On 1 June, a coordinated effort and large-scale pilot scheme for a four-day week got underway in the UK. 4-Day Week Global in partnership with Autonomy and the 4-Day Week UK Campaign, initiated a six-month trial of a four-day working week, with no loss in pay for employees. This scheme runs alongside similar pilot schemes taking place in Ireland, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
An estimated 3,000 employees from 60 businesses are expected to take part in the ground-breaking trial with employees seeing their hours cut to four-fifths of their usual hours whilst receiving full pay and are expected to maintain the same levels of productivity.
In order to help organisations succeed in implementing the scheme, the organisers will be hosting a series of workshops and webinars complete with an armful of resources to help organisations tackle common challenges, pitfalls and misconceptions. They will also be providing mentors over the six months to support businesses on an individual level.
Andrew Barnes, Founder of 4 Day Week Global commented, “It is not just having a day off a week – it is about delivering productivity, meeting customer service standards, meeting personal and team business goals and objectives.”
The UK becomes the latest in a series of countries that have begun to inch toward a compressed work week and research has shown that compressed weeks are quite successful in alleviating a number of business and employee issues. Though there are still a number of challenges that businesses need to be prepared for (and it may not suit every business model), the outcome of this pilot scheme may lead to more organisations and countries adopting shorter working weeks in the future.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
