The global trend towards a 4-day workweek is gaining momentum, with 27% of American businessmen adopting the 4-day workweek in 2021 and 35% planning to adopt it, indicating a growing interest in this trend.

A significant number of companies, including 61 UK companies, have tested a 4-day workweek, with 89% of companies continuing the measure by 2023 and 51% permanently implementing it, resulting in improved employee mental and physical health, better work-life balance, and decreased employee fatigue.

The implementation of a 4-day workweek has been shown to improve employee well-being, with reports of improved mental and physical health, better work-life balance, and decreased employee fatigue, as well as increased productivity and job satisfaction.

Companies that have adopted a 4-day workweek have also seen a significant reduction in staff turnover, with some companies reporting a sharp drop in resignations during the trial period, and improved recruitment, with one company reporting a 500% surge in job applications after introducing a 4-day week.

The 4-day workweek has also been shown to have a positive impact on job satisfaction, with 92% of employees at one company reporting that they look forward to work after introducing a 4-day week, and days lost to sickness declining by 28%.

To measure and evaluate the outcomes of a 4-day workweek, companies can track metrics such as employee well-being, job satisfaction, and turnover rates, as well as productivity and revenue, with 98% of Americans saying a 4-day workweek would improve mental health.

The implementation of a 4-day workweek can also have a positive impact on business continuity, with revenue increasing by 47% with 4-day workweek implementation, and employee absenteeism rates falling sharply after 6 months.

Overall, the 4-day workweek has been shown to have numerous benefits for employees and companies, including improved employee well-being, productivity, and job satisfaction, as well as cost savings and improved business continuity.

However, implementing a 4-day workweek can be challenging, particularly in industries such as healthcare and finance, where customer-facing roles require longer working hours, and companies must prioritize employee-focused policies and transparency.

Clear rules and communication are essential for a successful 4-day workweek implementation, with clear expectations and measurable goals, and companies must evaluate all aspects of their business before implementing a 4-day workweek, including critical questions and data to measure success.

The 100:80:100 framework, which allows employees to trade time for productivity, can help companies stay 100% productive with 20% less working hours, and companies can prioritize employee mental health and wellbeing by providing a comfortable working environment and personalized approach to employees.

Ultimately, the success of a 4-day workweek depends on proper planning, support, and communication, as well as a willingness to adapt to changing circumstances, and companies must be willing to invest in building systems around internal and external processes to ensure a smooth transition.

The UAE adopted a 4.5-day working model, while Sharjah opted for a four-day model, indicating a growing trend towards shorter workweeks, and Google searches for "4 day week jobs" increased by 1,011% in early 2022, suggesting a high level of interest in the concept.

In the UK, 70 companies joined a scheme to alter the working week basis, and 21% of UK businesses adopted a four-day workweek in 2021, with 65% of respondents having a four-day workweek for some staff.

The four-day workweek has been shown to improve employee productivity, with a trial in Iceland demonstrating that productivity remained unchanged or improved, and a UK trial showing a 22% increase in productivity.

However, the implementation of a 4-day workweek can be challenging, particularly in industries such as healthcare, where employee roles and scheduling may not be easily adapted to a reduced workweek.

The finance industry has also been slow to adopt the 4-day workweek, with some companies expressing concerns about the potential impact on business continuity and customer service.

In contrast, technology companies have been more likely to adopt the 4-day workweek, with many companies in the IT sector reporting improved productivity and employee satisfaction.

The benefits of a 4-day workweek include improved employee well-being, reduced burnout, and increased job satisfaction, with 81% of workers reporting that a 4-day week would increase productivity.

Additionally, a 4-day workweek can lead to reduced absenteeism and turnover, with one company reporting a 66% decrease in absenteeism after implementing a 4-day workweek.

However, the implementation of a 4-day workweek can also pose challenges, particularly in terms of equity and fairness, with some employees may not be eligible for a reduced workweek due to their job requirements or responsibilities.

Overall, the trend towards a 4-day workweek is expected to continue, with many companies exploring flexible scheduling options to attract and retain talent, and improve employee well-being and productivity.

The adoption of a 4-day workweek may vary by industry and company size, with smaller companies and those in the tech sector being more likely to adopt a reduced workweek.

Some companies, such as Panasonic, have successfully implemented a 4-day workweek, with improved productivity and employee satisfaction, while others, such as those in the healthcare industry, may face more significant challenges.

The use of technology, such as AI, may also play a role in facilitating the adoption of a 4-day workweek, by automating daily tasks and increasing employee efficiency.

As the trend towards a 4-day workweek continues, it is likely that more companies will explore flexible scheduling options, and that the benefits and challenges of a reduced workweek will become more widely understood.

The global trend towards a 4-day workweek is gaining momentum, with 27% of American businessmen adopting the 4-day workweek in 2021 and 35% planning to adopt it, indicating a growing interest in this trend.

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Down with five days?
24.11.2022 17: 30
The transition to a four-day working week is widely discussed around the world.
There are several reasons: the impact of the pandemic, economic problems, shortage of personnel, supply disruptions, etc.
There is another difficulty: the “culture of vanity ” that has developed in recent years, when work dominates other aspects of human life, which leads to the“ burnout ” of workers.
All of the above has led to the fact that many business owners today believe that a four-day working week is an effective solution in order to cope with problems.
So, in 2021, 27% of American businessmen (owners of companies) out of 1,300 respondents said that they had already transferred their employees to such a schedule, and 35% were going to do so in the near future.
Assuming that such statistics are representative of business in the US as a whole, it means that at least a quarter of all companies are already operating under the new scheme: four days a week instead of five.
However, the phrase “four-day work week ” does not necessarily mean that the company actually works only four out of five working days, and on the other days its employees do not go on calls and do not answer phone calls.
It can mean that the employee of the company works, for example, 30 hours instead of the standard 40.
In any case, judging by the results of the survey, most business owners believe that this approach has huge advantages.
Mainly because it increases employee satisfaction.
Those stop thinking that they live only for the sake of work, become more motivated, increase the productivity of their work, reduce the turnover of personnel.
Of the 35% of business owners who are considering switching to a shorter work week, 84% believe that such a schedule will give them some (48%) or a significant (36%) advantage over competitors.
And half of those who have already switched to four days of work instead of five, say that they have already received this advantage.
Experts believe that this approach is applicable to any type of activity, including installation companies.
However, there is no official data that at least one integrator firm in the United States really adheres to this practice.
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A significant number of companies, including 61 UK companies, have tested a 4-day workweek, with 89% of companies continuing the measure by 2023 and 51% permanently implementing it, resulting in improved employee mental and physical health, better work-life balance, and decreased employee fatigue.

Title:

Content: UK companies test "4-day working week" workers generally agree that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages 51% permanent implementation
Author: Zhang Zijie
Published: Updated:
A number of UK companies are participating in a four-day workweek pilot scheme in the second half of 2022, with media reporting that most of the participating companies continue to allow employees to work fewer hours per week, and more than half of the companies have made the arrangement a regular measure.
The United Kingdom has 61 companies from marketing, professional services, non-profit organizations, construction, manufacturing, retail, health care, art and other industries, employees from June to December 2022, participate in the four-day work week, pay and performance of the same trial.
British citizens walk through the Canary Wharf Financial District on August 3, 2023. (Reuters)
As of the end of 2023, at least 89% of participating companies continued to maintain the measure, and at least 51% permanently implemented the measure, according to a report published by Autonomy, a think-tank that conducted the research.
The study found that shortening work hours generally benefits employees and businesses, who feel that their mental and physical health has improved, as well as a better balance between work and life, a better life, and less fatigue from work.
In addition, the managers and CEOs of the 28 participating companies unanimously agreed that the four-day work week has had a positive impact on the company, reducing staff wastage, significantly improving recruitment, and benefiting employees physically and mentally.
Sixty-one companies from different industries in the UK piloted a four-day work week in 2022, and the results were generally positive.
People enjoy a view of the City of London on 23 September 2023.
(Reuters)
The study, which listed a number of ways to maintain a four-day work week, including safety changes such as meetings, workplace communication, and work priorities, found that the improvements felt by employees continued for a year after the trial ended.
Researchers at Boston College, Cambridge, and Oxford University believe that the key to the strength of the data is not the rare or short-term impact, but the real and long-term impact.
Therefore, the four-day work week is not a flash in the sky, and British companies have succeeded in turning it into a permanent and effective measure.
Is the overall efficiency of returning less than one day of work declining instead of rising?
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What did surveys conducted in London before and after the experiment of 4-day workweek  find?

54% of employees had better balance of work and home responsibilities

The implementation of a 4-day workweek has been shown to improve employee well-being, with reports of improved mental and physical health, better work-life balance, and decreased employee fatigue, as well as increased productivity and job satisfaction.

What did  the trial of 4-day workwee in New Zealand show?

The productivity  increased
The employees were happier

What did a survey on 4-day workweek conducted in Hong Kong show?

61% of respondents said employers could implement a four-day workweek to improve employees' mental health.

What did surveys conducted in London before and after the experiment of 4-day workweek  find?

54% of employees had better balance of work and home responsibilities

What has a Gallup Poll found out about the prospect of 4-day workweek?

77% of American employees believe that it will have a positive impact on their health

What has the implementation 4-day wrokweek in Dubai, UAE indicated?

Increase in employee and customer satisfaction.

What were the results of UAE's trial of 4-day workday?

A 90% increase in job performance, happiness, and mental health.

Companies that have adopted a 4-day workweek have also seen a significant reduction in staff turnover, with some companies reporting a sharp drop in resignations during the trial period, and improved recruitment, with one company reporting a 500% surge in job applications after introducing a 4-day week.

Title:

Content: Interest in the four-day week has been on the rise in recent years with the Covid-19 pandemic accelerating the shift in how businesses organise their teams while employees are looking a6t how to achieve a better work life balance.

Currently, more than 3300 workers at 70 companies are working a four-day week with no loss of pay in the biggest ever four-day week pilot to take place anywhere in the world.

They are more than half way through the six-month trial, which started on June 6. It is based on the principle of the 100:80:100 model - 100% of the pay for 80% of the time, in exchange for a commitment to maintain at least 100% productivity.

Joe Ryle, director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, one of the organisations behind the campaign, said: “Companies should embrace the four-day week as a way of boosting productivity, improving wellbeing and to help with job retention. The 9-5, 5 day working week is outdated and no longer fit for purpose.”

At BusinessLive, we've been covering the trend for a number of years and for this article, we check in with firms from right across the UK to see how it's going.

From early adopters to businesses that have made the change in recent months, we find out how things are working out from both a business and employee perspective.

The responses are honest and explain the pros and cons.

We firmly believe the four-day week is the future of working life

Atom Bank

Durham

Challenger bank Atom last November became the largest UK business to move all employees to a four-day working week, with no change of salary.
The Durham business, which now has 480 staff, made the shift in recognition of people having longer working lives, the positive impact of technology, flexible working and the need to live and work more sustainably.
More than six months on, Atom has seen a noticeable positive impact that the shift has had on employees, customer service, and operations.

Anne-Marie Lister, chief people officer at Atom, said: “Over six months on from introducing our new four-day working week, it’s clear that it has been a huge success for our business and our people.
“People are rightly looking for a healthier work/life balance, and despite warnings from some sceptics, our metrics and people surveys show that this has not had a negative impact on employees or customer service. In fact, it has been the opposite, with happier, more efficient, and more productive people who are even more driven to help us change banking for the better.
“We firmly believe the four-day week is the future of working life and it is encouraging to now see the range of businesses across the UK embracing the four-day week trials."

