The latest much-debated work trend is coming up more and more in conversation lately – the four-day working week.
What is thought to be the biggest ever worldwide pilot of the idea is currently taking place across the UK, with more than 60 organisations now signed up.
Run by the 4 Day Week UK Campaign, the trial will run for six months from June and will see more than 3,000 workers take part.
There will be no loss in pay for employees working one fewer day a week – instead they will be asked to maintain 100% productivity for 80% of their time.
New research last month found some 72% of office workers in the UK said they would prefer a four-day working week.
And nearly 125,000 people have now signed a petition calling on the government for a four-day working week.
But how would it work in principle, and how will it benefit businesses instead of just their employees? Some of the companies involved in the trial spoke to Metro.co.uk.
Simon Girling, managing director of recruitment consultant company Girling Jones, explained he was planning to trial a four-day week in January 2022 when 4 Day Week Global announced its pilot scheme at the end of last year.
‘It was nice to know we were now part of a much bigger movement,’ he said. ‘We are now three months in and the first signs are extremely positive.’
The director for the business which is based in Exeter, Devon, added ‘quite simply, we want to improve the lives of our staff’ and hopes workers will be ‘happier and more energised with the ability to spend more time doing the things that are really important to them’.
‘After three months this appears to be working with 100% of our staff detailing positive effects on their wellbeing and work-life balance,’ Simon said.
‘Our team have reported having more energy, sleeping better and waking up naturally. Some have reported feeling less guilty about working and being better parents as a result and everyone is enjoying the change in pace and slowing down of their lives.’
He added there is huge variety in how people use their days off – some are using the time to free up their weekends by doing housework, others have started new hobbies or some are visiting friend and family with their extra free time.
Simon said his main goals were to help attract more staff and retain his existing workforce, and further hoped it would improve productivity.
‘Our first three months of data is showing a positive increase across all metrics with call times and interviews up 21% year-on-year,’ he said.
‘We have also seen a 14% increase in sales compared with our best quarter of 2021 and the next three months are already looking extremely juicy.’
Although he admitted it was much easier for his company to measure metrics than others, he said he would ‘argue whatever the metrics of your business, if you improve the lives of your staff while maintaining or improving your offering then why wouldn’t you?’.
Dominic Chandler, of telecommunications service provider Yo Telecom, explained the company’s decision to take part in the trial is twofold.
The internal sales manager of the Southampton-based company said it is of course to improve productivity, but also to help with ’employee happiness and retention’.
‘The last couple of years has magnified the need for a focus on employee happiness and work-life balance,’ Dominic added.
‘Burn out is very real and if you don’t prioritise your staff’s wellbeing, not only will your business struggle to grow financially due to poor staff performance, but it will also struggle to attract and more importantly retain great staff.’
He said he thinks the idea works as people become ‘more aware of their limited time in the business so spend less time on “filler” work, allocating more of their time to their KPI moving work’.
‘We feel the business will benefit massively as our staff will be more engaged and able to tackle their workload with a clearer head which will allow them to perform to a much higher standard,’ Dominic added.
Of course, it’s much easier for people who work in offices and do the standard nine to five – but what about shift workers and those with more awkward hours?
Platten’s Fish and Chips, in Wells-next-to-the-Sea, Norfolk, is interestingly one of the hospitality firms taking part in the pilot.
Director Luke Platten told Metro.co.uk: ‘After growing up in the hospitality industry I felt that I had lost part of my youth.
‘The industry is famed for long, unsociable hours and combined with the fact that many individuals don’t turn to fish and chips as a career opportunity, but a mere stop gap, I knew we had to change our thinking and our structure.’
He said he read about the four-day week last year and ran it past the team, but said the ‘real challenge was going to be implementing it into a seven days a week, all day, very seasonal business’.
Luke said the shop launched a ‘two days on, two days off’ shift pattern last year with great success, and now hopes to reap further benefits from the four-day week trial.
‘It is now that I wish to take the lead in the hospitality sector and prove that it is not only possible to achieve but it is truly a win-win for all parties involved,’ he explained.
Referring to the pilot as the ‘productivity week’, Luke said it ‘must be treated on an individual basis’.
‘The thread that runs through the agreement is that if you can be more productive with your time then you will be rewarded accordingly,’ he added.
‘For some, this may mean working five days but reducing the hours they work in the day.
‘This particularly works very well for families on the school run, for example.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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