Every weekend is now a long weekend at Beroe

• Beroe Inc introduced four-day work week in May, 2017 
• Client deliverable continues to be topmost priority
• Co. continues to offer industry leading employee benefits

Thank God it’s Friday (TGIF) is one of the most recognizable phrases around the world.

Beroe Inc, a leading provider of market intelligence to procurement professionals around the world, with a large number of its employees based in Chennai and Bengaluru, has introduced a four-day work week as against the industry practice of either a five or six-day work week.

To be sure, companies such as KPMG, Amazon and Google have adopted a shortened work week albeit on a selective basis. However, the difference here is all the employees of Beroe will be eligible for a four-day work week.

While there are mixed opinions about the concept of four-day work week, Beroe believes in improving the work-life balance of its employees with the hope that the initiative increases their creativity as well as productivity. After all, the type of work done at Beroe does not involve repetitive tasks -- on the contrary, employees need to wear their thinking hats to solve client problems.

Now comes the question: Why are we doing this? The move to introduce a four-day work week is a continuation of the company’s employee benefit program. For example, Beroe is perhaps the only company in India to offer a one-year of maternity benefit for its women employees as against the government mandated 26 weeks.  Our zeal towards employee wellbeing reflects in the fact that the company has recently been certified as a Great Place to Work in India.

“We believe a truncated work week will improve productivity and make our young employees, a majority of whom are millennials, more energetic and creative when they return from their 3-day break. However, client deliverables remain our top priority…at any point if we feel that client deliverables are affected because of a short work week, we may reconsider our decision,” Beroe Inc Chief Executive Vel Dhinagaravel said.  

Working long hours don’t always work. Harvard Business Review said that there is a large body of research that suggests that regardless of our reasons for working long hours, overwork does not help us. Also, working long hours don’t automatically translate to more output.

While a four-day work week is a great initiative, not all are in favor of the system. Some of the companies that have implemented this system have gone back to the five-day work week due to reasons such as changing business climate and investor pressure.

Other arguments include that employees would be prone to more stress as the work week gets compressed and deadlines get tighter with the work load remaining the same. Client-management also could become challenging and delivery schedules may get affected.

Whatever said and done, Beroe is implementing this four-day work week initiative with utmost good faith.

“We wanted to add another milestone in our efforts to enhance our employee-friendly policies. We believe this four-day work week strikes the right balance between work and leisure for our employees,” Marketing and HR head, Anand Narayanan said.

About Beroe Inc:

Beroe's unique business model involves providing market intelligence and analytics to the procurement teams of businesses across the globe. Beroe leverages its deep domain expertise in 300 + categories across 14 industries. It boasts of more than 80 of the Fortune 500 companies as its clients.

To learn more about Beroe Inc, please visit www.beroeinc.com