The 4 day work week has been a hotly debated concept in recent years, particularly in response to ongoing discussions surrounding employee experience and work-life balance. JLL’s 2022 Workforce Preferences Barometer, which delves deep into the desires of post-pandemic office workers, highlights a prominent gap between the flexibility currently being offered by employers and demand from employees. Currently, 56% of employees express a desire for a 4 day work week option, whereas it’s only provided under 29% of companies’ Employee Value Propositions (EVPs).
This 27% gap between workforce expectation and market supply clearly illustrates the need for more businesses to consider leaving the five-day working week behind, or at least attempting to do so through a considered trial period. With various studies highlighting the benefits to business productivity, retention, and overall employee life satisfaction that such a shift can provide, it’s no surprise to see a groundswell of support.
Fewer Hours = Improved Business Productivity? 4 Day Week Global Sure Thinks So…
The UK is increasingly coming across as the ideal location to investigate the validity of the 4 day work week, as it’s currently in the midst of the world’s biggest trial tied to the concept. Almost 3.5 thousand employees of 70 UK companies commenced the 6-month-long trial in June, organised and monitored by the 4 Day Week Global partnership. This trial is following the 100-80-100 framework – 100% pay and 80% work time, with a commitment of 100% productivity from workers. Ensuring that employees receive the same pay for their work is absolutely vital to the success of the trial, as it allows businesses to measure how employees respond to the extra day off, without having to consider compensation as a core factor.
The provision of a 4 day work week has already been implemented to great effect by some major UK businesses, with this tactic presenting itself as particularly promising for implementation in industries still suffering from talent shortages. Additionally, according to a Censuswide survey, the majority of UK employers believe that a 4 day week will be common business practice by 2030. With these considerations in mind, the time seems ripe for an investigation in to the businesses that have already had success with this innovative working model. In this article, we’re doing just that, exploring some of the standout exemplars and providing accounts of their individual experiences and unique methods for implementing the change away from a traditional five-day week.
11 Standout UK Businesses Currently Utilising 4 Day Work Weeks
- Atom Bank
- Autonomy
- Buffer
- Charity Bank
- DataLase
- ESP
- JMK Solicitors
- Loud Mouth Media
- STOPAIDS
- Think Productive
- UPAC Group
Atom Bank
Atom Bank have had their eye on the future of work and the competitive edge that the 4 day work week can potentially provide them for some time now. In November 2021, prior to the historic trial currently underway in the UK, they gave their staff the option to choose to have either Mondays or Fridays off, working 34-hour weeks instead of their prior 37.5 hour ones, without losing any pay.
Atom believes that happy and healthy employees breed happy and healthy customers. Their CEO, Mark Mullen, assured the public that there would be no noticeable change to customer experience, and that the inspiration for moving to a 4 day week was drawn from the challenges they dealt with throughout pandemic lockdowns and the extended period of remote work that followed.
When discussing this inspiration to shift to a more output focused working model, he said: “Before COVID, the conventional wisdom was you had to commute in, sit at a desk all day and repeat that process when you commuted home.” Later adding that the main takeaway he saw from the pandemic was that this form of work “wasn’t necessary,” and that “doing 9-5, Monday to Friday, is a pretty old-fashioned way of working.”
Autonomy
Autonomy is an independent thinktank based in London, specialising in determining the future of work. A fitting speciality, considering their successful implementation of forward-thinking concepts like the 4 day work week.
Working in partnership with the experts at 4 Day Week Global, a non-for-profit established to explore wide-scale implementation of the concept, Autonomy is currently coordinating the aforementioned six-month trial of the 4 day work week being undertaken across the UK. Multiple researchers at Oxford University, Cambridge University, and Boston College have also joined the research efforts to support the pilot program.
Having previously led research efforts into Iceland’s country-wide trial of this new frontier, Autonomy themselves decided to implement the model. As indicated by their status as an accredited ‘4 Day Week Employer’, each of the full-time employees at Autonomy work a 32-hour week.
Buffer
This tech startup was started in the UK, before moving operations to San Francisco and employing a highly distributed team working across 22 countries. Buffer has been an early proponent of the 4 day work week, after conducting a successful trial in 2020 followed by a 6-month pilot.
Positive outcomes for Buffer’s workforce included a reported increase of 8% in autonomy factors, an 8% decrease in stress levels, and the stabilisation of their reported happiness levels at 74% – despite being in the middle of the pandemic at the time.
