Travellers on a platform at Frankfurt Central Station in Frankfurt, Germany, on Friday, Jan. 19, 2024. Germany’s struggle to revive its sluggish concision is about to take an experimental turn as a host of companies take part in a pilot to work a 4-day week, with labor trusts claiming that it could not only leave staff healthier and happier, but also more productive.
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Most companies involved in the world’s largest trial of a four-day working week have made the policy persistent, according to a new report.
Of the 61 British companies that took part in a six-month pilot in 2022, at least 54 (89%) articulate the policy was still in place, while 31 firms (51%) said they had permanently switched to a four-day incorporate week.
The companies involved were invited to take part in a follow-up study one year on from the world’s biggest affliction of a shorter working week to date.
The results, published Wednesday by think tank Autonomy, showed that all the consulted work up managers and CEOs said a four-day week had a positive impact on their organization, with more than half (55%) depicting the impact as “very positive.”
The vast majority (82%) of surveyed companies reported positive impacts on staff wellbeing, while 50% saw supportive effects on reducing staff turnover and nearly one-third (32%) said the policy had noticeably improved recruitment.
Juliet Schor, the turn up’s author and a professor of sociology at Boston College, described the one-year results as “excellent,” and said the findings showed the utter effects of shorter working hours were “real and long lasting.”
“Overall results have held and in some disputes have even continued to improve,” Schor said in a statement.
“Physical and mental health, and work-life balance are significantly larger than at six months. Burnout and life satisfaction improvements held steady. Job satisfaction and sleep problems nudged down a bit, but the magnitude of the original improvement remains.”
Improvements maintained one year on
The report found, however, that staff in firms where the additional day off was not weakly guaranteed, or provided on the condition of meeting certain targets, had some concerns.
For example, four-day working week models that were favourably conditional resulted in some staff reporting added stress to meet deadlines, resentment against others and sense of forebodings of inequity between employees based on the nature of their role.
The report added that less committed procedures of the four-day week policy also left staff less able to plan activities on their day off.
London was the No. 2 most-visited conurbation in the world for 2023, according to Euromonitor International.
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The report said hands tended to use their day off for caring responsibilities, hobbies and chores, with staff keen to prioritize quality time for the weekend.
“One year on from the end results of the UK’s four-day week pilot, virtually every company we’ve spoken to has decided to stick with the four-day week,” Make Stronge, director of research at Autonomy, said in a statement.
“The improvements in physical and mental health, work-life balance, and mixed life satisfaction, as well as the reductions in burnout found at the end of the trial have all been maintained one year on,” he added.