UK Four-Day Work Week Hailed a ‘Major Breakthrough’

A large majority of companies that took part in the largest ever four-day work week trial will be continuing with the working pattern in what is being hailed a ‘major breakthrough’ for the UK economy. 

Four-Day Work Week Trial Success

The pilot consisted of 61 companies, from marketing agencies to education services, cutting their working hours to 32 hours a week for 6 months without a wage reduction. It was started in June 2022 by non-profit 4 Day Week Global as part of a broader initiative to find ways to make the working day more efficient. 

The hypothesis was that it would increase productivity and employee wellbeing whilst reducing the gender gap and unemployment. Fast forward to February 2023 and 56 of those companies have extended the trial whilst 18 have made it permanent. 

The decision to extend came after companies reported overwhelmingly positive results. 71% of participating employees reported feeling lower levels of burnout, 43% experienced stronger mental health and 40% slept better. The amount of sick days taken also fell by almost two-thirds. 

Having an extra personal day allowed workers to improve their work-life balance and allocate more time to family, friends, and hobbies.

Alison Dunn, chief executive of Citizens Advice and advocate of the 4-day week, explains: “Our staff have had the intensity of their work ramp up following the pandemic and cost of living crisis. Burnout has been an issue, so the four-day week has given them space to decompress: we’ve had people spend their extra day off with their children, take forest walks and monetise their hobbies.”

Employers felt financial benefits, too, with 57% fewer staff leaving companies and average revenue rising 35% against 2021.  

Ed Siegel, Chief Executive of participant company Charity Bank, also saw benefits to employer brand: “I would say that for roughly two-thirds of our team, it’s been fantastic – it’s been amazingly successful. They have successfully transitioned to working four days a week and they love it. It has really moved the dial on the mood, and people are like, ‘Wow, that’s a great organisation I’m working for here.’”

Joe Ryle, Director of the campaign, is thrilled with the results, commenting: “Across a wide variety of sectors, wellbeing has improved dramatically for staff; and business productivity has either been maintained or improved in nearly every case.

“We’re really pleased with the results and hopefully it does show that the time to roll out a four-day week more widely has surely come.”

The overwhelmingly positive results have been presented to MPs as part of the fight to implement a 4-day work across the UK. 

Potential Drawbacks of a Four-Day Work Week 

Yet, despite the positive data, there are still some potential drawbacks to the 32-hour week that could hinder its rollout. Of the 61 companies that trialled it, 18 businesses reverted to the traditional 5-day working pattern. 

Rivelin Robotics, an 8-person startup that have been taking Fridays off as part of the pilot, met some speedbumps. David Alatorre, Chief Technology Officer at the firm, “wanted to instil a culture in the company of putting wellbeing first” but wasn’t convinced by the shorter week in relation to productivity. 

“We had a trade show that was a big launch for one of our products and a couple of the major parts were delayed. And we just couldn’t physically start the process until they arrived,” Mason said. “There was no way at that point in time that we could have spread that load.” 

Another company that struggled with the shorter week was engineering and industrial supplies company Allcap. Managing Director Mark Roderick was hoping to offer his staff some relief after they worked intensely throught the pandemic, but the move had the opposite effect, causing them to leave the trial early. 

“As opposed to 10 normal workdays, we found that employees would have nine extreme ones – once they got to their scheduled day off they were exhausted,” Roderick explains. “Once we factored in holidays, sickness and caring responsibilities, we also struggled to find cover for an employee on their rest day.”

Participating companies that faced these issues suggested a 6-hour workday instead, claiming that would avoid workloads intensifying too much. 

Increased burnout wasn’t the only issue that arose throughout the pilot. Employers managing customer-facing roles found scheduling a challenge; some had to hire new talent to allow existing staff to have 3-day weekends, pushing up recruitment costs. 

Exclusivity was another blocker for these businesses. The working pattern is “not available to our contact centre team, who have clearly defined opening hours,” says Dunn from Citizens Advice. “Their work is heavily monitored with specific KPIs set by our founder that need to be delivered – currently, they can only make marginal gains.” 