As a result of the successful trial and pilot period, Buffer is continuing to work fewer hours. However, it comes with some qualifiers. Employees who are unable to meet productivity objectives may need to resume a traditional work week. Though, working in favour of the 4 day work week, Buffer operates a profit sharing model, further spurring staff to self-manage their own productivity and share in the company’s successes.
Charity Bank
Charity Bank is a loans and savings bank for positive social change. They put their money where their mouth is by enacting social change within their own organisation, putting the welfare of their own employees at the forefront. Like other companies who’ve adopted the 4 day work week, Charity Bank cites the pandemic and associated periods of remote work as the catalyst for their changing views surrounding how businesses could operate.
Ed Siegel, Chief Executive, outlined that: “We have long been a champion of flexible working, but the pandemic really moved the goalposts in this regard. We’ve all seen the benefits, and the experience has led us to reassess what good looks like. For Charity Bank, the move to a 4 day work week seems a natural next step.”
He goes on to say that: “By valuing productivity over time spent, we aim to bridge the gap often felt between full-time and part-time staff, removing any possible barriers to promotion and progression.” And, commenting on the UK’s current large scale trial: “Rather than rewarding presenteeism, the four-day week pilot focuses on productivity, outputs, and results.”
Charity Bank are proud to be one of the first UK business entities to reduce their standard work week from 35 to 28 hours, for the same pay and benefits, believing this step will be instrumental in putting them on the right side of history.
DataLase
The Cheshire based company, DataLase, are a global leader in photonic tech, providing inkless printing solutions to help brands connect with customers in new and bespoke ways. They officially moved to a 4 day work week in January 2022.
Clare Lewis, DataLase’s CEO, has discusses her initial feelings of apprehension tied to the gravity of making such a significant change. “This is a bold decision by the Senior Leadership Team, but one that hasn’t been taken lightly. We’ve spent a lot of time considering the implications of a compressed week, and the positives far outweigh the negatives in our view. As expected, the move has been well received by our employees, who are clearly looking forward to establishing their new routines,” she said.
The bet has definitely turned out to be the right one, evident through the recent release of some of their 6-month review findings. Notable benefits so far include improvements to staff morale, mental wellbeing, and work-life balance. In addition, the adoption of this model has allowed DataLase to stand out from their competition, ensuring exposure to higher-quality candidates for future job openings.
Six months and counting into their 4 day work week implementation, Clare Lewis now firmly believes it’s the future of work, stating “This is the way forward, and far more businesses should be adopting a 4 day week.”
ESP (Earth Science Partnership)
Based in Cardiff, ESP is a consultancy comprising geologists, engineers and environmental scientists that have been operating for close to 25 years. They were ahead of the current UK trial, achieving accreditation as a Gold Standard 4 Day Week employer in May 2021.
Their motivations for implementing this non-traditional work model included the improved mental and physical health of their employees, increased productivity, reduction of their carbon footprint, and the promotion of a more sustainable lifestyle. It’s all the more impressive that such a company was able to successfully implement this model, considering they operate in a hybrid capacity, splitting the week between days in-office, remote, and on-site. The fact that they have managed to make this blended work-style fit together seamlessly is a true testament to the hard work they put in to perfect their scheduling.
JMK Solicitors
The leading personal injury specialists in Northern Ireland, based in both Belfast and Newry, JMK Solicitors was one of the first Irish employers to commit to implementing a 4 day work week for all their workers, without any reduction in pay. They made this progressive move all the way back in January 2020 and, after conducting their own two-year long research project on the subject, they found the benefits to far outweigh any potential drawbacks.
Managing Director, Maurece Hutchinson, stated that: “Making people our priority is one of our core values that we strongly believe in, we have fantastic staff, but we never want to be complacent. The four-day working week has improved our staff’s wellbeing, and we have maintained five-day productivity and client quality standards in four days – so effectively we are 20% more productive.”
A lot of other businesses are seeing these types of gains in productivity, as a three-day weekend has the added benefit of maximising energy levels and facilitating the cultivation of a generally happier workforce.
Loud Mouth Media
This multi-award winning digital marketing agency, with offices in London, Glasgow, Belfast and Dublin, already has a track record for forward-thinking operational strategies. Their accolades include being a Google Premier Partner, ranking in the top 3% of agencies in the UK, and winning Best Small Integrated Agency at the 2021 UK Search Awards.
