As reported last year a trial was held experimenting with a 4 day working week with staff retaining their full 5 day per week salary. The aim of the trial was to explore whether the companies involved could sufficiently increase productivity to maintain pay whilst helping to improve work/life balance.
Although there were initially challenges in balancing non-working days to ensure that the companies could remain open 5 days per week, by the end of the trial in December most companies considered it to have been a positive experience.
It is now being reported by those who ran the 6 month trial that almost all of the employers involved were keen to retain the new working patterns and that it received near universal support from staff. 56 of the 61 companies involved in the study will be retaining the working patterns for now and 18 have said that it will be a permanent change.
The trial organisers did recognise however that the employers who volunteered for the scheme were by the very fact that they volunteered more amenable to the changes and challenges faced by such a change. For the trial to work across the economy more widely employers will inevitably need to see productivity gains so that they can continue paying the same level of wages. Those considering such a step would have to ask how the workers would create the same number of products or provide the same services in a condensed week. Removing unnecessary meetings, travel and admin were amongst some of the easier wins but staff then had to make their own changes to ensure that they delivered sufficient output to make the scheme a success.
If you are an employer who is interested in this trial and would like further information to help consider whether it would be right for you and your business please contact our Employment Law Team on 0345 646 0406 or fill in our online enquiry form and a member of our Team will be in touch.