UK 4-Day Work Week Trial Shows “Excellent Results”, 88% Companies Involved Will Retain Policy After Trial

With how the pandemic has changed the workplace landscape and dynamics, most companies would need to adopt change that is suitable to the times.

Many Western countries are implementing 4-day work weeks while those of us in Asia can only look at them longingly.

In a recent 4-day work week trial conducted in the UK by 4 Day Week Global, we see their halfway point results that are favourable towards a shorter work week.

This trial started in June and is expected to end in December, there are more than 70 organisations from different industries that took part in it.

Here are some of the key results they got from a short survey with the participating companies at the halfway point (3 months in).

• 88% of respondents stated that the four-day week is working ‘well’ for their business at this stage in the trial;
• 46% of respondents say their business productivity has ‘maintained around the same level’, while 34% report that it has ‘improved slightly’, and 15% say it has ‘improved significantly;
• On how smooth the transition to a four-day week has been (with ‘5’ being ‘extremely smooth’ and ‘1’ being ‘extremely challenging’), 29% of respondents selected ‘5’, 49% selected ‘4’ and 20% selected ‘3’;
• 86% of respondents stated that at this juncture in the trial, they would be ‘extremely likely’ and or ‘likely’ to consider retaining the four-day week policy after the trial period.

Even though the results of this survey are favourable, the transition from 5 to 4 days of work has been challenging for some. The founder of 4 Day Week Global has said,

“We are learning that for many it is a fairly smooth transition and for some, there are some understandable hurdles – especially among those which have comparatively fixed or inflexible practices, systems, or cultures which date back well into the last century.”

She also brought up that some industries allow more flexibility than others and the pilot study can be improved in order to create a model that works for less flexible industries.

Many of us do wish for a 4-day work week and since it has been proven to work for quite a lot of companies globally, maybe, these trials should be done in Malaysia as well. If we never try, we’ll never know the answer, right?

Let us know what you think in the comments.

Also read: “Productivity at the highest” – M’sian CEO Shares The Results of Having a 4-Day Work Week For 6 Months