The flexibility provided by Loud Mouth Media extends beyond just the number of days that employees are expected to work, allowing them to choose to spend these days working either remotely or in-office. They seem to have put a large emphasis on building a positive and enjoyable work culture, as evident through their support of social work events, an above-standard 33 days of PTO (not including public holidays), and a performance based bonus scheme that serves as an incentive for top performance.
STOPAIDS
Another early adopter of the 4 day work week, this London-based charity has 35 years of experience in HIV advocacy and supporting both UK and global health movements to affirm human rights and end AIDS. After a successful 18-month trial period that commenced in 2019, STOPAIDS decided to implement a permanent 28-hour work week for all staff.
Relatively unique to this study, STOPAIDS allows their employees to choose how they spread their 28-hours of work, allowing them to opt for either 4 or 5 days at work with no loss of pay. Their early adoption of reduced hour expectations was already heavily hinted before the official change, as illustrated by their previous 35-hour work week policy, which clearly didn’t go far enough.
After ultimately lowing hours worked to 28 each week, STOPAIDS staff reported less stress and pressure around competing concerns related to their work and personal lives. Their staff also generally considered themselves more energised and better rested at work – despite the struggles of the ongoing pandemic that was happening around them. The team at STOPAIDS hope that their example will help prompt others in the NGO sector to follow suit in the near future.
Think Productive
Undisputedly taking the mantle as the first adopter of the 4 day work week outlined in this article is Think Productive, who chose to implement a 32-hour work week all the way back in November 2011. During this time, Think Productive was one of only a handful of companies across the globe that were experimenting with such a radical shift to their working habits. Since these early days, they haven’t looked back, continuing with three-day weekends at full pay and not even cutting holidays.
Think Productive is a global organisation which aims to: “Inspire and equip people & organisations to transform work for the better.” They do this by offering practical support – through in-house workshops and at-desk coaching – to help employees beat stress, feel more in control, and develop playful, productive momentum.
Considering the company’s primary goal is to offer practical support to businesses looking to increase their productivity, this early consideration of an emerging idea like the 4 day work week definitely makes sense. However, such cutting edge (and seeming crazy by 2011 standards) ideas around what work could optimally look like were definitely much harder to convince people about over a decade ago.
The UPAC Group
Prior to implementing their 4 day work week policies, The UPAC Group seemed to have already been doing a lot right, considering their staggeringly low yearly turnover rate of just 1%. They also had the previously stated aim of maintaining their status as the employer of choice for anyone with a desire to enjoy their work and career, making the adoption of a non-traditional and employee-friendly work model a fully logic step for them.
A spokesperson for the Glaswegian end-to-end packaging company states of their operational mantra: “The goal is to create the best possible working environment, inclusive of a work/life balance.” And that: “Though there will be a cost to the company, management perceive this as less important than the welfare of its staff.” Additionally, they have the foresight to realise that: “This money will be recouped over time through improved productivity, less sick days, greater staff motivation and more importantly it ensures continuity for our customers – as it builds on the already staggeringly low staff turnover at The UPAC Group.”
End of the Five-Day Working Week? Wrap Up
It’s obvious that we can see some core commonalities between the aforementioned UK businesses who opted to adopt a 4 day work week. Each participating organisation seems to have seen broad improvements to productivity and employee wellness markers, as well as reductions in reported stress levels, two things which go a long way towards helping employees have a healthy work-life balance.
It’s also reassuring to see that, in cases where the adoption hasn’t worked out for particular employees or teams, businesses have gone back to allowing these groups to work more traditional schedules. Successful rollout seems to hinge on the particular flexibility requirements of workers, as well as the business’ ability to cater to as many working preferences as possible.
The common theme encompassing the move to 4 day work weeks seems to be flexibility, with trends leading away from more traditional and rigid working structures becoming increasingly evident since the pandemic.
Along with the widespread growth of hybrid working, more businesses are allowing for fully remote elements. This has led to some observable shifts towards more productivity and outcomes-based KPIs, encouraging employers to look at the work that’s being done and not simply focus on the number of hours that employees spend working. The constantly-evolving world of work that has characterised the 2020s continues to gradual distance itself from notions of ’traditional’ work. It’s a sure bet that this trend will only continue to grow in popularity and gain traction in the years ahead.
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