UK Study Says Four-Day Working Week Is ‘More Productive’

A UK study reported that a four-day working week is more productive for most staff and companies than the traditional five days.

The non-profit group 4 Day Week Global organized the study, along with the think tank Autonomy, the University of Cambridge, and Boston College in the United States.

Considered the world’s biggest trial of a four-day working week, more than 60 UK firms allowed almost 3,000 employees to work one day less per week while retaining the same salary for six months between June and December 2022.

The study found more than nine out of ten firms will continue the shortened working week or plan to do so, with only 4% saying they will not extend it.

“Results are largely steady across workplaces of varying sizes, demonstrating this is an innovation which works for many types of organizations,” lead researcher and Boston College professor Juliet Schor said.

The results revealed that productivity did not suffer and company revenue increased by 1.4% on average over the trial period. Other effects include an increase in hiring and a decline in absentees and resignations.

Researchers also concluded that the overall health and well-being of employees significantly improved and lowered levels of stress, burnout, and fatigue.

“In terms of employees, their mental health improved, they got better sleep, they got less burnt out,” Cambridge University’s Professor Brendan Burchell said.

“But at the same time, the companies reported that if there were changes in their profits or their performance if anything they were more likely to go up rather than down,” Burchell said.

“And we got lots of very happy people — people really enjoyed it; they found it such a reward to have three-day weekends instead of two-day weekends,” he added.

UK environmental consultancy Tyler Grange was part of the 18 firms that permanently adopted the four-day working week and reported that turnover increased slightly despite reduced working hours.

“My experience has only been really, really positive — you can see it in people day-to-day at work, that they’re more energized at work,” Tyler Grange client director Nathan Jenkinson said.

Jenkinson shared that employees “come into work at the start of the week on a Monday, having had three days rest, and they’re feeling much more positive about work and got a lot more energy.”

Several studies have also been done in European countries, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, to explore the four-day working week, post-pandemic flexibility, and include the concept of a hybrid workplace to enable more working from home.

However, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman said the UK government has “no plans for that” when asked about adopting the trial as national policy.

Source: Inquirer.net