Many of us dream of those Bank Holidays that turn a five-day working week into a four-day stretch, especially since many people appreciate the extra time they had away from the office during the lockdown periods of 2020 and 2021. The pandemic highlighted many issues about general working practices and serious consideration is being given to making a four-day working week a permanent option.
A Pilot Program
It was recently announced that from June 2022, a selection of over 30 companies operating in the UK has signed up to trial a four-day working week. Some of the more high-profile members of this group include Morrisons and Canon.
The details of the trial include employees receiving 100% of their pay and benefits for splitting up their 35 working hours across four days. The trial is going to be supported by a range of global researchers and headhunters who will analyze the metrics and results.
How Will A Four Day Working Week Work?
The four-day working week is based on a strategy called the 100-80-100 model. These numbers refer to 100% of the pay, 80% of the time, in exchange for 100% of productivity.
Even though an employee is working one day fewer in the week, research suggests that the additional time off given to them over a long weekend provides them with better rest and recuperation to turn up on the first of the four working days and give a much more productive effort.
What Are the Benefits of A Four Day Working Week?
There are many people in favor of the four-day working week who will be eagerly anticipating the results of this large-scale trial. Some of the most widely proposed benefits of working in such an environment include:
Increased Productivity
Those in favor of the four-day working week have suggested that having a longer period of rest and relaxation over the extended weekend means that employees come back more refreshed and therefore more productive. The belief is that output should no longer be measured by the number of hours worked, but rather by the quality of results produced in whatever time period is set.
Improved Wellbeing
Having a long weekend period not only improves the productivity of an employee when they are at work, it will also improve their mental and physical well-being in the ‘leisure’ half of their life too. Research has suggested that switching just one day of the traditional work/weekend balance can lead to happier, more content workers, which in turn will lead to better staff attraction and retention.
Improved Sustainability
We now live in a world where every corporation and company needs to have one eye on the impact that it has on the wider environment. From this point of view, a four-day working week will reduce the number of hours spent both in an office that has to be powered, and the collective carbon emissions produced by employees commuting to and from a workplace every day.
With work and life balance being more important now than ever, we are interested to see how this large-scale trial pans out over an extended period of time.