One objective was to attract and retain talent more effectively and data reveals this has been a success, having seen a 500% surge in job applications following its launch.
Headcount has grown from 461 in November 2021 to 480 in June 2022, thanks also to a reduction in the number of departures. Atom said this has been vital, with the fight for talent becoming fiercely competitive following the widespread adoption of hybrid working following the pandemic.
Productivity levels have also been measured by each department, with metrics specific to each of the 10 departments. Data collated for the six months to April reveals that across all of the 165 departmental metrics tracked, the success rate has improved.
Employees are also more motivated working a four-day week too. Almost all (92%) report that they look forward to work, and there has been a 13% increase in people engagement between February 2022 and 12 months earlier. Days lost to sickness have also declined since the introduction of the new working structure, dropping from 100 in the month of November 2021, to 72 in June 2022.
Meanwhile, in terms of Atom’s impact on customer service, its Trust Pilot score has risen from 4.54 at the start of the new working structure to 4.82 in June.

What do Atom employees say?

As to how staff members use their time off, Paul, contact centre team leader, said: “I’ve been using my extra day off to do an advanced motorcyclist course so I can volunteer for Northumbria Blood Bikes as a rider, transporting blood from surgeries to hospitals.”
Jonathon, telephone business development manager, said: “The four-day working week has allowed me to spend some quality time with my three year old son Jack. Spending our time in the best soft plays & swimming pools Sunderland has to offer, before dropping him off & picking him up from nursery. Without this day off, I would rarely be able to have this quality time together during the week.”

In short, I’ve been a dad

Merthyr Valleys Homes

Merthyr Tydfil

Merthyr Valley Homes adopted a 30-hour week in the four day working week pilot scheme without loss of pay.

Some staff member are working a four day week and some are working shorter hours over five days to ensure service provision over five days.

The biggest challenge for the firm has been finding ways to work differently while ensuring services aren’t impacted, however it has tried out new approaches during the pilot and says it has found “some very quick wins”.

A spokesperson said: “We have been working on how best to measure success and we are developing a number of new performance measures as a direct result of participating in the trial.”

A positive outcome has been the cooperation between teams and directorates.

“The conversations around how to work more efficiently have been really interesting and it has given everyone a reason to take the time to look at this collectively.”

The company has also seen support for the scheme from its stakeholders and the housing sector in Wales, and has attracted a wide range of candidates to apply for its job vacancies.

Of the advice it would give to other businesses thinking of moving to a four day week, the firm says: “Don’t be too prescriptive and set too many rules - our colleagues have been our greatest asset in designing their own solutions.”

The employee perspective

Ross Williams is the tenant engagement lead for Merthyr Valleys Homes.

The 42-year-old, who is married with 2 children, says the four day working week has hugely improved his work-life balance.

“I feel working 80% of the hours has increased my output. And I realise that a huge reason for this is because of what I choose to do with the other 20%,” he said.

During his non-working day on a Thursday, Mr Williams says he will fit in some early morning exercise or catch up with friends before picking up his 3-year-old son from nursery at 11am. He will also collect his daughter from school.

“In short, I’ve been a dad,” he said. “I’ve been guilty in the past of prioritising work over family and I’m determined to ensure this time remains a space where I get to enjoy some of the simple pleasures.”

During work hours, Mr Williams says the four day working week pilot has also provided some real work benefits and encouraged practical changes within the business.

In meetings, he says discussions are pertinent and decisions are reached “as quickly as possible saving time for myself and colleagues”.

He said: “I feel so much more productive knowing that my work is planned, my non-working day is factored in and my diary ensures my team can access me to ensure they are able to retain the same level of productivity,” he said.

“I think I am more productive, more focused and more content in my role. I have become much more well prepared for the time off that the four day week gives me.”

You couldn’t pay me enough to go back to five days

Marketing Signals

Altrincham

Marketing Signals, moved to a four-day working week in May with staff working 32-hours with no loss of pay.

When Managing Director Gareth Hoyle explained the reasons behind his decision on Linkedin, his post went viral and he was inundated with questions from other business bosses keen to do the same.

Mr Hoyle said he is excited to be part of a new model of work.

"It focuses on quality not quantity and will revolutionise the future of work. A good work/life balance is the key to a happy and healthy workforce which leads to loyalty, ultimately helping our business grow.

“My motto has always been ‘don’t live to work and don’t work to live’, and if COVID-19 has taught us anything, it’s that it’s important we look after ourselves first. It’s important that my staff feel valued and understand life outside of work is just as important."

What do staff say?

Web developer and dad to a newborn Jack Darracott says that a shift to a four-day working week has transformed his life and made him more productive at work.

He works smarter, not harder, and the extra day off allows him to spend more time with his newborn son.

He said: “Since moving to the four-day working week, I’ve been able to spend more quality time with my son, and experience all of the first milestones that I would have missed out on had I been working a full week.”

The catalyst for the move to a four-day week came from the rise in cost of living, which led to Jack asking for a change in working hours due to rising childcare costs.

Jack explains: “The new model has also helped save money as I now don’t have to spend more of my wages on additional childcare fees. This is especially important with the rise in the cost of living. The extra day off also offers breathing room for any curve balls that life may throw at me.”

The four-day trial was met with some scepticism as many people questioned whether it would actually work. However, Jack says it has improved his productivity and efficiency, and that he even feels more energised when he’s back in.

Jack said: adds: “Not only has it helped with my home life, but my work has also improved. My day off serves as a ‘reset day’, so when I’m back in I can look at work with a fresh pair of eyes and I feel more refreshed.”

“You couldn’t pay me enough to go back to five days.”

There have been a number of lessons along the way

Tyler Grange

London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Exeter and Cirencester

The landscape planning, ecology and arboriculture consultancy became the first in its industry to sign up to the UK pilot in June. Its 80-strong nationwide team does not work Fridays with no loss of income.

The firm is reporting promising results producing the same amount of work so far during the pilot - from June to August – as it did in the same period last year. This is a measurement ratio of productive time versus direct costs, which means the company is, as planned, 100% productive in 80% of the time.

At the pilot’s halfway point, Simon Ursell, Managing Director at Tyler Grange, shares his seven key pieces of advice on how to make the transition from five to four as seamless – and successful - as possible.

Preparation is vital

I can’t stress enough how important it is to prepare for the switch from five working days to four. To enjoy a better work-life balance and to have more time to spend doing what we love. This just can’t be switched on overnight.

Talk to your clients and customers

The most common concern, of course, was ‘what if we need you on a Friday?’ but the vast majority congratulated us for showing such innovation, yet again, and are keen to be kept up to date on how it’s going.

Talk to your team and be ready to realise that a four-day working week isn’t for everyone

It’s essential to engage with your team but it’s also important to realise that working a four-day week isn’t for everyone.

Once the pilot began, and we became more accustomed to our new systems and way of working – which removed lots of lengthy admin and unnecessary meetings and reporting from our day - they soon got their heads around it.

Take different job roles and departments into consideration

Some of our work is very seasonal so, for those teams that are very busy during summertime, we’ve delayed the implementation of some new processes until the autumn.

You need to give people time to learn how to work differently – and it may not be the same for everyone.

If you’re looking to sell your business, a four-day week might not be for you

We used to receive a number of approaches by companies looking to buy us. But interesting, since trialling the four-day week, they’ve stopped.

So, for any potential owners who are sceptical that cutting hours could increase productivity, working a four-day week probably feels like too great a gamble to get locked into.

Bite the bullet and only have one company-wide day off

In some companies, the potential impact of the four-day week is being mitigated by covering all days but with reduced colleagues. We wouldn’t recommend this, despite it perhaps seeming to be an easier option at first.

It can sometimes be more intense and tiring

Most jobs are intense from time to time, and we know that working four days rather than five can exacerbate this on occasions. The adoption of our Alertness App – means we can get a real handle on any tiredness early and can react straight away.

Mr Ursell said: “I’d be surprised if we don’t adopt a permanent four-day working week post-pilot, but we still have three months to go.

“The UK has an unhealthy culture where it is seen as a badge of honour to be work all the time, the brilliant talent that we want to attract at all levels of the organisation - don’t want to be defined by a burnout life."

The worker's point of view

Helen Brittain, 54, is an administrator at Tyler Grange.

She lives with her husband, her son and daughter-in-law, and her two grandchildren - Henrietta, 5, and Florence, 7, - as well as their two dogs.

Helen said her productivity has improved enormously and the new working processes and systems encourage me help her to plan better.

She said: “In the past, work -life balance was always a bit of an issue for me. I felt like a two-day weekend didn’t enable me to enjoy enough of a homelife or to do necessary chores.

Now she is able to get on with chores and care for her grandchildren and find some time for herself.

She said: “I’ve also recently embarked on my own self-learning journey around mental health, as well as looking after my psychical health by working with a personal trainer and nutritionist.

“All of this is having enormous benefits on my personal health and wellbeing, which then has a real impact on my workplace performance and productivity.”

We're more productive and creative than ever before

Accu

Huddersfield

A Huddersfield-based tech-based firm that introduced a permanent four-day week to all 100 staff four months ago say the move has paid massive dividends.

Accu, which designs, manufactures and distributes engineering components worldwide, says it has seen a major boost in productivity, job applications, turnover, and orders from customers.

The firm's policy with no reduction in pay or obligation for staff to make the hours up.

From April-July, Accu has created 20 new jobs – a 25% increase in headcount. The number of applications per role has skyrocketed. One role, which previously got 40 applications, subsequently got 200 – a 400% increase. Similar numbers are being experienced across all vacancies.

Simultaneously, productivity is up, as the time it takes to respond to customer enquiries has improved by 46%. Order numbers and average values have increased by 15%, boosting turnover by 10% (quarter-on-quarter), meaning Accu is on track to hit £12m-plus turnover this year.

Company co-founder, Martin Ackroyd told YorkshireLive: "Giving people more personal time to enjoy the things they love has increased motivation, decreased the risk of burnout and has driven a renewed sense of purpose in our mission to help our customers build a better tomorrow. As a result, we're more productive and creative than ever before."

What do staff say?

Some staff have used their new spare time to pursue personal interests, such as home renovation and the arts, whilst others have used it to spend more time with their family or save on childcare costs.

Matt Ogden, community manager, said: "The longer weekends are very well received. With a longer break, it personally provides me with freedom to travel to London to enjoy and take part in the performing arts. In general, everyone feels more chilled, upbeat, happy, and refreshed.

"In terms of the business, we have seen a benefit across all areas – it was definitely a sound business decision."

Every Friday I enjoy not setting an alarm

Chilwell Products

Ilkeston, Derbyshire

Staff at the manufacturer of end bands for scaffold boards previously worked 39 hours over five days but this was reduced earlier this year by five hours, with all staff on duty Monday to Thursday.

Laura Clarke, managing director, said investment in new machinery improved overall capacity while giving back time to the team."

She said: "Initially, there were concerns around how our move would be received by customers but, when we ran our trial period, we managed to maintain lead times despite operating for five hours fewer.

"Many customers and suppliers have praised our move, even going as far to ask if they can have a job here.

She said the atmosphere at work had improved and there was something 'incredibly smug' about knowing you were halfway through the week on a Tuesday while team members had more autonomy over their lives and how they spent their free time, with some taking extra work elsewhere.

The hard numbers for the firm's manufacturing volumes and the first two financial quarters are positive despite the drop in hours.

She said: "I would advise others thinking of doing this to brainstorm, speak to various people within teams, gather information and look at the business from as many different angles as possible.

"It might not be something you can do in the next few months or even this year but you could start to make changes.

"Businesses need to think outside the box, we need to be innovative as we shape the working landscape moving forward."

How's work been?

Nicholas Wall is a 28-year-old toolroom assistant and press operator at Chilwell Products.

"It's nice to finish the working week on Thursday knowing you'll come in on Monday to a fresh slate.

"This also makes me feel like I'm giving something back to the company as I appreciate they've given us more time to spend however I want."

Nicholas said that, in previous roles with other employers, he felt he was rushing his evenings and weekends but had grown accustomed to it and had not noticed the effect this was having on him.

He added: "Only now that I'm more relaxed do I realise how frantic and pressured my personal life was.

"Every Friday I enjoy not setting an alarm, naturally waking up then heading to the gym to get a workout in and get it out the way."

It's not an easy process, but one we're proud we took the time to implement

City to Sea

Bristol

Bristol-based environmental organisation City to Sea has moved to a four-day working week without any reduction in pay for staff.

