A four-day work week is more productive for most employees and businesses than the typical five-day work week, according to one of the largest trials of its sort undertaken in the UK, which was announced on Tuesday.
Nearly 60 British companies took part in the six-month trial, which allowed nearly 3,000 people to work one day fewer every week while earning the same wage.
It was organized by the non-profit group 4 Day Week Global in collaboration with the think tank Autonomy, the University of Cambridge, and Boston College in the United States between June and December of last year.
It has been described as the world’s biggest trial of a four-day working week.
The study found more than nine out of ten firms will continue with the shortened working week or plan to do so, organisers said in a statement.
Just four percent will not extend it.
“Results are largely steady across workplaces of varying sizes, demonstrating this is an innovation which works for many types of organisations,” said lead researcher and Boston College professor Juliet Schor.
Productivity did not suffer as a result of the shorter work weeks, with firm revenue increasing by 1.4 percent on average during the trial.
When compared to comparable times in previous years, revenue increased by 35% on average.
The survey also discovered that hiring increased and absenteeism decreased – while the number of employees departing decreased dramatically during the trial.
Furthermore, researchers decided that employees’ overall health and well-being had improved.
Physical and mental health, time spent exercising, and general life and job satisfaction all showed “significant” improvements.
Rates of stress, burnout and fatigue all fell, while problems with sleep declined, according to the statement.
‘Really Positive’
“In terms of employees, their mental health improved, they got better sleep, they got less burnt out,” Cambridge University’s Professor Brendan Burchell told AFP.
“But at the same time, the companies reported that if there were changes in their profits or their performance, if anything they were more likely to go up rather than down.
“And we got lots of very happy people — people really enjoyed it; they found it such a reward to have three day weekends instead of two day weekends.”
UK environmental consultancy Tyler Grange was among 18 firms to adopt permanently the four-day week after taking part.
“My experience has only been really, really positive — you can see it in people day-to-day at work, that they’re more energized at work,” Tyler Grange client director Nathan Jenkinson told AFP.
Workers “come into work at the start of the week on a Monday, having had three days rest, and they’re feeling much more enthusiastic about work and got a lot more energy”.
Despite the reduced hours, Tyler Grange claimed that turnover climbed somewhat.
In recent years, research into the four-day work week has extended globally as firms investigate post-pandemic flexibility, including the concept of a hybrid workplace that allows for greater work from home.
Trials with the reduced week have been conducted in Europe, the United States and Canada, as well as Australia and New Zealand.
Nevertheless, asked if the UK government may adopt the trial as national policy, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokeswoman sounded a cautious note, stating there were “no intentions for it”.