The four day week that UK employers love in the world’s biggest experience

LONDON (Reuters) – Dozens of British employers experimenting with a four-day work week have decided to stick to it after a pilot hailed it as a major advance by campaigners for a better work-life balance.

Employees at 61 companies across Britain worked an average of 34 hours over four days between June and December 2022, while being paid their current salaries. Of those companies, 56, or 92%, have chosen to continue in this vein, and 18 of them are permanent.

trial The largest in the worldAccording to Autonomy, a UK-based research organization that published the report along with a group of academics and with support from the New Zealand-based group 4 Day Week Global.

While the results could be interesting for companies struggling for talent, other surveys show very few British employers are planning a four-day week soon.

Autonomy’s experience covered a total of 2,900 employees across industries, from finance company Stellar Asset Management to digital manufacturer Rivelin Robotics and a fish-and-chips shop in Wells-next-the-sea.

The majority agreed productivity had been preserved.

Employees said their well-being and work-life balance had improved while the data showed that employees were less likely to leave their jobs as a result of the four-day week policy.

“This is a huge breakthrough moment for the move toward a four-day work week,” Joe Rale, director of the 4 Days a Week Campaign, said in a statement.

Do more work in less time

Paul Oliver, chief operating officer of Citizens Advice Gateshead, said job retention and employment improved and disease levels fell during the trial.

“Employees get more done in less time,” he said.

For some employees, the extra day off was more important than the paycheck: 15% said no amount of money would motivate them to return to a five-day week. Some employees were off on Wednesdays, while others had a three-day weekend policy.

Employers from the marketing, advertising, professional services and charities sectors were the most represented in the experiment. About 66% of respondents have 25 or fewer employees, while 22% have 50 or more employees. 11% were non-profit.

The experience reflects growing scrutiny of how people work, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic when furlough schemes and mandatory work-from-home periods have led many to wonder if they need to sit at a desk five days a week.

In recent years, some major global companies have tried the four-day approach and also reported successful results. Microsoft (MSFT.O) piloted it in Japan for a month in 2019 while consumer goods giant Unilever (ULVR.L) ran a one-year trial in New Zealand in 2020.

However, British companies as a whole don’t seem so keen.

When the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), which represents human resource professionals, Members surveyed last yearfound that very few employers expect to move to a four-day week in the next three years.

Two-thirds of them did not expect any change in the next decade.

However, the evidence that it helped retain employees could be powerful for companies that have struggled to hire workers since the pandemic. Britain has the added complication of leaving the European Union.

“It should give us a competitive edge,” a senior manager at an insurance company said at trial of evidence of retaining staff from four days a week.

Reporting by Sarah Young. Additional reporting by David Milliken. Editing by Andrew Cawthorne

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