The community interest company employs 19 people, who are all now working a 32-hour week, but are being paid the same salary as when they worked for five days. The organisation, which campaigns to reduce plastic pollution, confirmed the move after running a four-day week trial over six months, and receiving positive feedback from staff. Now, every employee has Friday off.

Natalie Fee, chief executive and founder, said the top three challenges of implementing the four-day week were staff members feeling overstretched, managing work patterns and difficulties adjusting to reduced hours.

“We also found calculations around bank holidays and implications of those weeks being three days difficult to navigate,” she said.

However, she said the positives were staff motivation and increased wellbeing.

“It creates a much more balanced, healthier working environment and has resulted in increased staff engagement and staff retention. It's not an easy process, but one we're proud we took the time to test and implement.”

On the frontline

Steve Hynd, policy manager at City to Sea, who is 36 and is married with two children under five, says the move has been “completely transformative”.

“It’s not just the four days a week but also offering flexible working, having a really supportive line manager, and a host of other positive HR policies. This all combined is allowing me to spend more time with my two young kids, giving back to my community as a local district councillor and crucially (and very rarely) even having a bit of time for myself. It has removed the sense of being constantly over-stretched and has improved my mental and physical health significantly.”

Read more of our coverage on the four-day week:

The 4-day workweek has also been shown to have a positive impact on job satisfaction, with 92% of employees at one company reporting that they look forward to work after introducing a 4-day week, and days lost to sickness declining by 28%.

What did  the trial of 4-day workwee in New Zealand show?

What has the implementation 4-day wrokweek in Dubai, UAE indicated?

Increase in employee and customer satisfaction.

To measure and evaluate the outcomes of a 4-day workweek, companies can track metrics such as employee well-being, job satisfaction, and turnover rates, as well as productivity and revenue, with 98% of Americans saying a 4-day workweek would improve mental health.

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Content: World
Get the latest news from around the world, live coverage, off-beat stories, features and analysis.

Four-Day Workweek Trial Proved So Successful Many UK Firms Will Retain It as New Policy

CC BY 2.0 / Nenad Stojkovic / Businesswoman with beautiful nails working on her laptopBusinesswoman with beautiful nails working on her laptop
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It's one of the largest trials to put a four-day workweek to the test. The non-profit firm invited companies to either shorten their employees’ workweeks by giving them one day a week off or reducing their work hours to 32 hours per week, while still paying their employees the same salary or wage as before the trial.
Newly released study results have suggested it might finally be time to implement a four-day work week after a trial revealed the shift provided major benefits to general productivity and employee health.
The trial, which took place in the United Kingdom, involved nearly 3,000 employees and was organized by the not-for-profit group 4 Day Week Global (alongside the research group Autonomy and researchers with Boston College and the University of Cambridge).
Some 61 British businesses including banks, fast-food restaurants and marketing agencies participated in the trial.
Analyzing the study findings, officials determined the businesses found a sharp decline in the number of employees wanting to quit, while about 46% of companies said their business productivity remained the same, and 34% reported a slight improvement in productivity. Another 15% of employers reported a significant improvement in productivity.
One company, Trio Media, reported a 47% increase in revenue from the year-earlier period. The chief executive of the company, Claire Daniels, said she would continue the trial for another six months before making a permanent switch, but added she didn’t “see [the company] going back to a typical five-days-a-week model.”
Overall on a scale of 0 (very negative) to 10 (very positive) employers scored the productivity and performance of their employees at 7.5 after six months of a shortened workweek. At least 18 businesses from the study said they planned to make the shorter workweek permanent, while 56 of the 61 companies said they would continue testing the shortened work shifts even after the trial ended.
Just three companies said they would not pursue a shortened workweek.
About 15% of employees who participated in the trial said that “no amount of money” could convince them to return to a five-day workweek, as employees reported better sleep, lower stress levels, and improved personal lives and mental health.
“At the beginning, this was about pandemic burnout for a lot of employers. Now it’s more of a retention and recruitment issue for many of them,” explains Juliet Schor, an economist and sociologist at Boston College whose team helped conduct the study.
A separate study from October 2021 found that in a survey of over 1,000 Americans, 98% of respondents said a four-day workweek would improve their mental health, nine out of 10 people said that a five-day workweek was outdated and almost 80% of respondents said the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged their desire for a shortened workweek.
Three out of four respondents in that another study also said they would consider leaving their current job if they were offered a position with a four-day workweek. And a Gallup Report from 2019 revealed that high turnover rates cost US businesses $1 trillion in voluntary turnover per year.
Opponents argue that a shortened workweek would not be suitable for every field of work including child care and health care, both of which are experience widespread staff shortages as nurses in England have gone on strike after struggling to secure increased wages from their government.
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The implementation of a 4-day workweek can also have a positive impact on business continuity, with revenue increasing by 47% with 4-day workweek implementation, and employee absenteeism rates falling sharply after 6 months.

Title:

Content: [Retain talent] Enterprise test 4 days a week production efficiency improvement of employees: work pressure reduction and health improvement
Stock Market 07: 41 2023 / 02 / 22
Share:
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[Retain talent] Enterprise test 4 days a week production efficiency improvement
Do you want to work four days a week?
According to the Wall Street Journal, most of the British companies participating in the four-day work week test said that after six months of testing, the staff turnover rate and absenteeism rate fell sharply, which is the largest four-day work week test to date. 61 companies, including banks, fast food restaurants, marketing consultants, etc., involved 2900 employees. Eighteen companies said they would permanently implement the four-day workweek.
For decades, the market has been exploring the idea of working less than five days a week, or 40 hours a week, which has become a new opportunity under the pandemic, as home-based and mixed-work arrangements have become more widely accepted, and employers have also taken the opportunity to explore whether shortening work hours can improve employee happiness and loyalty.
Working days have become a retention and recruitment issue
Juliet Schor, an economist and sociologist at Boston College, said that it was initially due to the mental fatigue of wage earners during the epidemic, but it has now become a retention and recruitment problem.
Her team has helped conduct research around the world on a four-day workweek, including researchers from the UK think tank Autonomy and the University of Cambridge.
The research is being conducted around the world. Small tests in the United States and Canada are being led by research institutes in the United Kingdom, and similar tests are being conducted in Australia and Brazil. Unilever, an internationally renowned consumer goods company, is also participating in the tests.
Testing in Iceland, involving more than 2,500 employees in various industries, researchers found that most employees maintained or increased productivity, as well as reduced work stress.
Most companies that try 4-day work are small employers
Since most of the companies experimenting with four-day work are small employers, many large companies have yet to embrace the concept.
In the test, some employees reported that it was difficult to complete all the work during this time.
In a study conducted in the UK from June to November, most employees did not increase their work intensity, but bosses held fewer meetings to give employees more time to get their work done.
Finally, employers rated employee productivity and performance on an average of 7.5 on a scale from 0 (very negative) to 10 (very positive), and at half of the test, 46% of companies said their business productivity remained unchanged, while 34% reported a slight improvement and 15% reported a significant improvement.
20% of your time is wasted on unnecessary meetings
On the other hand, 39% of employees reported less stress at work, but half of employees reported no change in their index.
Nearly half of employees reported improved mental health and 37% reported improved physical health.
Claire Daniels, CEO of Trio Media, a digital marketing company with 13 employees in the UK, said she took part in the trial to see if she could improve productivity.
Before the test began, she analyzed with employees that 20% of their time was wasted on unnecessary meetings, business trips, and other inefficiencies.
"Very soon, we will know that we do not have to do any extra work in these four days," she said.
The productivity of the 4-day work was flat or slightly improved from the same period last year
Daniels pointed out that she would have employees work from Monday to Thursday, and Tuesday to Friday, and have employees take extra places to follow up on their colleagues ’ work during the holidays.
No longer do marathon daily team meetings with employees, in longer meetings involving customers and multiple presentations, employees will only attend part of the meeting based on necessity and then leave.
The hardest part, she says, is for employees to make sure they don ’ t go back to their old work mindset or habits. Overall, productivity was flat or slightly higher compared to the same period last year, with revenue up 47%.
She wants to continue experimenting for another six months before making a permanent change, “but I don ’ t think we ’ re going to go back to the typical five-day week. ”
If the four-day work week can improve production efficiency and the employees are happy, the bosses think that they can give it a try, or they think that the workload of five days can be completed in four days, so that the employees can continue to overcomplete their work on the fifth day.
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What did  the trial of 4-day workwee in New Zealand show?

What has the implementation 4-day wrokweek in Dubai, UAE indicated?

Overall, the 4-day workweek has been shown to have numerous benefits for employees and companies, including improved employee well-being, productivity, and job satisfaction, as well as cost savings and improved business continuity.

Title:

Content: How about four days a week instead of five?
Here are the results of an exciting experiment involving 60 companies around the world.
More than 60 companies participated in the experiment, allowing around 3,000 employees to work one day less per week while retaining the same salary.
Rates of stress, burnout and fatigue all fell, while problems with sleep declined, the study shows.
Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
MAIN POINTS
• The study found that more than 9 out of 10 companies will continue to shorten the work week or plan to do so
• Productivity was not affected by lighter work weeks, with the company ’ s revenue increasing by an average of 1.4 per cent over the trial period
The study also found that employment increased and absenteeism decreased.
A four-day workweek is more productive for most employees and businesses than the traditional five-day workweek, and is one of the largest trials ever conducted in the UK.
More than 60 companies in the UK participated in the trial over a six-month period, allowing around 3,000 employees to work one day less per week while retaining the same salary.
The trial was conducted between June and December and was organized by a nonprofit group called 4 Day Week Global in collaboration with the Autonomy Research Center, the University of Cambridge, and Boston College in the United States.
The experience is described as the largest in the world around working four days a week.
The survey released on Tuesday found that more than nine out of 10 companies would continue to adopt or plan to do so, while only 4 percent chose not to extend it, regulators said in a statement.
Juliette Shore, a professor at Boston College, said: “The results are largely the same across workplaces of all sizes, demonstrating that this innovation has proven to be effective in many diverse organizations.
Productivity was not affected by shorter working days, with the company ’ s revenue increasing by an average of 1.4% over the trial period.
Revenue jumped 35% on average when compared to similar periods in previous years.
The study also found that employment increased and absenteeism decreased, while the number of resignations dropped sharply during the trial.
In addition, the researchers concluded that overall health and staff well-being improved.
"Significant" increases were also observed in physical and mental health, time spent on exercise, public life and job satisfaction.
Stress, fatigue and fatigue rates have decreased, while sleep problems have decreased.
"Really positive."
Cambridge University professor Brendan Burchell told AFP: “In terms of employees, their mental health improved, they slept better, and they became less stressed.
“But at the same time, companies have stated that if there are changes in their profits or in their performance, they are more likely to go up rather than down. ”
“A lot of people were very happy, people really enjoyed it; and they found it good to have three-day weekends instead of two days. ”
Environmental consultancy Tyler Grange in the UK was among 18 companies that decided to permanently adopt a four-day work week after participating in the trial.
Nathan Jenkinson, customer manager at Tyler Grange, told AFP: “My experience has been really positive, you can see it in people ’ s work and they ’ re more active.
“Employees come to work at the beginning of the week on Monday, after three days off, feel more positive about work and have a lot of energy. ”
Tyler Grange said performance improved slightly despite reduced working hours.
In recent years, studies of the four-day workweek have spread globally as employers explore the nature of post-pandemic work, including the concept of a co-working place that allows more work from home.
Short-week experiments were conducted across Europe, the United States and Canada, as well as in Australia and New Zealand.
However, when asked whether the UK government might adopt the test as a national policy, Prime Minister ’ s spokesman Rishi Sonak sounded cautious and stated, “There are no plans for that. ”
Continue the dialogue via our accounts on and
Check out the latest Australian news and topics you ’ re interested in.
You can also listen to our programs on or through the free SBS Radio app.
You can also watch news at any time on SBS On Demand.
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Published at 22 / 02 / 2023 1: 59pm
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Content: The 4-day work week: Who is trialing it and does it work? | World | Breaking news and perspectives from around the globe | DW | 17.02.2022

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The 4-day work week: Who is trialing it and does it work?

