The most recent national trial of a four-day working week, involving 17 companies and nearly 1,000 employees, has concluded with a 100% success rate, it was revealed on Thursday. All 17 firms have opted to stick with the shorter working week following the trial’s conclusion.
Have your say! Would you like to try a four-day working week, if your job would allow it? How would you feel about it as a customer to a company, or if councils or government departments started doing it? Comment below, and join in on the conversation.
The six-month experiment kicked off last November and was orchestrated by the 4 Day Week Foundation, who champion a “four-day, 32 hour working week with no loss of pay for workers”. They argue that the conventional nine-to-five is an antiquated work pattern that “no longer suits the realities of modern life”.
The Foundation believes that employees will benefit from improved rest and leisure time, reduced childcare and commuting expenses, and less stress from cramming personal ‘admin’ into unsociable hours or weekends. For businesses, they claim that trials demonstrate increased productivity in a four-day week setting, making their companies more appealing to “high quality” talent.
The report stated that organisations participating in the latest trial managed to uphold service levels and key performance indicators while noting several benefits for employee wellbeing.
Almost two-thirds of employees reported a decrease in burnout frequency, 40% noticed an improvement in their mental health, and nearly half felt more content with life.
Joe Ryle, the campaign director of the 4 Day Week Foundation, remarked: “With greater knowledge, expertise and experience of what it takes to successfully implement a four-day week, we’re really pleased to see such a high success rate.
“People are happier, businesses are thriving, and there’s no turning back. We’ve proved it again and again: a four-day week works and should now be implemented more widely across the economy.”
Alan Brunt, CEO of Bron Afon Community Housing which employs 420 staff and is extending their pilot, shared: “Almost as soon as we started talking about it, our teams got together to set about making it work which was brilliant.
“We’ve closely monitored our performance and customer satisfaction. We’re happy with the results so far and will continue to make sure we’re delivering for our customers.
“I expect that most organisations will be doing this in the next 10 years or so.”
Have your say! Would you like to try a four-day working week, if your job would allow it? How would you feel about it as a customer to a company, or if councils or government departments started doing it? Comment below, and join in on the conversation.