This week we have been talking about flexible working or reduced working weeks, so I wanted to check out if there was any recent research and if so what it had found!
Mad to think that despite advances in technology, many of us are still working approximately the same hours a week as people worked 100 years ago.
The research was part of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (Digit). More info here
UK’s 4 Day Week Campaign, involved 61 UK organisations. The organisations committed to a 20% reduction in working hours for all staff for six months without any reduction in pay.
Findings revealed that a four-day week significantly reduced stress and illness in the workforce and helped with worker retention, with no loss in productivity. Wow!
Alongside the positive impact on the organisations involved in the pilot, the vast majority of which have maintained the four-day working week, the research boosted interest in wider business and political domains.
Just under 3,000 workers took part in the pilot, and 90% wanted to continue with the four-day working week at the end of the trial.
The results also showed:
- more than two thirds reported lower levels of ‘burnout’.
- 39% said they were less stressed.
- 40% reported fewer sleep difficulties.
The research found reduced hours brought benefits to organisations as well as their staff. There was a 65% reduction in sick days and a 57% fall in the number of staff leaving the organisations.
Company revenues barely changed during the trial period. They even increased marginally by 1.4% on average for the 23 organisations that were able to provide data.
Of the 61 companies involved, 56 were still operating a four-day week a year after the pilot.
A CEO of a consultancy organisation involved in the trial, says:
“When you realise that day has allowed you to be relaxed and rested, and ready to absolutely go for it on those other four days, you start to realise that to go back to working on a Friday would feel really wrong – stupid actually.”
These present strong stats, so what do you think? And what day would you go for?