Belgium will now offer employees the opportunity to work a four-day week. Various countries and companies have experimented with the idea, which is gaining traction in many parts of the world.

Who doesn't dream of less time spent at work?

Four days working, three days relaxing with friends and family. And all this for the same money. What's not to like? Surely most employees would jump at the chance. Advocates for the four-day work week suggest that when it is implemented worker satisfaction increases, as does productivity.

Belgium will now be introducing four-day work weeks for those who want it. However, employees will not be working less. They will simply condense their hours into fewer days, if they want to. They will be allowed to decide flexibly on whether to work four or five days a week.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo hopes that the model will help to create a more dynamic economy and will make it easier for people to combine their family lives with their career. But some full-time employees will be working very long days if they choose to condense their hours. Others, like shift workers, will simply not have the option of that flexibility.

DW explores which countries and companies have already experimented with the four-day working week.

Iceland: Fewer hours at full pay

Iceland tested a similar model from 2015 and 2019. However, it reduced the working week from 40 to 35 or 36 hours and maintained pay levels. Some 2,500 people took part in the test phase.

A study by the Icelandic non-profit Alda (Association for Democracy and Sustainability) and the British think tank Autonomy found that the well-being of participants had improved significantly, working processes had been optimized and there was closer collaboration between colleagues. Productivity either stayed the same or improved.

After the test phase, trade unions and associations negotiated permanent cuts in working hours. Some 86% of employees now have the right to a four-day week.

The shorter work week is a success in Iceland, whose prime minister is Katrín Jakobsdottir

Scotland and Wales: An expensive experiment

Scotland is also currently testing the four-day work week, with the state supporting participating companies with about £10 million (ca. $13.6 million). In Wales, Sophie Howe, the future generations commissioner, has also called on the government to introduce a similar four-day working week trial, at least in the public sector.

Mixed results in Sweden

In Sweden, a four-day working week with full pay was tested in 2015, with mixed results. Even left-wing parties thought that it would be too expensive to implement this on a large scale. But some companies chose to keep reduced hours for their workers. The car firm Toyota had already decided to do this for mechanics 10 years ago and has stuck with its decision.

Watch video 02:25

Working less for the same money

Fake news from Finland

Finland also hit the international headlines for a brief moment, after reportedly cutting working hours dramatically. The northern European country allegedly wanted introduce a four-day working week, as well as a six-hour day. But it turned out that this was fake news, which the government then had to put straight.

Spain struggles to start trial phase

In Spain, the four-day working week will also be tested on request of the left-wing party Mas Pais. Some 6,000 employees of 200 small and medium-sized companies will be able to extend their weekend by one day, with full pay. The trial phase is due to run for at least one year, but it is not yet clear when it will begin.

From start-ups to corporate giants

In Germany, it is mainly smaller start-ups that are experimenting with a shorter working week. But in other countries, such as Japan, it is bigger companies that are venturing into this territory: For example, the tech giant Microsoft has experimented with the model by offering employees three-day weekends for a month.

In New Zealand, the consumer goods giant Unilever is currently trialing a four-day work week at full pay. If the experiment turns out to be a success, it will reportedly be extended to other countries.

This article was originally written in German.

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Content: 105.3 RnB Featured Video
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Source: filadendron / Getty

Wouldn’t it be nice if the weekends were just a little longer?

A study is currently being conducted to determine if employees benefit more from four-day work weeks.

A movement named 4-Day Week Global has launched an experiment in Britain. For the past few months, thousands of employees have worked four days per week.

Even if there are only four days instead of five, the employees are still paid the same and expected to complete the same amount of work. The largest experiment of its sort has reportedly been conducted.

CNN reports that several employees say the new timetable has changed their lives. Everything from chores and errands to rest and relaxation is done on that extra day. But that does not imply that everything has gone smoothly.

Working fewer days means doing more work in a shorter amount of time.

The planned duration of this experiment is six months. The study includes 70 businesses and more than 3,000 employees. Researchers from Boston College, Oxford University, and Cambridge University are participating in the study.

The involved companies will decide whether to keep the shorter work week in November.

Read the full story here.

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A Psychologist Explores The ‘Shorter Workweek Paradox’

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Have you ever wished you never had to work on a Monday? Your dream might be closer than you think. The concept of reduced working hours is gaining traction globally as organizations and governments recognize the detrimental effects of long hours on employees and employers.

This perspective is catalyzing a shift toward rethinking and reducing work hours to promote healthier life practices. For instance, the post-pandemic adoption of hybrid work models contributed to the understanding that a healthy work-life balance boosts employee satisfaction and productivity. Shorter workweeks can be achieved in different ways. For example:

  • Four-day week. Apart from the weekend, you are also given a day off on Monday or Friday.
  • Fewer daily work hours. You still have to work a five-day workweek, with a reduction in your daily working hours.
  • Half-days off. You are given two afternoons off in a five-day workweek.

What Are The Benefits Of Reduced Working Hours?

In several countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and Spain, trials have been carried out to test the efficiency of shorter workweeks, highlighting the following benefits:

  1. Improved work performance. Shorter workweeks might encourage you to finish your work quicker and with fewer distractions. In 2020, Buffer, an American company, introduced four-day weeks. Based on their extensive trials, 34% of their employees felt more productive, resulting in Buffer permanently shifting to a four-day workweek in 2021. The reduced hours also incentivize you to be creative with your time and encourage efficiency. In their 2019 four-day workweek project, Microsoft Japan initiated collaborative online communication, reduced meetings to 30 minutes and limited meeting participants. Not only were the workers happier, they also experienced a 40% increase in productivity.
  2. Improved health and well-being. Having more time to recuperate from work can positively influence your well-being. A 2022 study found that upon reducing work hours to 30 hours per week, individuals experienced reduction in stress and sleep problems. A four-day week trial conducted in the USA and Ireland showed that employees experienced a 9% reduction in fatigue and 67% also experienced a drop in burnout levels.
  3. Higher life satisfaction. Shorter work hours and more free time tend to improve one’s perception of their life situation. A study in Sweden examined the effects of reduced work hours and canceled lunch breaks for nurses while retaining their wages. The participants reported greater life satisfaction and higher energy levels. “You get a life. I can say as much. You do get it, actually—it is unbelievable what a big difference these two hours make,” a participant explained.
  4. Better work-life balance. Reduced work hours can foster a healthy balance between work and leisure activities. A study found that reducing employees’ work hours while retaining their full pay led to positive work-life balance. They experienced more positive emotions before work, reduced work-related worries and improved relationships with partners, colleagues and their children.

While reduced working hours might seem like a revolutionary idea from afar, reality may be more complex up close. Which brings us to:

What Are The Potential Pitfalls Of Reduced Working Hours?

Here’s why ditching the time-tested five-day workweek needs to be considered carefully:

  1. Monetary issues. Some companies provide shorter workweeks with salary deductions. Employees might also face issues in wage regulations and overtime pay. These can adversely impact their living standards and savings. A 2022 study found that working reduced hours left 45% of individuals worried about having low future retirement income and 33% of individuals found it harder to make ends meet.
  2. Reduced employee bonding. The time crunch to complete tasks in less time can impede social aspects of the job. Some companies also shorten lunch breaks to compensate for missed hours. In such cases, employees rarely get to meet their colleagues and miss out on social interaction.
  3. Higher work pressure. Reducing work hours can increase strain on employees when implemented without foresight. A four-day workweek trial conducted in the UK found that work felt more intense for 36% of the employees. Forty-five percent of employees also felt that their productivity either remained the same as before or decreased in comparison.
  4. Short-term effects. Extensive research on reduced working hours has yet to establish its effectiveness in the long run. A 2022 Gallup survey revealed that the high well-being once associated with four-day workweeks leveled out to match that of the five-day workweek. Four-day workweeks also led to greater burnout than five-day workweeks.

Your desire for a shorter workweek is well-founded. However, initiating a conversation about reduced work hours with your team requires tact and consideration. You must engage in open dialogue, highlighting the potential benefits and addressing concerns to ensure a healthy consensus and eventually, a smooth transition to a work environment that accommodates diverse work styles.

Working less can improve your quality of life. It’s also important to find a “psychologically safe” workplace. Learn if your employer is meeting your needs by taking the evidence-based Psychological Safety Scale.

Title:

Content: Ina Opperman
Business Journalist
3 minute read
26 Feb 2023
10:00 am

Largest 4-day week trial results good news for future of work

Ina Opperman

Will a 4-day workweek work? It seems that employees and employers are happy.

The results of the world’s largest 4-day week trial is good news for the future of work, with new research showing that these results are largely in line with existing global evidence, further demonstrating the benefits of reduced-hour, output-focused working.

The pilot programme conducted in the UK by non-profit 4 Day Week Global, the UK’s 4-Day Week Campaign and think tank Autonomy, guided over 60 companies and almost 3 000 workers through a six-month trial of a 4-day week, with no loss of pay for workers.

This brings the global campaign’s total number of completed pilot participants to 91 companies and approximately 3 500 employees. Lead researcher, professor Juliet Schor of Boston College, says overall results show that almost every organisation will stick to a 4-day week after the trial, with 91% definitely continuing or planning to continue and another 4% leaning towards continuing. Only 4% of participants are definitely not continuing.

Participating companies rated their overall experience of the trials at an average of 8.5/10, with business productivity and business performance each scoring 7.5/10. Revenue increased by 35% over the trial periods when compared to similar periods from the previous year, while hiring increased and absenteeism decreased.

ALSO READ: 28 SA companies to implement 4-day work week on 1 March

Improved employee wellbeing and health

During the trial it was also found that the health and wellbeing of employees also improved, with significant increases observed in physical and mental health, time spent exercising and overall life and job satisfaction. Rates of stress, burnout and fatigue all decreased along with problems with sleep.

Even the environmental outcomes were encouraging, with commuting time falling across the full sample by a half hour per week.

Schor says she observed an encouraging consistency in the data, with results largely steady across workplaces of varying sizes, demonstrating this is an innovation which works for many types of organisations.

“There are also some interesting differences. We found that employees in non-profits and professional services had a larger average increase in time spent exercising, while those in construction and manufacturing enjoyed the largest reductions in burnout and sleep problems.”

Behavioural scientist and new CEO of 4-Day Week Global, Dr Dale Whelehan, explained the sample produced interesting differences in gender outcomes. “While men and women benefit from a 4-day week, women’s experience is generally better for burnout, life and job satisfaction, mental health and reduced commuting time.”

ALSO READ: 4-day work week pilot so successful, all participating companies sticking to it

4-day workweek also balances home tasks

Encouragingly, the research also showed that the burden of non-work duties appears to be balancing out, with more men taking on a greater share of housework and childcare.

Co-founder and MD of 4-Day Week Global, Charlotte Lockhart, says her team is delighted to be expanding the arguments in favour of a 4-day week with this new world-class academic research. “We look forward to adding our Australasian pilot results to this data set in the coming weeks and our European, South African, Brazilian and North American results in the coming months.”

4-Day Week Global was founded in New Zealand by entrepreneurs and philanthropists, Andrew Barnes and Charlotte Lockhart, following the world-renowned success of their pioneering trial of the 4-day week in Perpetual Guardian.

Their approach is based on the 100-80-100™ model designed by Lockhart alongside the Perpetual Guardian trial in 2018. That means 100% of the pay, for 80% of the time, in exchange for a commitment to deliver 100% of the output.

4-Day Week Global’s ambition is to make a 4-day week the new default and reduced working time the new standard.

What did  the trial of 4-day workwee in New Zealand show?

The productivity  increased
The employees were happier

What did a survey on 4-day workweek conducted in Hong Kong show?

61% of respondents said employers could implement a four-day workweek to improve employees' mental health.

What did surveys conducted in London before and after the experiment of 4-day workweek  find?

54% of employees had better balance of work and home responsibilities

What has a Gallup Poll found out about the prospect of 4-day workweek?

