World’s largest 4-day workweek trial is complete. Here’s what results say

The world’s biggest trial of a four-day workweek in the United Kingdom concluded a year ago.

The results are astonishing.

According to the research, the vast majority of businesses that participated in allowing their workers to work shorter weeks have made the policy permanent.

Employees appeared to have entered a new workplace paradise defined by reduced stress, more job happiness, and improved revenue for the company.

Let’s take a look.

The policy is here to stay

Workers at 61 organisations in the UK promised to deliver 100 per cent of their usual work in exchange for working 80 per cent of their usual hours for the same salary for six months, from June to December 2022.

A report published by one of the trial organisers states that at least 54 (89 per cent) of the companies involved are still using the policy a year later, and 31 (51 per cent) have made the change permanent. The researchers who put together the paper received no response from two companies.

More from Explainers

How ChatGPT is becoming everyone’s BFF and why that’s dangerous This Week in Explainers: How recovering from Gen-Z protests is a Himalayan task for Nepal

“In this study, it has been clear the four-day week is not just a flash in the pan: companies around the UK have successfully been ‘making it stick’,” the authors wrote.

Autonomy, a think tank that conducted the 2022 trial in collaboration with the non-profit 4 Day Week Global and the 4 Day Week UK Campaign, as well as researchers from Cambridge, Oxford, and Boston College, released the findings on Wednesday.

Positive impact on employees

According to the report, workers and their employers have greatly benefited from shorter workweeks.

Employees reported improved physical and mental health, reduced work-related fatigue, a better work-life balance, and increased overall life satisfaction after the trial, and these gains persisted a year later.

Impact Shorts

More Shorts

Ghaziabad woman dead, pilgrims attacked in bus… How Nepal’s Gen-Z protests turned into a living hell for Indian tourists

Were bodyguards involved in Charlie Kirk’s shooting? The many conspiracies surrounding the killing

“The key point is that the strong findings at six months are not due to novelty or short-term impacts. These effects are real and long-lasting,” said Juliet Schor, professor of sociology at Boston College.

More than half (55 per cent) of project managers and CEOs stated their organisation benefited from a four-day week – in which staff worked 100 per cent of their output in 80 per cent of their time, the survey found.

82 per cent of respondents said it had positive effects on staff wellbeing, 50 per cent found it reduced staff turnover, and 32 per cent said it improved job recruitment. 46 per cent indicated that working conditions and productivity improved.

About the trial

Among the 61 organisations involved in the 2022 trial, marketing and advertising, professional services, and the nonprofit sector comprise over half of the participants. The remaining ones are spread across a variety of sectors, such as manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and the arts and entertainment.

To achieve a 31.6-hour workweek, organisations cut working hours by an average of 6.6 hours. Most offered their employees one full day off per week, either all at once or in stages.

The most successful companies made their four-day week “clear, confident, and well-communicated”, and co-designed their policies between staff and management, thinking carefully about how to adapt work processes, the authors wrote.

Some organisations faced challenges when dealing with stakeholders and clients where four-day workweeks were not normal, or where the policy was applied inconsistently, causing dissatisfaction among certain employees.

Autonomy is urging the Westminster government to implement laws that would facilitate its broader adoption, such as granting employees the freedom to ask for a four-day workweek without incurring any loss, conducting a trial in the public sector, and providing financial support to assist with the transition in the private sector.

Calls for shorter workweek

In recent years, there have been a growing number of calls for a shorter workweek. Since millions of workers stopped commuting and shifted to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic to save time and money, these calls have become more pressing.

Numerous trials with the four-day workweek have been conducted worldwide; one such study took place in 2022 and involved 33 enterprises, the bulk of whose employees were located in the United States and Ireland.

The Scottish government has also launched a four-day workweek trial for a few public services this month, as per The Guardian.

Working hours across the world

Currently, India’s labour codes mandate that workers put in eight hours a day, capping the weekly work hours at 48. Despite this, global data shows that India is among the most overworked countries, ranking fifth in the world among countries with long working hours in 2019.

Compare this to other countries – the United States works roughly 36.4 hours weekly, South Korea 37.9 hours, China 46.1, and Russia 37.8 hours. Interestingly, the United Arab Emirates has the longest workweek, clocking a whopping 52.6 hours. The Gambia clocks in second with a 50.8-hour average per week per employed person, while Bhutan is third with a 50.7-hour average per week per employed person.

On an average, most workplaces across the globe mandate a 40-hour week. But this was not always the case. The makings of the 40-hour workweek started in the 19th century. In 1926, Henry Ford popularised the 40-hour workweek after he discovered through his research that working more yielded only a small increase in productivity that lasted a short period of time. And in 1940, it became the law in the US.

With inputs from agencies