Saving the day: As part of a drive to reduce running costs, some recession-hit businesses have resorted to cutting the working week, but it's not an easy step to take

摘要

When Parker & Collinson (P&C) managing director Ian Collinson started getting fewer orders last year, he realised that the recession was going to be deep. Desperate to avoid making redundancies, he considered other measures to cut overheads and improve the business's cashflow. "We had a situation where staff were standing idle and we needed to cut back on costs. We did not want to make redundancies as that has an upfront cost," says Collinson. Staff at the company already worked a half day on Friday so Collinson took the decision to move to a four-day week.