77% of American employees believe that it will have a positive impact on their health

What has the implementation 4-day wrokweek in Dubai, UAE indicated?

Increase in employee and customer satisfaction.

What did  the trial of 4-day workwee in New Zealand show?

The productivity  increased
The employees were happier

What did a survey on 4-day workweek conducted in Hong Kong show?

61% of respondents said employers could implement a four-day workweek to improve employees' mental health.

What did surveys conducted in London before and after the experiment of 4-day workweek  find?

54% of employees had better balance of work and home responsibilities

What has a Gallup Poll found out about the prospect of 4-day workweek?

77% of American employees believe that it will have a positive impact on their health

What has the implementation 4-day wrokweek in Dubai, UAE indicated?

Increase in employee and customer satisfaction.

What did  the trial of 4-day workwee in New Zealand show?

The productivity  increased
The employees were happier

What did a survey on 4-day workweek conducted in Hong Kong show?

61% of respondents said employers could implement a four-day workweek to improve employees' mental health.

What did surveys conducted in London before and after the experiment of 4-day workweek  find?

54% of employees had better balance of work and home responsibilities

What has a Gallup Poll found out about the prospect of 4-day workweek?

77% of American employees believe that it will have a positive impact on their health

What has the implementation 4-day wrokweek in Dubai, UAE indicated?

Increase in employee and customer satisfaction.

What did  the trial of 4-day workwee in New Zealand show?

The productivity  increased
The employees were happier

What did a survey on 4-day workweek conducted in Hong Kong show?

61% of respondents said employers could implement a four-day workweek to improve employees' mental health.

What did surveys conducted in London before and after the experiment of 4-day workweek  find?

54% of employees had better balance of work and home responsibilities

What has a Gallup Poll found out about the prospect of 4-day workweek?

77% of American employees believe that it will have a positive impact on their health

What has the implementation 4-day wrokweek in Dubai, UAE indicated?

Increase in employee and customer satisfaction.

What did  the trial of 4-day workwee in New Zealand show?

The productivity  increased
The employees were happier

What did a survey on 4-day workweek conducted in Hong Kong show?

61% of respondents said employers could implement a four-day workweek to improve employees' mental health.

What did surveys conducted in London before and after the experiment of 4-day workweek  find?

54% of employees had better balance of work and home responsibilities

What has a Gallup Poll found out about the prospect of 4-day workweek?

77% of American employees believe that it will have a positive impact on their health

What has the implementation 4-day wrokweek in Dubai, UAE indicated?

Increase in employee and customer satisfaction.

What did  the trial of 4-day workwee in New Zealand show?

The productivity  increased
The employees were happier

What did a survey on 4-day workweek conducted in Hong Kong show?

61% of respondents said employers could implement a four-day workweek to improve employees' mental health.

What did surveys conducted in London before and after the experiment of 4-day workweek  find?

54% of employees had better balance of work and home responsibilities

What has a Gallup Poll found out about the prospect of 4-day workweek?

77% of American employees believe that it will have a positive impact on their health

What has the implementation 4-day wrokweek in Dubai, UAE indicated?

Increase in employee and customer satisfaction.

What did  the trial of 4-day workwee in New Zealand show?

The productivity  increased
The employees were happier

What did a survey on 4-day workweek conducted in Hong Kong show?

61% of respondents said employers could implement a four-day workweek to improve employees' mental health.

What did surveys conducted in London before and after the experiment of 4-day workweek  find?

54% of employees had better balance of work and home responsibilities

What has a Gallup Poll found out about the prospect of 4-day workweek?

77% of American employees believe that it will have a positive impact on their health

What has the implementation 4-day wrokweek in Dubai, UAE indicated?

Increase in employee and customer satisfaction.

However, implementing a 4-day workweek can be challenging, particularly in industries such as healthcare and finance, where customer-facing roles require longer working hours, and companies must prioritize employee-focused policies and transparency.

Title:

Content: Four-day workweek’s popularity grew during the pandemic — survey

As companies scrambled during the COVID-19 outbreak to reorient their workplace procedures and processes, one idea that gained ground was a shorter workweek.

More businesses adopted a four-day week during the COVID-19 pandemic as the shift to remote working spurred a major rethinking of work practices, according to a poll of senior leaders at 500 UK businesses by the University of Reading’s Henley Business School.

The survey, an update to research from 2019, showed that 21% of respondents adopted a four-day workweek for all staff in 2021, up from 18% in 2019. The majority of respondents (65%) said a four-day workweek is in place for at least some of their workers, up from 50% who said that in 2019. A four-day workweek is defined in the report as involving a reduction from five to four workdays for the same pay or a compressed workweek with the same hours across four days instead of five.

Though a four-day workweek has gained popularity, the UK numbers are perhaps higher than expected; job posting site Indeed told Computerworld that less than 1% of job postings on March 11 included the term “four-day week,” for example. A Gallup survey of full-time U.S. employees in March 2020 — prior to the pandemic — indicated that only 5% put in four days a week, with the vast majority (84%) working five days (and 11% working six days each week).

That said, numerous organizations have adopted or trialled a shorter workweek for staff since the start of the pandemic, including firms such as Atom Bank, Bolt, Buffer, and Kickstarter. And pilot projects are under way in several countries, including the US, UK, and Spain.

Such projects are not new, of course; Microsoft launched a trial at its Japan offices in 2019 that resulted in higher productivity, for example, while the UK’s Wellcome Trust ran into issues around complexity with its own project the same year.

A shorter workweek has been talked about for decades, but a shift from the five-day, 40-hour week that has been the standard for over a century has so far failed to gain momentum.

What’s behind the recent interest in the idea? One reason is that the widespread, and largely successful, shift to remote work during the pandemic showed the benefits of a more flexible approach to work, said Rita Fontinha, associate professor in Strategic Human Resource Management at the University of Reading’s Henley Business School.

“The pandemic led to a situation where most firms were forced to implement remote work and this has accelerated previous discussions that we have been having over the last two decades on flexible working,” said Fontinha. “Working from home led to increased trust [between employers and employees] and awareness of other ways of measuring performance that go beyond presenteeism. The pandemic showed that flexibility works.”

Report highlights four-day week advantages

The Henley Business School survey pointed to several advantages for businesses that implemented a four-day workweek, including costs savings (66%), improved productivity (64%), better quality output from staff (64%), and  less-stressed workers (78%).

Improved employee wellbeing is connected to business outcomes too, said Jack E. Gold, founder and principal analyst at research firm J. Gold Associates.

“Keeping employees happy and motivated makes for far more productive employees, no matter what hours they work,” said Gold. “Maximizing employee productivity is a much more important way to gain business value than hours worked.”

Another benefit, noted by 68% of survey respondents that had adopted a four day week, involved hiring and retention. “People were less likely to take sick leave, people were more productive, and it was easier to attract new staff, and to retain them,” said Fontinha.

The so-called Great Resignation is also likely contributing to interest in a shorter workweek.

“What’s different now than prior to the pandemic is that we’re seeing a temporary spike in the difficulty that firms are having in hiring and retaining workers, and the four-day work week is a relatively easy benefit to extend to help ease the challenge in the short term,” said David Brodeur-Johnson, principal analyst at research firm Forrester.

A shorter workweek can mean challenges

The survey also highlighted several challenges around implementing a shorter workweek, though employer concerns have softened during the pandemic.

Among companies that did not offer a four-day week, 65% said they were worried staffing costs would outweigh any productivity benefits (though that number was down from 80%). The biggest challenge cited by employers was meeting customer demands (75%), while 70% thought a shorter week would be too complicated to manage.

Some companies may find a switch to a four-day week easier than others, said Fontinha. IT-focused firms are more likely to switch, she said, largely due to the relative ease with which tech worker output can be tracked in comparison with other roles. “Areas where we were less likely to see the four-day week were sectors that involve contact with customers, or healthcare, for example,” she said.

A shorter workweek is also more suited to companies with a relatively homogenous workforce in terms of job roles, she said, meaning large businesses with a diverse workforce may find a short workweek complicated to roll out. At the same time, the smallest companies might not have the resources to support the shift, said Fontinha, adding that there are steps all businesses can take to implement a four-day week, even if they are more gradual.

“Having this overnight shift to a four-day working week will be hard for smaller firms,” she said. “What we suggest is a progressive reduction in working hours, moving towards a four-day working week by assessing how things are going and how needs are being met, how productive people are.”

Even if the benefits outweigh the costs for many, businesses should consider their reasons for moving to a four-day week. While a shorter week provides clear benefits to work/life balance and employee wellbeing, Brodeur-Johnson warns against adopting a four-day week as a shortcut to improving employee experience. “[T]he science is clear that what really engages people is being able to make progress in meaningful work every day; to know that they can and are succeeding,” he said.

“Employee experience peaks when we can leave work knowing that we made a difference, and had a really good day," he said. "It also comes from having a supportive manager, a supportive team environment, and feeling recognized and seen uniquely for the work that we do.

“All of these things are much harder for businesses to do for their people, because it involves behavior changes, manager development, culture changes, deeper resourcing and more that a four-day work week won’t solve on its own.”

Copyright © 2022 IDG Communications, Inc.

7 inconvenient truths about the hybrid work trend
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4 days a week? 30% of U.S. companies are looking to retain talent
Four days a week seems to be the trend. The non-profit organization 4 Day Week Global has participated in pilot projects in a number of countries, including the United States, Ireland, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and the results have proved to be good and have unexpected benefits.
Not only are office workers welcome, the boss is also considering the four-day work system.
A new survey of corporate CEOs by KPMG, the world ’ s top accounting and professional consulting firm, shows that nearly a third (30%) of large U.S. companies are exploring new work arrangements, working four or four and a half days a week.
Executives consider that in a hot workplace, many employees feel overworked and underpaid, and must find ways to attract and retain talent.
According to Gallup Poll, 77 percent of U.S. employees believe that working four days a week will have a positive impact on their health, with 46 percent saying it will have an "extremely positive" impact.
Last year, more than 40 companies in the United States and Canada participated in the "global four-day work" organization of four days a week pilot project, the results of the trial also satisfied the participating bosses that the four-day work system did not affect the company's income, employees' leave and sick days were reduced by 25%, and the company's internal time spent on administrative procedures was reduced by 15%.
But Paul Knopp, chairman and CEO of KPMG USA, said in an interview with CNN that it is too early to implement a four-day week, and that executives are working hard to find the best solution and will continue to experiment and adjust.
In addition, the shorter work week system is not applicable everywhere.
Knapp noted that while the four-day week might make sense for finance, marketing and some other office jobs, it doesn ’ t work for industries like health care.
He believes that a universal four-day workweek could take years, but that using artificial intelligence (AI) will make employees more efficient.
At present, AI can only automate daily tasks such as making presentations, emails, and writing reports, but in the future, generative AI may make four-day work a reality.
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What did Labor economist Jonathan Boys say about 4-day workweek?

Healthcare industry may face more problems.

What did Labor economist Jonathan Boys say about 4-day workweek?

Healthcare industry may face more problems.

Clear rules and communication are essential for a successful 4-day workweek implementation, with clear expectations and measurable goals, and companies must evaluate all aspects of their business before implementing a 4-day workweek, including critical questions and data to measure success.

