UK companies resort to 'finish early on Friday's' tactic to lure Gen Z workers

UK companies are offering "early finish Fridays" as a new strategy to try and attract Gen Z workers.

The work perk is an attempt to cater to young people who after the Covid-19 pandemic have began to prioritise their work-life balance.

Meanwhile post-pandemic, companies have been trying to get staff back in the office with perks such as perks as free barista-style coffee and massages.

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In the last month, more than 1,426 UK job postings included “early-finish Friday” as a benefit for the role according to job market statistics and insights firm Adzuna, as per Bloomberg.

Compare this to 583 companies who offered this benefit in their job adverts back in the same month in 2018, five years before many office employees had to work from home.

It is clear this benefit is being targeted at a specific demographic since more than 75 per cent of the ads were aimed at junior roles with salaries between £20,000 to £40,000.

Adzuna co-founder Andrew Hunter believes this trend isn't going away anytime soon.

“Work-life balance has come into focus since the pandemic and employees are demanding more. In response, we’ve seen a surge in work perks offering flexibility or reduced hours to tempt new joiners … we expect this figure to stay strong as employers seek new methods to tempt top talent," he said.

In terms of industries that had postings with this benefit, around 156 were in tech, with 90 being in general graduate positions, followed by sales and marketing field, that had 74 job advertisements with the perk included.

Hunter added: “For job seekers, if a company offers early finish Fridays it signals that they are flexible in their attitude to working hours and care about their employees’ wellbeing, which are two factors of utmost importance to today’s job hunters."

Elsewhere, more than 60 UK companies trialed a four day work week between June and December 2022 and after the trial more than 90 percent of businesses that took part decided to continue with the four day week, the World Economic Forum reported.

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