Written by Sam Dow | 12th April 2022
Could four days be better than five? Does a reduced working week lead to greater employee wellbeing without productivity taking a hit?
The answer appears to be yes, from the results of a UK trial of a four-day work week by 61 UK companies from June-December 2022.
Of the 61 companies that entered the six-month trial, 56 have extended the four-day week, including 18 who have made it permanent.
What are the benefits of a four-day work week?
Recruitment and retention
When it comes to recruiting top talent, some of the best candidates for your vacancies might have responsibilities outside of work that mean a flexible working pattern would benefit them. To be able to offer a shorter working week will make you a more attractive employer and could mean the difference between someone accepting and declining a job offer.
This flexibility is also likely to make your employees less inclined to look for new opportunities and stay with the business longer. The results of the six-month trial found 57% fewer employees left the firms taking part compared with the same period a year earlier.
Improved employee wellbeing
A compressed working week should leave more time for your people to focus on their mental and physical health and potentially fewer working days lost due to sickness absence – the number of sick days taken during the nationwide trial fell by about two-thirds and two in five employees said they were less stressed.
Employees may feel more able to focus on work and less stressed knowing that they will have another day every week to run errands or just spend it relaxing.
Sound good? Before you can think about moving to a four-day work week, you need to consider the following:
Is it practical?
A four-day working week will not be suitable for every business, and whether you can introduce this will depend on a number of factors including the nature of your business, customer/client requirements and your employees’ existing working patterns.
Can the needs of your business still be met if you close the office on a Friday? Do you have departments that need to be working five days a week, for example warehouse staff?
Any implementation of a shorter working week will need to be tailored to your business. For example, if your business has to operate Monday to Friday, you could arrange rotas so employees have their extra day off on different days.
How would the change be implemented?
If your business cannot operate on one day less per week, you may need to introduce rotas where days off need to be on different days.
Firstly, think about what the working week could look like. Will employees have Fridays off, a random day in the middle of the week, or will they be able to pick and choose whichever extra day off they fancy? You will need to carefully consider which days’ work best for your business and teams.
How will you change working hours?
As well as deciding which day you give employees back during the week, you also need to think about their contracted hours. Would you ask your employees to work on reduced hours or require them to spread the hours over the remaining four days?
To break this down, an employee working Monday to Friday 9am-5pm could work Monday to Thursday 9am-6:30pm, with Friday’s off.
This is logical if you can’t afford employees to give up their hours back to work-life balance in that employees may end up staying at their desks beyond their finishing time or struggle to remain productive if their days go from eight to ten+ hours.
Changes to pay and employee contracts
If you choose to adopt a four-day working week, consider what changes you will need to make to your employees’ contracts and consult with your HR provider first. The changes you will need to make will depend on how you are changing pay, working hours and if you are trialling a four-day week on a temporary basis first.
Managing teams
Having a team who really know each other and work well together, may be more difficult if some staff members are working a different four-day week pattern to others in the team. Also, how effectively can performance be managed or employee training?
You need to set targets and be really clear and communicate with people around how they are going to be managed and supported. Make sure employees feel comfortable and not pressured to deliver the same output in four days rather than five – focus on quality of work done, not quantity. Have one-to-one meetings with your team to ensure they get the support they need and can tackle distractions.
Dealing with holidays
Employees are legally entitled to holiday and moving to a four-day work week may have an impact on how many days your team receive. For advice on dealing with holiday allowances, don’t hesitate to call our team on 01256 328 428.
Flexible working requests
You may have forgotten that a four-day working week can already be requested by an employee if they make a formal flexible working request. This is the right of every employee with at least 26 weeks’ continuous service. However, it is only a right to request, you as a manager can approve or deny them.
Read more about flexible working requests and how to respond to them here.
What about company culture?
One thing you may forget about moving to a four-day work week is building and maintaining a positive company culture.
How will you maintain a sense of community when your people are seeing each other for one day less than before? For some, this won’t be an issue, but for others, who are more motivated and productive when coming together as a team and love the social side of work, how you keep culture going will be important.
Before you decide to implement a four-day week, you should carefully consider the impact of any major change to your working practices on your business – and seek advice before going ahead, especially to ensure all employees are fully consulted and their opinions taken into consideration.
If you have questions about whether a four-day work week could work for your business, get in touch with our team at info@realityhr.co.uk.