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Content: Manager of an Estonian company about a four-day work week: experience shows that it is doable
Over time, more innovative ways of working begin to penetrate the Estonian work culture.
Today, the most attention is paid to the shortened working week: for example, a four-day working week or a six-hour working day.
These approaches seem exciting to many, but the fear that they will negatively affect the organization of work, often becomes an obstacle in their implementation in practice.
Elisa manager Joosep Põllumäe noted that while the fear of innovative working methods is understandable, with the right organizational culture, proper pre-planning and strong support systems, confusion resulting from overtraining can be avoided in most cases.
For example, a four-week workweek has been successfully tested twice in Elisa ’ s technology department, which has more than 200 employees.
From now on, it will become a permanent summer mode for IT teams.
“If in recent decades everyone has known that there are forty hours a week to do work, and you can ask for help from colleagues every day from nine to five, then one day off can be a real shock, ” he said.
You just need to know which problem areas to focus on. ”
According to Põllumäe, in order for the introduction of new ways of working to go as smoothly as possible, it is first of all important to focus on establishing clear rules of the game, clear communication and the most accurate measurements.
Expectations should converge
Working four days a week, one weekday is free for the employee.
However, the details associated with this basic thesis may vary from company to company.
Therefore, according to Põllumäe, it is important that all parties involved in the organization of work understand these details equally.
For example, you should establish whether the day off is completely free, or it will be a day of study, a day of concentration or something else.
It is also important to determine who can be disturbed on the fifth day and on what issues, what changes will be made to the organization of work in the remaining four days, so that the work continues to be carried out.
“Employees need to clearly understand what is expected of them and what means are at their disposal to achieve their goals – whether they can cancel meetings, refuse additional tasks, work more from home.
Similarly, employers need to understand what employees expect.
For example, if a four-day work week includes one completely free day, you need to understand that employees do not want to be covered with working letters on this day, ” Põllumäe said.
Work must be measurable
Since expectations of attainable results do not decrease when working hours are shortened, one of the secrets to the success of the new organization of work is clear measurements and a concrete understanding of when the work is done.
According to Põllumäe, the more abstract someone ’ s role or the wider the range of tasks, the more likely it is that some important topics will go unnoticed, or people will always feel that they have to do more, and therefore will not dare to take a day off.
“Employees usually want to exceed expectations.
Try to do as much as possible in five working days.
However, if the employer suddenly allows an employee to take a day off in the case of work performed, then without clear measurements, it is difficult for some employees to understand whether they have completed their tasks or not, - he explained. - That is why very clear measurements are important - thing X should be developed within a month, analysis Y should be completed within a quarter, no "ticket" should "hang" longer than Z days. "
The better people understand their expectations, the better they can plan their work and deliver results in less time.
Communication is important
Since no team or branch of a company operates in a vacuum, clear communication and listening to feedback are also critical to implementing innovative work practices.
For example, departments ordering work from the development department should understand that one day a week from the development department should not wait for answers.
The sales team should know that marketing will not launch new ads on a certain day, and management should understand that one day a week should not expect quick reports from employees.
“If everyone knows how others work, they adjust their work accordingly.
Knowing that the data sphere teams are not working on Friday, the necessary data will be requested on Thursday, he explained. – It is also important to ask for constant feedback – if it begins to seem that the absence of someone from the team is causing real damage to the business, or customers begin to feel their absence, something needs to be adjusted, for example, to change the day when they are absent, or alternate absent employees to always provide some cover. ”
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Content: VERNON HILLS, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 7, 2022--

This week, Wonderlic, a leading pre-employment assessment company that moved to a 32-hour, four-day work week in 2021, released a first-of-its-kind guide called The Four-Day Work Week Playbook: Advice from Six Early Adopters on Planning, Piloting, and Perfecting a New Way to Work.

In the 37-page guide, leaders from Wonderlic, Uncharted, Elephant Ventures, PDQ, Awin, and Swash Labs—companies with as few as 50 and as many as 1200 employees—share:

  • How they decided whether a shorter work week was viable for them
  • The most critical questions to ask early—and what data to gather to measure success
  • Best practices for planning, managing, and learning from your pilot
  • The unexpected benefits they’re seeing beyond a recruiting and retention advantage
  • And proven strategies for increasing employee happiness and efficiency that any company can benefit from

“Moving to a four-day work week is a huge decision that requires asking a lot of tough questions, evaluating every aspect of how you do business, and being laser-focused on improving life for your employees, all while still hitting all your business goals,” says Wonderlic CEO Becca Callahan.

“As we’ve learned from our own experience—and by talking to other progressive leaders like Banks, Art, Victoria, Adam, and Josh—there’s no single ‘right’ way to go about it. In creating this guide, we wanted to provide companies curious about the possibilities with some strategic guidance to help them confidently decide if it’s the right move for them.”

Curious to learn more? Check out the full playbook here. And to contact Becca, please email mediainquiries@wonderlic.com.

About Wonderlic

Wonderlic’s mission is to help HR professionals and hiring managers identify top applicants and predict on-the-job performance by providing them the most trusted, scientifically validated assessments on the market.

Since the company was founded in 1937, more than 200 million Wonderlic assessments have been administered to job candidates. Our formula for success is simple: cutting-edge I-O psychology research, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and a company culture grounded in a thirst for innovative thinking and a sincere respect for diverse perspectives.

View source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220707005308/en/

mediainquiries@wonderlic.com

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SOURCE: Wonderlic

Copyright Business Wire 2022.

PUB: 07/07/2022 09:00 AM/DISC: 07/07/2022 09:02 AM

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The 100:80:100 framework, which allows employees to trade time for productivity, can help companies stay 100% productive with 20% less working hours, and companies can prioritize employee mental health and wellbeing by providing a comfortable working environment and personalized approach to employees.

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Content: "Stop looking at the crystal ball": in the world of work, you need to adopt new rules of the game
What to expect in 2022 from the world of work?
At the moment, it is difficult to predict something, and experts point out that with the beginning of the third year of the pandemic, workers still have to face unprecedented difficulties.
Moreover, the return to full-time work begins to seem more and more unreal, reports BBC Worklife.
Two years ago, when the pandemic began, many businesses began to organize work remotely.
The idea was - "so far remotely, but then everything will return to the rolled rails."
But the spread of the omicron strain delayed the plans of millions of workers to return to the workplace.
In addition, the activities of enterprises and the labor market have so adapted to the “new reality ” that a return to“ normal work before the pandemic ” seems increasingly unrealistic.
However, we still don ’ t know what or how will affect the way we work.
Last year, on January 5, people hoped that 2021 would bring some stability or strengthen the hybrid model of work.
Somewhere it worked, but somewhere it did not, as there were new variants of the virus, as a result of which it is too early to talk about stability.
The situation often changes and it is difficult to find a point of reference that would allow us to say where we will be in 12 months.
Experts who study the labor market and employment have found several trends that have already been outlined quite clearly.
This can be considered topical issues in the world of work this year, which will determine its future.
Shortened work weeks may be relevant
The call for shorter working weeks and a more concentrated work schedule is gaining ground in the world.
Many companies and even governments are already experimenting with various alternative work schedules.
We need to change the way we work and the way we work.
The standard 40-hour working week “from 9 to 5 ” was introduced back in the days of the Industrial Revolution about 200 years ago.
This was the last time the work schedule changed.
It is no longer effective in the long run, as our work has become more intense, thanks to new video conferencing technologies and the Internet, ” says Abigail Marks, a professor at the Newcastle University School of Business.
“Those in business and politics should take into account all aspects of how not to overload workers, while at the same time thinking about maintaining or increasing productivity.
This decision often comes in the form of a four-day work week.
Work that is concentrated in a shorter period of time and more free time is good news for the mental health of workers and the balance between personal and work life, ” says the professor.
Although it looks that this idea in 2022 may receive even greater support, this model of work, unfortunately, will not suit all workers.
Marx recalls that switching to a four-day working week may be convenient for individual office workers, but not for all workers.
“A four-day work week may be the privilege of a limited group of white-collar workers.
Such a change in labor policy will not affect low-paid labor in any way.
You also need to take into account the specifics of the work: in the field of IT and many other services, a four-day work week is virtually impossible, ” says Marx.
Therefore, she points out that in 2022, the main challenge will be finding a middle ground between those workers who can enjoy an elastic work schedule and those who do not.
“This way we can come to a fragmented labor market.
As long as various office workers and important officials can enjoy fewer hours of work, for others, especially health care workers, this will not even be possible in theory, ” says the expert.
Different benefits as the main way to attract employees
In 2021, there were not enough workers around the world.
This problem is not going anywhere, and in 2022 it will also create new problems.
According to Allison Sullivan, manager of corporate communications at Glasdoor, this is because "the factors that create this problem will not disappear as the pandemic and the growing demand for food delivery continue to be around."
This means that employers will be forced to change tactics when hiring new employees, as well as have to think about how to keep those who are already working.
The methods that helped before the pandemic are no longer going to help.
Associate Professor Anthony Klot of the University of Texas pointed out that this year a popular trend was a personal approach to each potential and actual employee.
"In 2022, we will see employers pay more attention to the interests of employees to improve relationships with those who are already working, as well as attract new professionals," Klot said.
This is not only the basis of good business performance – elasticity and employee care is becoming a major advantage, and more and more workers expect this from their employers.
Sullivan argues that workers will also become more demanding, so the employer must be willing to provide everything necessary to ensure a comfortable working environment.
As a result, companies will have to develop "personalized tactics of personnel organization.
Instead of a one-size-fits-all program, companies will have to take care to give each employee an individual approach, ” says Klot.
Sullivan points out that a personalized approach can be expressed in salary increases, or, for example, in helping with loan repayment, or extended maternity leave.
Another important nuance is to determine the mental health of an employee as a priority.
After all, burnout last year was a major problem for many companies, and more people are leaving their jobs, or thinking about it.
“Even bastions of career and work like Wall Street are beginning to act and changing the culture of work, focusing more on workers than just performance, ” says Klot.
Employees will not return to the same office.
When some (not all) workers finally return to work in the office - this year, or later, it will have to be concluded that the "new normal" office will not be like the one we have seen before.
Nicholas Bloom, a professor of economics at Stanford University, points out that companies will adapt jobs to all the requirements of hybrid labor, taking into account how people actually want to work.
Bloom, who has been studying the future of office work for many years, points out that the days that all employees will be in the office will be rare.
When they do, it will be unusual and even uncomfortable.
He pointed out that he had heard “horror stories about employees who have to go to an office where there is an unusual silence. ”
In other words, such work in the office, as before the pandemic, will remain in the past.
More and more companies are introducing a hybrid model in their work, where individual employees are sent to the office and the rest remain at home.
Under this model, offices are also adjusted, where everything is now equipped so that it is possible to comply with all the requirements of epidemiological safety.
"Separate meeting rooms, small soundproofed rooms for video calls, as well as free choice of workplace.
Employees no longer like being in the crowd.
Therefore, offices adapt to this by providing employees with a convenient and accessible environment where there is enough space to meet colleagues in person, ” Bloom said.
Another important thing is the need for office space itself.
Experts point out that the need for offices will not disappear, and their area will not change.
Although it is expected that the number of hours worked on site will still be 30% less than before the pandemic, companies are not going to reduce the area of   their offices.
“While the hybrid model, where we work both remotely and on-site, will be relevant, the office will remain an integral part of the job. It ’ s impossible to imagine a job without a specific base, ” says Bloom.
The Road to the Unknown Continues
Although man by nature tries to make predictions and hope for the best, much is still almost unclear.
The main thing is that we don't know - what exactly we don't know.
At the beginning of the pandemic, many analysts predicted that a return to office work would largely happen by the summer of 2021, when vaccines became publicly available.
However, this deadline continues to be pushed back to the future.
Delta- and omicron strains of the coronavirus cause concerns about public health, so plans to return to the office continue to be delayed.
“What we ’ ve learned over the past two years is to stop looking at the crystal ball, ” said Canina Blanchard, a professor at the University of Western Ontario.
There are things that give hope for a return to “normal life before the pandemic, ” such as vaccines, coronavirus medications, and a short period of self-isolation.
But we know that there are many unknowns in the future (a good example is the omicron, which unexpectedly changed the plans of many companies).
We also do not know what to expect from the future, as everything can change in an instant.
Therefore, with forecasts and hopes for 2022, you need to be careful.
Especially when it comes to returning to “normal life. ”
It is very possible that the "new normal" situation is the rules of the game that we must accept.
“What we clearly know is that in 2022, as in the previous two years, the most important thing will be health and its preservation.
Life will still be very chaotic and even abnormal, "Blanchard said.
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Content: [Workplace Culture] Non-Profit Organization 4 Day Week Global Advocates for Corporate Transition to “4-Day Workday ”
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“4 Day Week Global ” explores and studies with businesses to see if they can stay 100% productive if their employees work 20% less hours, four days a week.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies have changed their work patterns, such as hybrid work and flexible working arrangements such as the four-day workweek, to reduce the chance of infection due to social contact.
However, in 2018, before the outbreak of the epidemic, New Zealand entrepreneur Andrew Barnes had already piloted the four-day work system for his company, and later established the non-profit group “4 Day Week Global ” to promote and guide the implementation of the four-day work system to global enterprises.
Andrew Barnes experimented with a four-day workweek for 240 employees at his company, Perpetual Guardian, which turned out to be a great success, with employees becoming happier and more productive, making it a permanent system.
Report: 92% of HR executives plan to use AI to enhance talent recruitment and management processes
Andrew Barnes then founded “4 Day Week Global ” and spoke in 99 countries on the topic of the four-day workweek, working with businessmen, academics and researchers around the world to bring productivity-focused flexible working to life.
“4 Day Week Global ” explores and studies with companies to see if they can stay 100% productive if their employees work 20% less hours, four days a week. Andrew Barnes says it ’ s not just about work-life balance, it ’ s about how to increase productivity to make the business better.
Focus more on production and return time to employees
“The idea of working four days a week is what I can give my employees as an incentive to focus on production, ” says Andrew Barnes.
If they can use their time more wisely, it makes sense to give it back to them. ” So he created the “100: 80: 100 framework ”, which allows employees to trade 100% of their salary, 80% of their time, for 100% productivity.
Report: 60% of employees have misused email to leak company data
In June this year, 20 companies from Oceania participated in the 4-day workweek pilot project of “4 Day Week Global ” and collaborated with Boston College, the University of Sydney, the University of Melbourne, and the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand to guide companies through each step of the implementation trial.
Since January, similar pilot projects have been running in Ireland, North America and the UK, with 125 companies enrolled.
Andrew Barnes warns entrepreneurs: “Your biggest risk right now is not whether or not to try the four-day workday, but whether or not your biggest competitor has implemented it before you. ”
He emphasized that if entrepreneurs can ’ t re-imagine how the business works, employees will leave you and choose leaders with a broader vision.
For each episode of "Entrepreneurship ideas", please come to Hong Kong corporate brands to share tips for doing business under the epidemic.
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Ultimately, the success of a 4-day workweek depends on proper planning, support, and communication, as well as a willingness to adapt to changing circumstances, and companies must be willing to invest in building systems around internal and external processes to ensure a smooth transition.

