{"id":887530,"date":"2026-09-11T01:00:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T01:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/887530\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T01:00:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T01:00:21","slug":"small-wa-town-of-boyup-brook-turns-to-four-day-work-week-to-attract-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/887530\/","title":{"rendered":"Small WA town of Boyup Brook turns to four-day work week to attract workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

A small country shire in southern Western Australia says its decision to adopt a four-day work week has almost solved the challenge it faces in attracting and keeping key workers.<\/p>\n

The Shire of Boyup Brook is six months into a trial of a four-day week for all full-time office workers, with plans to roll out the measure to outside crew next year.<\/p>\n

The local government, 260km south of Perth, is among the sector’s earliest adopters of the four-day work week, alongside the New South Wales shire of Murrumbidgee, set to start a trial next year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Council staff compress the hours of a normal five-day week into four, working 9.5 hours each day, with no change to opening hours or service delivery for locals.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The shire of Boyup Brook has a population of about 1,700 people. (ABC News: Jacquie Lynch)<\/p>\n

Bid to attract workers<\/p>\n

Boyup Brook chief executive Leonard Long said the shire needed to find ways to attract workers to the small town.<\/p>\n

With a population of just 1,700, the shire’s limited rates base also means it is not able to pay as much as larger local governments.<\/p>\n

“Being in a regional area, it’s difficult to attract staff in the first instance,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Leonard Long says a compressed work week helped the shire attract staff. (ABC News: Georgia Loney)<\/p>\n

Mr Long said the trial had already proved successful, with the shire able to recruit for a senior position it had been unable to fill before the trial.<\/p>\n

“He took it because of the four-day week,” Mr Long said.<\/p>\n

“He did have other options to go to, which would have been closer to home and paying more.”<\/p>\n

The shire has more than a dozen office staff, split into two teams, with each team taking either Monday or Friday off, allowing no disruption to services.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Boyup Brook says its four-day work week model is working well. (ABC News: Georgia Loney)<\/p>\n

Administrative officer Jimina Shaw-Sloan said working four longer days afforded uninterrupted time to work and meet outside usual opening hours.<\/p>\n

“I find it really good, just mainly for having some really solid blocks of time that you’re not forward-facing to clients,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jimina Shaw-Sloan says a compressed work week has many benefits. (ABC News: Georgia Loney)<\/p>\n

Four-day week just one way to attract staff<\/p>\n

WA Local Government Association president Mark Irwin said remote councils were trying different ways to attract staff, with nine-day fortnights also common.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mark Irwin says there is a skills shortage across local governments.\u00a0 (ABC News: Jacqueline Lynch)<\/p>\n

“Ninety per cent of local government reported a skill shortage in recent surveys we did,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We see a lot of people who are effectively working remotely; I was talking to one shire where many of their staff were not only interstate, but even overseas.”<\/p>\n

Workplace and organisational behaviour expert Libby Sander said research into four-day work weeks internationally had shown positive results, including increased productivity.<\/p>\n

While a compressed five-day week had benefits, Dr Sander said it would likely not be as beneficial to staff as an overall reduction in hours each week.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Libby Sander studies organisational behaviour at Bond University. (Supplied: Dr Libby Sander)<\/p>\n

But she said the Shire of Boyup Brook’s decision to introduce a standard four-day week across all its administrative staff, rather than ad-hoc rostered days off, was significant.<\/p>\n

“It reduces that psychological pressure to keep working [on a day off], which we know Australians feel quite keenly,” Dr Sander said.<\/p>\n

“That ‘I feel like I’m slacking and there might be something my team is dealing with, that I need to deal with’.”<\/p>\n

Australian Services Union WA secretary Wayne Wood also noted that the Boyup Brook model was different from a “genuine” four-day work week, where employees work fewer hours with no loss of pay.<\/p>\n

But he welcomed the new approach.<\/p>\n

“We have long advocated for these types of flexible arrangements,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Particularly for WA local governments facing challenges attracting and retaining skilled staff, especially in regional areas.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A small country shire in southern Western Australia says its decision to adopt a four-day work week has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":887531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[457180,64,63,457185,457182,99,457184,284310,457183,457179,41844,31477,45,6602,457181],"class_list":["post-887530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-4-day-week","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-workplace-culture","tag-boyup-brook-council-jobs","tag-business","tag-council-jobs-wa","tag-four-day-week","tag-regional-recruitment","tag-shire-of-boyup-brook","tag-south-west-news","tag-unpaid-overtime","tag-wa-news","tag-work-life-balance","tag-workplace-offers-four-day-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}