The Four-Day Workweek Study was a six-month collaboration between Boston College, University College – Dublin (Ireland) and Cambridge University (UK) to see what the effects would be on employers and employees for companies that switched from the traditional five-day 40-hour workweek to the more modern four-day 32-hour option.
The results were interesting and may hold the answer to what employees are looking for, as far as that elusive life-work balance, and employers looking how to stabilize their workforce and add to their bottom-line.
One of the main criteria was that employees would not experience a decline in pay; in other words, they would be paid the same salary for the four-day workweek as they were earning for the five-day week.
The Participants
In this survey, the 33 companies that participated employed 903 people at the start of the survey with 969 employees at the end. Of the companies, 12 represented the largest sector: administrative, IT, telecom; nine were in professional services; three were in non-profits. The rest of the nine companies represented were smatterings of one or two companies from a range of industries including:
- Health care
- Food
- Retail
- Construction
- Manufacturing
One interesting fact was the number of employees in these companies: 52% were classified as small companies – with 10 or fewer employees each. One company was large with more than 400 employees. The rest of the companies fell in between as far as number employed.
Most of the companies represented were located in the U.S. and Ireland. The one large company was global with employees in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the U.S. Of the 33 companies, 12, or 36%, were fully remote with no off-line headquarters.
The age range of the employees is also interesting; almost half of those participating in the survey were under the age of 35; only 20% were 45 or older. And as far as education, 72% had at least a bachelor’s degree.
Company Results
At the end of the trial period, companies filled out a final survey. In the Trial Impact section, three questions were asked, “How do you think the 4 Day Week Trial affected your company overall, company productivity and company performance? On a scale of 0 (negative) to 10 (positive), the results from the three questions were 9.0, 7.7, 7.6, respectively.
As far as continuing with the four-day workweek:
- 67% definitely were going to continue
- 26% were continuing for now with no final decision
- 4% leaning towards continuing
- 4% undecided
Some other interesting metrics from the experiment:
- 16 companies saw an increase in revenue over the course of the six months
- 55% saw an increase in revenue when compared to the same time period from the year before
- 18 companies experienced a 12% increase in the number of employees at the end of the six months
Employee Results
Two results noted by employees were they felt they were able to do a better job during their shift than from before the experiment. And, they felt they had an increased control over their work schedules with the additional day off.
For the shortened workweek, 15 companies offered Friday as their additional day off; eight companies did not have a designated common day off. The rest of the companies had various day-off options employees could choose.
As far as continuing the four-day workweek, 96.94% of employees choose “Yes, definitely want to continue.”
To determine how much working a four-day workweek meant to employees, they were asked how much of a salary increase they would need to go back to a five-day workweek:
- 32% responded they would need up to a 25% increase to go back to the old schedule
- 42% required a 26-50% increase
- 13% required more than 50%
- 13% said no amount of money would get then back to a five-day work schedule.
With industries still experiencing labor shortages and employees valuing a better work/life balance, maybe offering a four-day workweek could solve both of these current issues and add to a company’s bottom line at the same time; a win/win for everyone!