What challenges will the companies with diverse workforce have for implementing 4-day workweek??

Complicated to roll out for large companies

Lack of resouces to support shift for sall comppanies

What challenges will the companies with diverse workforce have for implementing 4-day workweek??

Complicated to roll out for large companies

Lack of resouces to support shift for sall comppanies

The UAE adopted a 4.5-day working model, while Sharjah opted for a four-day model, indicating a growing trend towards shorter workweeks, and Google searches for "4 day week jobs" increased by 1,011% in early 2022, suggesting a high level of interest in the concept.

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Content: The four-day work week is welcome, but some challenges remain

This shift has thrown up interesting questions on macro and micro levels that over time will need answering

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The sin of presenteeism is shaping up as a pre-pandemic anachronism, and the principal reason for this is not just remote working but an emerging historic global shift towards a shorter working week.

The global headaches from supply constraints following Covid-19 disruption have overshadowed equally profound changes in the labour market. For some bosses, there is rationing not just of the number of workers but the time they are willing to work. As people reassess their work-life balance, responsible employers and some countries are looking at the advantages of compressed hours on the job.

The UAE is a trailblazer in this regard, with most emirates having formally adopted a 4.5-day working model. Sharjah has gone further by opting for a four-day model. Reporting last week in this newspaper found that its residents said they are healthier and happier, enjoying more weekend flexibility and having more time with their families.

Many forecasts over recent years have been very wide of the mark about the economic trajectory of the big developed economies. The Resolution Foundation, a UK-based think tank that looks at work, points out that in analysing the pandemic, “many feared a house price bust, expected the inflation spike to be small/short-lived, said unemployment/insolvencies for workers/firms respectively would surge and claimed this would be a ‘she-cession’. None happened”.

Technology is the driver of all this, and the trend may over time become irresistible

Analysis of Google searches in the UK from an employment agency recently reported the four-day work week had gained popularity among people on the hunt for their next job opportunity. “Google searches for "4 day week jobs" exploded a spectacular 1,011 per cent in early 2022, when compared to 2021,” according to the firm’s research.

One of Britain’s biggest and best-known corporate brands, the department store M&S, has hired a well-known female executive who is a prominent four-day week champion, Katie Bickerstaffe. She said her role was compatible with shorter hours, even though it is a round-the-clock operation.

“We’re a seven-days-a-week, 24-hour operation and that’s what you do, but I’ve always done that [four days] because it gives me the freedom to spend some downtime with my kids and not feel that I don’t have the opportunity to do that during the week,” she explained.

The news coincided with the announcement that 70 UK companies had voluntarily joined a scheme to alter the working week basis of their business. Signing on to a pledge to pay 100 per cent of wages for 80 per cent of the hours worked means much more than just creating new rotas. It means altering the internal working patterns of the business and finding new ways to accommodate latency in the workforce.

Not everyone is convinced this can deliver a kind of workplace nirvana.

The Centre for Policy Studies carried out some research last year that estimated that a four-day week would have a big cost to the economy if productivity levels remained constant. The annual shortfall to the economy would be £45 billion ($55.42bn). On more generous calculations, if a 6 per cent increase in productivity could be achieved in the first decade of the reform, the loss overall could be pared back to £17bn. The analyst behind the figures believes the evidence for productivity gains from compressing hours and having shorter working weeks is extremely limited.

That is not much of an argument for not experimenting with shorter weeks. Employees already job-share and expect work-from-home arrangements throughout the work force. In office-based roles or project work, the flexibility to complete the workload that comes with the job most obviously lends itself to working with a defined, shorter time frame.

There are hurdles for other jobs. Customer-facing roles or service functions will still need to be provided across a far longer time-frame than four days or 32 hours. Unlike in Sharjah, there is no clear directive in the UK for a common day that extends the weekend. Indeed, many people working four days chose a non-consecutive day, such as Wednesday, for the non-working option.

Without the government plumping for Friday as part of a three-day weekend, it is likely that businesses will experience co-ordination both internally and with clients and supplies if substantial numbers in the workforce are missing in action for part of the working week.

There are also concerns around the equality of the development. Can it be true that more flexibility would allow women, in particular, to better balance childcare obligations and thus erode the disadvantage with men?

And as the work-from-home phenomenon has shown, the higher-paid employees have snapped up the main benefits from structural changes in how people work. There is little to suppose that this trend would not emerge from the four-day week.

Technology is, of course, the driver of all this, and the trend may over time become irresistible.

Certainly, the difficulties of drawing an absolute boundary between the working day and your time revolve around the fact that your email is always in your pocket on the phone. That is double-edged. It would be difficult for employers to play another card: offering people four days’ pay, not the salaried five.

Published: June 13, 2022, 4:00 AM

In the UK, 70 companies joined a scheme to alter the working week basis, and 21% of UK businesses adopted a four-day workweek in 2021, with 65% of respondents having a four-day workweek for some staff.

The four-day workweek has been shown to improve employee productivity, with a trial in Iceland demonstrating that productivity remained unchanged or improved, and a UK trial showing a 22% increase in productivity.

Title:

Content: [Workplace benefits] British Bank changed to 4 days of work artificial unchanged CEO: 5 days of work is a product of the 19th century
Personal Value Added 18: 50 2021 / 12 / 07
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When Hong Kong people were still working nine nights, seven days a week, five days a week, or even six days a week, some banks in the United Kingdom had already started to work four days a week.
Portugal ’ s new remote work law prohibits employers from contacting employees during off-hours: Click here
Atom Bank, a fintech bank in the United Kingdom, recently announced that it will let employees choose whether to work four days a week, and said that the company will not reduce employee pay, which is expected to benefit 430 employees.
However, under the four-day work, although the total working hours per week will be reduced from 37.5 hours to 34 hours, the daily working hours of employees will be extended by one hour to compensate for the extra day of vacation, that is, the daily working hours of employees will be increased from 7.5 hours to 8.5 hours.
According to Mark Mullen, CEO of Atom Bank, five-day work was an industrial necessity in the 19th century, and it is now obsolete. As the epidemic has completely changed the working model of many employees, companies have begun to consider how they can work more efficiently, healthily and happily, and in addition to promoting working from home, reducing the number of working days and hours is one of the new norm.
Iceland Trials 4-Day Job Productivity to Rise
In fact, four-day work is not new, there have been companies in the past, but mainly in European countries, and many people have questioned whether four-day work is more efficient than five-day work.
In the early days of Iceland, a pilot scheme was conducted between 2015 and 2019 to test whether a reduction in working days would lead to higher productivity, with 2,500 participants across pre-school education, social services, health care and office white-collar workers, accounting for more than 1% of the Icelandic workforce.
The testers worked 4 days on a trial basis, and the work week was reduced from 40 hours to 35 to 36 hours.
It was found that the productivity of most of the testers who adopted the four-day work system remained unchanged or even improved.
Lidl is the UK ’ s highest paid supermarket: Click Here
The median working week in Hong Kong is 45 hours.
According to the Quarterly Report of the General Household Survey for the third quarter of 2021 released by the Government, the median number of working hours per week for wage earners in Hong Kong is 45 hours, which is 10 hours more than in Iceland.
US mobile security technology company KISI earlier released the "2021 work-life balance city ranking", Hong Kong ranked 45th out of 50 statistical places, is the largest city in the world in the statistics of overworked population, nearly 3 adults appear overworked.
Hong Kong people are known to love to work again, do you think it is possible to implement a four-day work in Hong Kong?
Editor-in-Chief: Yan Heiman
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Content: New normal | Will 2024 be the year of the four-day week boom? Probably not…

At one point in time, flexible working was a prime example of the benefits that truly had the power to lure and retain talent.

Those days are now behind us.

This isn’t because the prospect of working from home, or altering office hours around childcare or medical appointments isn’t still alluring. In fact, far from it. It’s because in the interim, the world experienced a massive shift. One that not only forced many businesses to adopt remote working policies or face the prospect of inactivity, but also changed the perceptions of workers about their careers, and the value of wellbeing in their working lives.

In a post-pandemic world, the concept of flexible working is largely considered a given. This is acutely true among companies that understand the persistent challenges in the talent market. So, where do we go from here? Where are those looking to push the boundaries of their benefits offering to turn? The answer is the four-day week.

You’ve likely heard the words ‘four-day week’ uttered at conferences, or read it plastered all over LinkedIn. In short, whilst there’s some variation in implementation, for most adopting a four-day week involves quite literally ditching one full working day. Employees work their normal hours, minus one fifth, and get paid the same amount for their effort.

The concept may sound ludicrous to some, yet the value of the idea goes far beyond simply being a valued benefit. Data from the largest trial ever to have taken place in the UK, as reported by Buffer, found that productivity among workers increased by 22%, job applications went up 88%, absenteeism went down by 66%. Employees are also reportedly less tired and happier.

So, we have an exciting new concept with stellar outcomes when trialled and the vast majority of businesses are yet to adopt it. Inevitably, this will be the next big thing in 2024, right? In reality, this is doubtful. Here’s why.

Whilst flexible working has been adopted en masse, let’s not forget the impetus that caused this boom – the pandemic. According to data from IPSE, the proportion of workers reporting they work exclusively at home rose from 5.7 per cent in January 2020 to 43.1 per cent in April 2020. Whilst flexible working was no new concept in early 2020, the pandemic served as the catalyst for huge change, convincing many traditionalists that ditching the nine-to-five and introducing remote working could actually work.