These industries also found that, as their busiest days are those that others will be off work, they can’t afford to offer customer-facing positions 3-day weekends. This creates massive inconsistencies in company policy that could lead to resentment towards management and job dissatisfaction. 

UK Four-Day Week Future 

Despite the hurdles some companies have faced, 4 Day Week Campaign is now fighting to give workers across the nation the right to request a 4-day week. They presented the results to the government in February as part of this move. 

Ryle explains: “The economy doesn’t need us to be working five days a week any more. It was 100 years ago, the shift to a five-day week, and the economy’s transformed since then.”

The majority of participants extending the trial shows that attitudes have changed since before the pandemic and employers are more receptive to the change. What remains unclear is whether the government will be on board, and how companies across different industries will approach shorter weeks.

How 4 Day Weeks Can Tackle Climate Change

1. Reduce Commuting

Reducing commuting is one of the most important contributors to the positive climate impact of the four-day work week. One study found that introducing a four-day work week by 2025 would shrink UK emissions by 127m tonnes a year – equivalent to taking 27 million cars off the road.

A five-day week means five days a week of commuting. And while only 27% of Londoners commute to work by car, most regions in the UK and other countries report this figure at about 70%.

Data from the UK pilot showed a 10% reduction in commuting time during the trial period.

One study linked a 10% reduction in working hours to a 14.6% drop in carbon footprint, a 12.1% drop in ecological footprint, and a 4.2% drop in carbon dioxide. A four-day week would represent a 20% reduction in hours, potentially leading to double these figures.

It’s essential to recognise the compound effect of reducing commuting too. Someone driving to work less minimises the individual’s carbon footprint, but when many people are reducing their commuting and working hours too, it also starts impacting traffic. This further reduces time on the road and reduces pollution from idling in traffic – which can produce twice as much exhaust emissions as an engine in motion.

2. Build Sustainable Habits

The four-day work week UK pilot also found that those taking part were inclined towards a lower consumption lifestyle and had more time for time-consuming sustainable habits.

More ‘disposable’ time impacted behaviour and people were more likely to engage in low-carbon activities like hiking and adopt more climate-friendly practices like recycling and buying eco-friendly products. They were more likely to take public transport and volunteer for pro-environment causes.

3. Reduce Stress and Improve Health

The shorter work week trial in the UK saw 2,900 employees across the country take part throughout the six months. Surveys taken before and after found that 39% said they were less stressed, 40% said they slept better, and 54% said they had a better work-life balance. These are incredible results for employees, but how can this positively impact the environment?

Stress doesn’t solely cost the individual; it also costs the NHS 165,000 bed days per year with a price tag of £71 million. Stress may also play a major role in other acute and chronic conditions, including heart attacks, strokes, and obesity. Each of these is a significant burden on the healthcare system, too, which is one of the most emission-heavy components of our society, accounting for between 4 and 5 % of our annual emissions.

4. Save Energy

Office buildings across different sectors are also high energy consumers – with businesses using electricity to light, heat, and air condition workplaces, the bills can be huge.

It’s not just powering offices that consumes energy to allow us to work. Data centres now outstrip the aviation industry in terms of Green House Gas emissions, accounting for 2.5% – 3.7% of global emissions. One big data storage centre consumes the same amount of electricity as 50,000 homes. By effectively turning off data traffic for one day a week, the implications for the environment could be huge.

Four-Day Week Company Success Stories

If you’re still not convinced how adopting a four day work week can boost productivity, here are a few businesses across different sectors seeing incredible results.

• Technology company Bolt introduced the four day week in 2021. According to an interview with its founder, 94% of workers and 91% of managers wanted to continue after the three-month trial. Bolt have embraced change on a permanent basis and adopted the four-day work week for all employees–improving work/life balance for its workforce.
• US-based Buffer increased productivity and employee well-being by implementing a four-day working week. It saw a staggering increase in productivity and happiness among 91% of its team members.
• Project management software company, Basecamp has been well ahead of other businesses and implemented a four-day working week policy in 2008. Its four-day work week during the summer months every year allows employees to take advantage of lighter evenings and warmer weather–improving mood and productivity.

