Municipality of French River looking at four-day work week

French River -

The Municipality of French River is proposing a pilot project that would see its 10 administrators work four days a week, but still work the same amount of hours.

If approved by council at the next meeting, staff would work either a Monday to Thursday or Tuesday to Friday schedule.

In turn, it would allow the municipal office to be open longer for citizens.

“The primary idea we looked at was to make sure there was no decrease in municipal services," said Marc Gagnon, Municipality of French River CAO.

"By working the extended hours four days a week, we’re actually extending our work hours from 4:30 to 5 p.m."

That would help residents who can't make it to the office by 4:30, Gagnon said.

"So we’re extending our office hours by two and a half hours (a week), which is great news and actually no cost implications to the budget process,” he said.

Officials said say they got the idea from other small communities in southern Ontario, including the Township of Zorra.

“Employees are really happy with it,” said Don Macleod, Township of Zorra CAO. "We did have to make a few tweaks throughout the year."

Those tweaks include ensuring phone calls are returning properly and ensuring "that we have the right staff in the office five days a week to make sure that we have the support, to get permits out, or just making sure that we’re getting our work done," MacLeod said.

He said they were able to offer public works staff the new work week in non-winter winter months. Other departments were included, too.

"Recreation staff, we gave them the option and they choose the more traditional flex hours rather than having a set four-day work week," MacLeod said.

Better work/life balance

"Our HR policies here are fairly progressive and staff have a good chance to get a better work/life balance.”

The township will wrap up the pilot program at the end of this year and staff are eager to get a report back from Western and York universities to see what employees thought of the change.

Meanwhile in French River, if the pilot project is approved it will begin in January and run until September. Gagnon said participation is voluntary and staff are willing to work with administrators to find what works best.

“There was positive comments all around the council chamber," said French River Mayor Gisèle Pageau.

"Our first priority is our staff, so we want to make sure that they’re happy. This could be something to attract more people to our region when we have positions that become vacant."