how to decide if the 4 day week is for you
The 4 Day Week campaign is rapidly gaining traction, claiming that a four-day working week would benefit employers, workers, the economy, society and the environment. More than 30 organisations in the UK are conducting a six-month four-day week trial, in a joint research effort commissioned by Autonomy, Boston College, and Oxford and Cambridge universities. Due to the profound changes the four-day week could make to our social fabric, the results are hotly anticipated. In this article we examine the claims and ask whether a three-day weekend could be a realistic future in the UK.
How does it work?
The four-day week is based on the 100:80:100 model – 100% pay for 80% of the hours, with the proviso that 100% of the required work gets completed. The 80% could translate into a full day off or five shorter weekdays.
So the first question is, will organisations really get 100% of the work with 80% of the hours? One leading campaigner believes they will. Futurist and technologist Alex Pang claims that for the average worker, between two and four hours of every working day are wasted through inefficient processes and poor motivation. This means we see a huge amount of ‘slack’ building during the working week. He references a Glasgow call centre that implemented a four-day week after noticing that more than 90% of business was being done Monday to Thursday, such was the drop-off in focus by Friday.
This lack of correlation between hours worked and output is underlined by the fact that the UK works the second most hours of any European nation (behind Greece, if you were wondering), but is nowhere near the second most productive. This fact can be linked to Parkinson’s law, the idea that tasks take as long as the time they are allotted. Based on this, Pang and other campaigners believe that due to the high levels of wasted hours in the five-day working week, the same amount of work could be achieved with a 20% reduction in hours. Put simply, when you’re given less time for the same task, you waste less of it – because you have less of it to waste.
What are the benefits?
The most obvious expected positive outcome is improved work-life balance. Happier, more engaged, better rested employees who still deliver the same or greater outputs. Ever since Kaplan and Norton introduced the Balanced Scorecard in the 1990s, we’ve known there is a causal link between engaged and skilled employees, satisfied customers and financial returns.
Other advantages cited by the 4 Day Week campaign include:
Enhanced EVP, resulting in the attraction of high quality talent
Lower unemployment and higher productivity
Boost to tourism, thanks to more leisure time
Better mental and physical health
Greater gender equality, with a more equal share of paid and unpaid work
Strengthened communities
A more sustainable lifestyle, with more free time to make environmentally-positive choices
A reduced carbon footprint
Those who argue for a four-day week don’t see it as a majorly disruptive idea. They see it as a continuation of the social reform that’s been happening since the 1870s, when unions and workers put pressure on industry and government to ensure shorter working weeks.
What are the challenges?
The Confederation for British Industry posits that increased productivity in a shorter time frame would increase stress on workers. Indeed, some members point to France, which mandated a 35-hour week in 2000. This is now largely circumvented in the private sector (although it does mean people get paid more overtime). They have also flagged failed experiments in the UK, such as The Wellcome Trust halting its four-day week trial due to staffing and administrative difficulties arising from differing work patterns.
Another issue is highlighted by those industries already working at capacity. For example, a 20% reduction in hours in the medical and care industries (usually from eight-hour to six-hour shifts) would mean hiring more staff to make up the lost time. When a six-hour shift was trialled in Sweden in 2015, Gothenburg hospital said that beyond the trial they would have struggled to afford the extra staff required.
The impact on working practices, internal processes and external client management shouldn’t be underestimated, especially if your industry is already working at capacity. Implementing a four-day week would require a new operating model, new ways of working, potentially more staff and greater investment. So the crucial question is…
Can the challenges be overcome?
Campaigners believe so. They note the overwhelming success of trials and stress that detailed planning before, along with in-depth reviews during and after, are crucial to success.
Iceland is a shining example of this. They conducted one of the largest scale trials, involving 30,000 public sector workers. It was so successful that the four-day week has been passed into law. 86% of workers in Iceland are now working reduced hours, or on contracts guaranteeing that they soon will be. The UAE have also just announced a nationwide 4.5-day working week, based on the success of other trials.
In workplaces where costs increased as more staff were hired, staff have reported reduced stress and increased happiness levels. This has in turn impacted on costs. A care home in Virginia reported increased costs of $140k due to increased staffing levels. But, crucially, they also reported savings of $120k due to reduced overtime pay and agency staff covering for absenteeism. On top of this, job applications increased by 500%, job retention hit record highs and patient satisfaction significantly improved.
So, while there are cautionary tales, most trials have been a success, with the same or increased levels of production, and staff reporting being happier.
Is a change long overdue?
We’ve already seen that the UK works the second most hours of any European nation, with no correlation in productivity. In contrast, other countries have continued to reduce working hours, with both France and the Netherlands doing so in legislation in 2000. The UK’s comparative lack of change is seen by advocates as outdated.
When our 48-hour weekend emerged in the 1930s, it reduced absenteeism and increased productivity. Fast-forward to 2020, when for many people the pandemic presented a new view of working life. According to EY, up to 90% of us are now looking for flexible work patterns. So if you want to attract and retain the best talent, there has never been a better time to consider introducing a four-day working week.
Helen Wright, Founder and Director of 923jobs.com, a recruitment agency specialising in flexible workers, believes the concept of the four-day week “is gaining more and more respectability.” She cites examples of three very different companies trialling the approach: a PR agency, a manufacturing business and a global tech organisation. She says, “all of them have different challenges and all are having positive results.”
She does, however, cite two areas of caution. Firstly, the inevitable pressure from some companies to cram five days’ work into four. This is all too easily done in our ‘always-on’ culture, and for many it’s been magnified during the pandemic. Secondly, as with any major change, this takes courage to implement, so starting with a trial and reviewing its success with clients and employees alike is essential.
Fad or future?
We are seeing an increasingly diverse range of industries and cultures trialling and implementing four-day weeks. Professor Juliette Shore of Boston College believes that this state-sponsored change is a huge step forward. The four-day week has moved beyond individual companies into something that OECD economies are considering.
Some stats certainly point to the four-day week being an increasingly popular idea, particularly among younger people. While only 56% of bosses over 55 are considering running trials, nearly 80% of those under 35 are. It’s increasingly being used as a tool to attract talent, with 67% of Gen Z respondents in a recent survey saying they would prioritise four-day week jobs. This combination of increased consideration and enthusiasm suggests that the movement will keep gaining support, increasing the likelihood of implementation at scale.
So, what are the implications?
If you’re considering embracing the four-day week, you will need to run a thorough review of your operating model and create the business case for change:
Are you working with slack, or to capacity?
Can you make efficiency savings which could be re-invested in the four-day week?
What other benefits might this new way of working bring?
If you are undecided, identify what issues are driving the potential desire to consider the four-day week:
If employee motivation, attraction and retention are all drivers, consider conducting a culture review to identify opportunities. These may start in the HR lifecycle but may also, more broadly, include ways of working, structure and process. The four-day week may, or may not be, the solution.
Keep an eye on the current four-day week trials for any learnings you could act upon.
If the four-day week is out, but the debate has raised questions on how else you could improve employee satisfaction and organisation performance:
Run an employee satisfaction survey to identify areas of opportunity – how sure are you that your staff are motivated and engaged?
Keep an eye on your own trends such as staff turnover, absenteeism, efficiency and effectiveness targets. What’s the story behind the data, and do you need to act?
Consider an operating model review to identify opportunities for improvement. Does your current operating model help or hinder the delivery of your strategy?
Whether or not the four-day week is right for you, the increasing traction of the 4 Day Week campaign is a timely reminder that no organisation can afford to be complacent about both their own performance, and employee attraction and retention.