Four-Day Week Around the Globe

Reducing hours to improve work-life balance isn’t a new concept. Countries across the globe have trialled a four day week and have responded to the results in different ways.

Germany

German start-ups and large enterprises have experimented with a shorter working week successfully. As a result, more than 150 companies in Germany have now switched to a four-day week on a permanent basis, with 71% of German companies preferring it.

Plus, Germany now has the least number of working hours per year per employee of all countries worldwide–ranked first out of 46 countries.

Japan

Big companies including Panasonic and Microsoft Japan cut work hours and joined the movement. 

CEO of Panasonic stated “We must support the wellbeing of each employee”, and Microsoft Japan reported a reduction in electricity costs.

Iceland

One of the world leaders in the four-day working week, Iceland carried out two trials of a 35-36 hour work week involving 2500 public sector employees between 2015 and 2019.

The trials showed a shorter work week reduced stress and burnout without affecting service provision or productivity. Hence, participating businesses in Iceland reduced their working hours, and the vast majority, almost 90% of the working population, have reduced hours or other flexible working patterns to reduce perceived stress.

United States

Bolt was the first tech unicorn to experiment with the four-day week work and prove that doing so could increase productivity, engagement, and wellness.

Scotland

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced a fund for firms to trial the four-day week.

Companies who are implementing it reported increases in profitability and efficiency. LUX, a creative agency, informed growths of 30% in output and profitability. 

Some organisations implemented this to close the gender gap and support minorities to fulfil their potential. This was the case for YWCA Scotland, who believe cutting hours has major benefits for working women. 

New Zealand

Unilever trialled the shorter work week by paying its employees five days while working just four.

The New Zealand-based trial lasted 18 months and showed an improvement in staff well-being. The results showed employees took fewer sick days, stress levels were reduced by 33%, and work life conflict fell by 67%.

Belgium

Recent legislation in Belgium now allows workers to work a four-day work week. Although employees are still expected to maintain their contracted hours with the same pay, workers now have the option to work flexibly–extending working hours each day while working fewer days.

Implement Your Four-Day Work Week with Factorial

Follow our step-by-step guide and implement the four day work week at your company:

1. Consult with your people. Find out employee thoughts and aspirations about their existing five day week and working patterns. An internal communication tool from Factorial can simplify the consultation process and provide transparency.
2. Role model best practices. A top-down, bottom-up approach shows your people you are excited about new working patterns. Show your workforce how excited you are about new ways of working, such as sharing how you will spend your day off.
3. Keep salaries the same. Just because people will be working fewer hours does not mean reducing their wages. Base outcomes on productivity levels, not working hours, and communicate this regularly.
4. Start small. Test out your four-day week processes to measure success. Use customisable reports and metrics from employee satisfaction surveys or time-tracking software to gather accurate insights and make future decisions based on fact, not a hunch. Configure the different types of absences and get complete visibility of everyone’s working patterns at the touch of a button.
5. Create and track employee performance. Find out if your new four-day working patterns positively impact individuals with performance reviews. Tackle any difficulties with new ways of working and reduce the potential for staff quitting for reasons you can resolve together, such as issues with childcare arrangements.
6. Document procedures. Store your new four day work week policies safely in Factorial’s encrypted document management system. Securely upload, share, and organise all your company’s documents for new and existing employees to access when needed.

While you transition, don’t forget to consider these elements:

• Use cloud-based HR software to reduce traditional paper-based HR records and improve data security. Automate routine tasks and make sure employees stick to their agreed hours, supporting a better work life balance.
• Since one in three people doesn’t trust their employer, build confidence for reasons for change by keeping the whole workforce well-informed of progress and developments.
• Communicate your goals and empower your people to take ownership of new working practices by involving them in decision-making. Why not invite an employee representative to your next HR strategy meeting? They can give feedback on vital information to colleagues–saving you time to spend on other business priorities.