Further to our last article on the four-day week trial, the trial concluded last December and the results have now been released, with 92% of the participants stating that they plan to continue to allow their staff to work a four-day week.
Four-Day Week
The 6 month four-day week trial was launched on the 6th June 2022 by the campaign group, 4 Day Week Global, which was founded by New Zealand entrepreneurs, Andrew Barnes and Charlotte Lockhart. The trial was run in conjunction with Oxford and Cambridge academics and others. 61 companies comprising of over 2900 employees participated.
Employees of the participating employers worked a four-day week without the loss of any pay, with the aim of determining whether the four-day week yields an increase in productivity, as well as improvements in health, wellbeing, work life balance, and staff retention.
The 6 month trial was based upon what is known as the 100:80:100 model, in which employers pay their employees their full pay (i.e. 100%) despite only working 80% of the normal working week (i.e. a 4 day working week, instead of 5). In exchange, the employee looks to deliver 100% productivity (i.e. produce what they had been doing in 5 days, in 4 days).
According to one of the organisers of the trial, Autonomy: "The design of the trial involved two months of preparation for participants, with workshops, coaching, mentoring and peer support....Resisting the idea that the four-day week must be ‘one- size-fits-all’, each company designed a policy tailored to its particular industry, organisational challenges, departmental structures and work culture. A range of four-day weeks were therefore developed, from classic ‘Friday off’ models, to ‘staggered’, ‘decentralised’, ‘annualised’, and ‘conditional’ structures."
The Results
4 Day Week Global published the results of the four-day week trial on the 21st February 2023.
The findings were as follows:-
- 92% of the participating employers plan to continue allowing their employees to work a 4 day week, with another 4% inclined to do the same. Just 4% of the employers stated that they would not be continuing with the shorter working week
- Out of 10, the participating employers provided an average overall rating of 8.5. In terms of productivity and performance, the average rating was 7.5
- Employers reported an average increase in revenue of 35% during the period of the trial, compared to the same period in 2021.
- Whilst absenteeism fell by 65% on average, their was also a 57% reduction in staff departures . Moreover, there was an increase in recruitment.
- Participating employees reported that a four-day week had improved their work life balance, with 54% stating that they were better able to combine work with tasks at home, and 62% stating that they were better able to integrate work with socialising. 60% of working carers also reported that they were better able to manage
- 39% of participating employees stated that their stress levels had fallen, and 71% reported a fall in burnout. 40% also stated that they were sleeping better.
- 15% of participating employees stated that no amount of money could induce them to voluntarily return to working a five-day week
Reaction
Commenting upon the results of the four-day week trial, the director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, Joe Ryle, declared the trial a "major breakthrough moment". He stated: "Across a wide variety of sectors, wellbeing has improved dramatically for staff; and business productivity has either been maintained or improved in nearly every case. We’re really pleased with the results and hopefully it does show that the time to roll out a four-day week more widely has surely come."
The Co-founder and Managing Director of 4 Day Week Global, Charlotte Lockhart, added: "Our team is delighted to be expanding the arguments in favour of a 4 day week today with this new world-class academic research."
Nevertheless, Ben Marlow, writing in the Daily Telegraph expressed scepticism. He argues that "the findings of this experiment are deeply unconvincing but even if they weren’t, the idea that Parliament should approve such a massive change to Britain’s working practices on the basis of a single study is nonsense. And even then there would be so many loopholes and exceptions, particularly across different sectors, that it would quickly become so unworkable, or in many cases, simply unequitable."
Marlow adds: "Lots of jobs simply can't be crunched over fewer days, and there will be millions of people who either don’t want to work less because they actually like their jobs, as well as others who don’t just want to work extra hours but actually need to, to supplement low pay. Has anyone behind the trials considered that once the changes are ushered in and the participants are enjoying three-day weekends, they might revert to their old habits pretty quickly?"
