The United Kingdom was one of the pioneer countries in the implementation of a four-day workweek. A proposal that began to take off as a result of the flexibility at work that occurred with the covid-19 pandemic.
The pilot programs were run by the non-profit organization 4 Day Week Global. A survey carried out by the organization showed that 78% of the leaders of the more than 70 companies in the United Kingdom, which changed their schedules, ensure that the transition was good or “smooth”. Only 2% found it challenging.
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Overwhelmingly, 88% felt that four-day schedules work well. Along with this, almost all the organizations that implemented the measure (86%) stated that would keep this kind of day when the pilot programs end in November.
Also, almost half, 49%, considered that productivity in companies had improved and 46% stated that it had remained stable.
“It is extremely encouraging to see thatJoe O’Connor, CEO of 4 Day Week Global, told Bloomberg, who expected organizations to show more stable performance. “We would see it as a huge productivity hit if productivity stayed the same.”
The landscape has widened. For example, lawmakers in California have considered including these types of work schedules statewide for some employees. The most recent Gartner Inc. survey showed that a shorter workweek is a efficient recruitment and retention strategy.
These pilot programs, lasting about six months, are being applied in 180 companies in half a dozen countries, according to Bloomberg. Employers generally do transition to four-day, 32-hour schedules (with variations by role and industry), with no reduction in pay.
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It works, but not in all companies
Workday
Currently the pilots are still in United Kingdom, United States, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland and Canada. However, not all companies that start with the tests, finish them.
About 1 in 5 employers quit, according to O’Connor. Executives who have conducted the pilot studies say they face the dual challenge of exceeding five-day staff and industry norms along with the daunting task of eliminating or improving work processes to achieve the same result in four days. according to Bloomberg.
The main cause of abandonment, according to O’Connor, is that “leadership overthinks it and chickens out“In this sense, they start trying to fix all the possible problems before the test, but that is not effective because usually the productivity gains are built.
The expert also assures that there are difficulties in those companies with problems of mistrust between leaders and employees. “They think they have an open, bottom-up decision-making style, but in practice, that might not be the case“, said.
“It wasn’t a walk in the park at first, but no major change ever is,” Nicci Russell, CEO of Waterwise, a nonprofit focused on reducing water use, told Bloomberg.
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“We’ve all had to work on that; things like annual leave can make it harder to fit it all together. But the team is very happy and certainly we all love the extra day out of the office”, she pointed out.
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