A turning point in the climate crisis has come to the UK work force. One year after a groundbreaking, six-month pilot program in 2022, 54 of 61 participating organizations decided to adopt a four-day working week policy indefinitely. This unprecedented program was an attempt to improve the health and productivity of their employees. To that end, 31 organizations have permanently adopted the flexible working hours policy.
The four-day work week has ignited exciting conversations all around the country. In fact, throughout the 6-month trial period, it was able to demonstrate some seriously cool benefits. Most notably, workers described better coping strategies in their high-stress positions, resulting in increased retention. Paul Oliver, chief operating officer at Citizens Advice Gateshead, noted the benefits of moving to a four-day work week. Not only did it improve staff’s overall well-being, it enriched the advice staff provided to clients.
“Days when I was working and most other staff were off were much more productive,” Oliver stated, underscoring the operational benefits observed during the trial.
Thanks to the pilot program, employers were still able to reduce their employees’ working hours by an average of 6.6 hours. As a consequence, the new, effective average work week fell to only 31.6 hours. This added flexibility was key in many cases for companies to provide service seven days a week. In doing so, they improved their bottom line and employee health. Surprisingly, 46% of respondents reported that employee morale and productivity actually increased after transitioning to a four-day work week.
The trial showed very encouraging results. An impressive 82% of participants noted staff wellbeing benefits, with 50% seeing less turnover of employees. Additionally, 32% reported improved job recruitment outcomes. These findings suggest that for employers trying to attract talent a four-day work week might be a potent weapon in that war. It’s crucial to retaining employees in today’s competitive labor market.
Juliet Schor, a leading proponent of shorter work weeks, hailed the changes as a promising sign, referring to the trial’s results. Their physical and mental health, and work-life balance are all vastly improved from six months. Burnout and life satisfaction gains persisted,” Schor said.
After all the victories seen by the organizations involved, a few experts are still taking a wait-and-see approach. Matthew Percival, business transformation executive advisor at Accenture, warned that “this model is probably not going to be self-funding across industries.” He used the progress as a way to encourage other businesses to try a four-day work week. They need to compare its advantages to other attractions such as higher salaries and better parental leave.
Companies that can afford to up their game will look at a wider array of options. They will need to balance the positive effects of reducing working hours with increasing pay, pensions or paid parental leave, as well as having a greater emphasis on improving health and wellbeing support.
As businesses consider their own policies a government spokesperson said flexibility is key to new ways of working that have become the norm in many sectors. One thing their spokesperson recently ruled out is adopting a four-day working week. That means it’s up to employers and employees to figure out what arrangement works best for them together. The government has confirmed its intention to introduce changes to flexible working legislation in April. From that point on, workers will be able to demand flexible working arrangements from day one of employment.
Experts are in agreement that the key to successful implementation of a four-day work week is effective management. Further strengthening this point, Anthony Painter added that what we need in our businesses are high-quality managers and people. He’s convinced that they are crucial to achieving not just more flexibility, but more productivity too, forging new modes of working.