The pandemic was the biggest trial of such a concept in recent history. And herein lies the issue with the four-day week. Leaders need to be convinced. Yes, it’s likely that it will grow in 2024, but without a major shift in working culture to encourage those who dismiss it to give it a try, there’ll be no sudden boom. So no, 2024 will not be the ‘year of the four-day week’, but for early adopters, it could well be a vastly positive development.

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However, the implementation of a 4-day workweek can be challenging, particularly in industries such as healthcare, where employee roles and scheduling may not be easily adapted to a reduced workweek.

What did Labor economist Jonathan Boys say about 4-day workweek?

Healthcare industry may face more problems.

What did Labor economist Jonathan Boys say about 4-day workweek?

Healthcare industry may face more problems.

The finance industry has also been slow to adopt the 4-day workweek, with some companies expressing concerns about the potential impact on business continuity and customer service.

Title:

Content: news

81% of workers say a 4-day week would make them more productive—especially in these fields

A majority, 81%, of workers say they'd be more productive if they were given the chance to work a four-day workweek, and it could be an even bigger boost for those facing high rates of burnout, according to new research.

The poll was conducted on Fishbowl by Glassdoor and considers more than 12,000 responses from U.S. professionals.

Workers in fields with notoriously high rates of burnout were the most likely to say they'd get more done if they were able to shift to a four-day schedule: health-care workers, teachers, and retail and hospitality professionals.

"There's an extensive body of research confirming a tight link between burnout and declines in labor productivity," Aaron Terrazas, chief economist at Glassdoor, tells CNBC Make It.

The burnout-productivity cycle is "vicious," he adds. Left unchecked, burned out workers are more likely to look for work elsewhere, and "when they do quit, that leaves more work for their remaining teammates who then risk further burnout."

Participants in global four-day workweek experiments say the new arrangement led to reduced burnout, as well as benefits for their health, finances and relationships. A majority of bosses rated their overall experience well, saying business performance and productivity remained high, revenue increased and turnover dropped.

So far, many conversations around the viability of a four-day week tend to center around office workers, though the Glassdoor data shows how scheduling flexibility — and in particular reduced working days — could benefit front-line workers.

"We should also keep in mind that, particularly for health care, we should not conflate a workday with an eight-hour 9-to-5 schedule," Terrazas says. "Many health-care workers are accustomed to working longer continuous hours from their medical training."

Meanwhile, those in legal, accounting and finance roles say a shortened week would not boost their productivity.

By gender, women (88%) were more likely than men (75%) to say they'd get more done from a shorter workweek.

"For many women, the expectation to juggle family and child-care responsibilities alongside their careers forces a rigorous focus on making the most out of every moment of their day," Terrazas says. "I suspect we're seeing a similar phenomenon here: Time constraints often force a ruthless prioritization of what matters most."

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Check out: Congressman wants to make 32-hour workweek U.S. law to ‘increase the happiness of humankind’

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In contrast, technology companies have been more likely to adopt the 4-day workweek, with many companies in the IT sector reporting improved productivity and employee satisfaction.

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Content: news

11 Companies Adopting a 4-Day Workweek That Are Hiring Right Now

The four-day workweek is having a moment.

Several recent studies, including one that followed nearly 3,000 workers in the U.K., found when companies switched to a four-day workweek workers' productivity, health, relationships and even finances improved. California Representative Mark Takano recently reintroduced the 32-hour Workweek Act in Congress as well, which would change the definition of a workweek from its now 40 hours if passed.

"While the concept of a four-day workweek is not brand new, there is no denying that there is great momentum and interest in this model," says Doug Ebertowski, career expert at FlexJobs. The idea is gaining traction, he says, and "that coupled with the fact that employers have become much more creative in their approach to attracting great workers could mean that we may see the four-day work week here to stay."

Whatever the future holds for the trend becoming a norm, some companies are implementing it as their go-to schedule right now. FlexJobs, which focuses on remote and flexible roles, identified a number of companies that have or are planning to adopt a shorter workweek. And they're hiring. Here are 11 of those companies, including some of their open roles.

Augury

Augury is a software company that helps detect machine malfunctions through ultrasonic sensors.
Headquarters: Haifa, Israel
Open roles: enterprise customer success manager, regional controller, service engagement manager

Bolt Financial

Bolt Financial offers clients such as e-commerce merchants a payment platform for their online stores.
Headquarters: San Francisco, California
Open roles: principal software engineer, senior machine learning engineer

DNSFilter

DNSFilter helps IT professionals filter unsafe web content and protect against digital threats.
Headquarters: Washington, D.C.
Open roles: general counsel, senior manager of digital marketing

Do Big Things

Do Big Things is a creative digital agency that offers services such as website design and spokesperson training.
Headquarters: Mill Valley, California
Open roles: finance director, senior account executive

Kickstarter

Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform whose projects span films to board games.
Headquarters: Fully remote
Open roles: senior social media manager, director of comics outreach, senior product designer

Merit America

Merit America is a nonprofit that creates pathways to careers in tech through technical training.
Headquarters: Washington, D.C.
Open roles: director of individual giving, revenue operations specialist

New Leaders

New Leaders provides equity-focused training to teachers, principals and other education figures.
Headquarters: New York, New York
Open roles: deputy chief officer of development

Panasonic

Panasonic is a global tech company with products that serve the energy, manufacturing and retail industries, among others.
Headquarters: Newark, New Jersey
Open roles: account manager of public safety, client relations specialist, field service technician

Poll Everywhere

Poll Everywhere creates online polling, surveys, quizzes and more on behalf of its clients.
Headquarters: San Francisco, California
Open roles: engineering manager, site reliability engineer

SambaSafety

SambaSafety sells software that keeps its clients and their communities' tech safe.
Headquarters: Denver, Colorado
Open roles: onboarding specialist, senior data governance analyst, Salesforce administrator

thredUP

thredUP is an online thrift store.
Headquarters: Oakland, California
Open roles: finance data analyst, chief of staff, clothing warehouse associate

As far as trends in the list go, "they're mainly nonprofit and tech companies," says Yolanda Owens, career expert at The Muse. With the exception of Panasonic, they're also smaller companies, "mainly under 1,000 employees," she says.

"With the smaller organizations, adopting a four-day workweek makes sense because it's easier to kind of put parameters around that," she says. "I think it would be a bit more difficult for larger organizations to do that just because of the scope and scale." The logistics of arranging that kind of flexibility for people in an array of roles could be tough, she says.

"I don't think you're going to see an Amazon adopting this anytime soon."

Check out:

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Workers who tested 4-day workweek say they'll never return to 5 days—or only with a huge pay bump

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The benefits of a 4-day workweek include improved employee well-being, reduced burnout, and increased job satisfaction, with 81% of workers reporting that a 4-day week would increase productivity.

What did  the trial of 4-day workwee in New Zealand show?

The productivity  increased
The employees were happier

What has the implementation 4-day wrokweek in Dubai, UAE indicated?

Increase in employee and customer satisfaction.

Additionally, a 4-day workweek can lead to reduced absenteeism and turnover, with one company reporting a 66% decrease in absenteeism after implementing a 4-day workweek.

However, the implementation of a 4-day workweek can also pose challenges, particularly in terms of equity and fairness, with some employees may not be eligible for a reduced workweek due to their job requirements or responsibilities.

Overall, the trend towards a 4-day workweek is expected to continue, with many companies exploring flexible scheduling options to attract and retain talent, and improve employee well-being and productivity.

Title:

Content: Less work for the same pay won’t fly – but here’s a four-day week that might

According to CNN “4-day workweeks may be around the corner. A third of America’s companies are exploring them.” CNBC says: “This US company tested a 4-day workweek – and says it made workers happier and more productive.” Newsweek tells us: “Millennials Are Ready For a Four-Day Week.” So why do all of my clients say nope?

According to an advocacy organization, more than 300 companies have four-day workweeks and, per the reports above, many others are apparently “testing” the concept. I admit that I’ve spoken to none of these companies but I’m not sure I have to. I spend my life working with small and mid-sized businesses and I know a PR stunt when I see one. Hey, good for them. In these times of tight labor - it’s a great marketing campaign. “People! Come work for us except you don’t have to do as much work and we’ll still pay you the same!” Now that’s a company I want to work for.

Related: Yes, inflation has slowed, but business is still paying the price – and so are you

But ask any business owner about the four-day workweek and you’ll get the eye-roll. No employer who’s currently paying a worker $1,000 a week for 40 hours is going to agree to pay that same worker the same amount for a 32-hour week.

My firm has 600 clients. These companies slit paper, coat films, design strip malls, buy and sell auto parts online, mow lawns and repair roofs. They’re mostly owned by people who wake up at 5am and work till 7pm. They don’t have enough people to do the work needed. They don’t have enough money to pay for good health insurance, let alone a robot. Their parking lots need resurfacing, their internet needs upgrading and their coffee pots need to be replaced by Keurigs.

These businesses – like most their size - suffer when a single person calls out sick. Their owners are battling customers who don’t pay, suppliers who don’t deliver and services that don’t function. My little subset of clients – who represent a tiny sliver of the country’s 30m businesses – can’t fathom a four-day workweek. To them, this is a fairytale, a dream, a misguided workplace concept driven by media interest that is so unrealistic that few even pay attention to the stories about it.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for the four-day workweek. All this idea needs is a little bit of rebranding.

If you’re an advocate of the four-day workweek you’re going about this all wrong. Instead of working fewer hours for the same pay – which, again let me confirm, is never going to happen – you should be pushing for changes in work schedules. Many industries – like healthcare, home services and retail – allow flexibility in scheduling so that workers put in four 10-hour days and then have three days off. I know younger workers who have this arrangement at their employers and they love it. Working a 10-hour shift isn’t that much different than an eight-hour shift, but having three days off in a week makes a big difference.

This is the kind of four-day workweek an employer should embrace. Allowing your people more flexibility in their scheduling satisfies a very reasonable (and admirable) value championed by today’s younger generations to have a better work-life balance. They’re right about this and smarter than my generation. By adopting a more flexible 10-hour-day schedule your company can tout its own “four-day workweek” program to current and prospective employees and leverage the current news cycle to help retain and attract more talent.

There will always be wily politicians who will take up silly causes like the four-day workweek to fire up their base. There will always be companies aiming to grab the headlines. But here’s the reality: workers who think that corporate America is going to a four-day workweek anytime soon are dreaming. It’s not going to happen. Not in the foreseeable future. Probably not ever. It simply doesn’t make economic sense. But employers can be more flexible and should be if they want to recruit the best talent. That’s the kind of “four-day” workweek that does make sense to a businessperson.

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What did a survey on 4-day workweek conducted in Hong Kong show?

61% of respondents said employers could implement a four-day workweek to improve employees' mental health.

What did a survey on 4-day workweek conducted in Hong Kong show?

61% of respondents said employers could implement a four-day workweek to improve employees' mental health.

The adoption of a 4-day workweek may vary by industry and company size, with smaller companies and those in the tech sector being more likely to adopt a reduced workweek.

What challenges will the companies with diverse workforce have for implementing 4-day workweek??

Complicated to roll out for large companies

What companies are adopting 4-day workweek?

Mainly nonprofit and small tech companies under 1,000 employees

What challenges will the companies with diverse workforce have for implementing 4-day workweek??

Complicated to roll out for large companies

What companies are adopting 4-day workweek?

Mainly nonprofit and small tech companies under 1,000 employees

Some companies, such as Panasonic, have successfully implemented a 4-day workweek, with improved productivity and employee satisfaction, while others, such as those in the healthcare industry, may face more significant challenges.

What did Labor economist Jonathan Boys say about 4-day workweek?

Healthcare industry may face more problems.

What did Labor economist Jonathan Boys say about 4-day workweek?

Healthcare industry may face more problems.

The use of technology, such as AI, may also play a role in facilitating the adoption of a 4-day workweek, by automating daily tasks and increasing employee efficiency.

What has the implementation 4-day wrokweek in Dubai, UAE indicated?

As the trend towards a 4-day workweek continues, it is likely that more companies will explore flexible scheduling options, and that the benefits and challenges of a reduced workweek will become more widely understood.