues were able to perform their tasks with the same efficiency. While some of the colleagues solved the tasks without any obstacles during the more intensive 4 days, it became clear that the majority of them could not work efficiently in this model due to the nature of their work or their life situation. In addition, the long-term coordination of teams with mixed work schedules also posed challenges.

After a year and a half of testing, it became clear that it would not possible to introduce a solution that can be used uniformly by all employees, due to individual or work process restrictions, and the parallel operation of the 4-day and 5-day work schedule would represent business risks in the long run.In light of this, the company's management has decided to act responsibly and to close the pilot period of the 4-day working week on February 29, 2024, with continued effort to find a solution that can be undertaken by as many colleagues as possible and generally ensures an improvement in work-life balance.

" We are constantly looking for new directions, how we can find better and more efficient solutions, whether it is about serving our customers or organizing our work processes. We attempted the latter by testing the 4-day work week, which I think shows the extraordinary openness of our organization. We gathered a lot of valuable feedback and new knowledge during the test period, which we will close after a year and a half. In light of the results, we shall continue to work according to the traditional work schedule, but going forward we look for new solutions that support work-life balance and the satisfaction of colleagues ." - said Tibor Rékasi, CEO of Magyar Telekom.