Over 90 percent of firms have decided to stick to a four-day week after the conclusion of a six-month trial. 61 firms volunteered to take part in a trial assessing the impact on businesses of a four-day week on full pay.
In total, 2,900 employees from a range of sectors took part in the study, promoted by the 4 Day Week Campaign. Surveys taken before and after found marked improvements in staff well-being.
Some 39 percent of respondents said they were less stressed, 40 percent were sleeping better, and 54 percent said it was easier to balance work and life.
Furthermore, the number of sick days taken by staff fell by two-thirds, while 57 percent fewer staff left the businesses taking part compared with a year earlier.
On productivity, the majority of businesses said they were happy with their productivity and business performance over the six-month period. The results of the study will be presented in full to MPs on Tuesday as part of a campaign to give all workers in Britain a 32-hour week.
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Director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, Joe Ryle, told the Guardian: “Across a wide variety of sectors, wellbeing has improved dramatically for staff; and business productivity has either been maintained or improved in nearly every case.
“We’re really pleased with the results and hopefully it does show that the time to roll out a four-day week more widely has surely come.”
Mr Ryle described the trial as a “breakthrough moment” for the campaign.
Despite the improvements in employee well-being, the jury remains out on whether the four-day week increases productivity.
Boston College’s Juliet Schor, one of the academics behind the trial, told the BBC: “We don’t have a firm handle on exactly what happened to productivity, but we do know that on a variety of other metrics, whether we’re talking about revenue, [workforce] attrition, self-reports of productivity, employee well-being and costs, we had really good results.”
The report’s authors added all the businesses who took part volunteered, meaning they were more likely to want to make it work. Despite this, the authors say the trial makes a strong case for shortening the working week.
Not all businesses have decided to continue the trial such as Citizen’s Advice. Chief Executive Alison Dunn said the charity found many benefits, but there was uncertainty over whether it helped all areas of the operation.
Furthermore, for some businesses, such as start-ups, a four-day week isn’t financially or logistically feasible. In some cases, the work will not wait, meaning that an extra day off isn’t possible.
Despite this, there is hope among the campaigners that by breaking away from the traditional five-day week, employees will have greater flexibility.
Whether it could lead to greater national productivity is not yet known.
