New four-day week trial kicks off for workers across UK

Momentum towards a four-day week is building, with a new pilot scheme by the 4 Day Week Campaign set to involve a thousand UK workers.

The trial will include 17 businesses, and will see staff working a four-day week with no loss of pay.

One organization taking part is the British Society for Immunology (BSI), which from this week will introduce a new, optional four-day week, with working hours cut from 35 hours across five days to 32 hours across four days.

Staff will work either Monday to Thursday, or Tuesday to Friday, making sure that there's full staff coverage for membership services across the week.

"We are excited to offer this new benefit to those employees at the BSI who choose to participate, and hope that this will further enhance our working culture, providing staff with the opportunity to improve their work-life balance and making us an even more attractive employer," said Dr Doug Brown, chief executive of the BSI.

"Of course, it is vital that the quality of service we provide to our members is maintained, and we will regularly review this throughout the pilot to make sure we continue to provide the full coverage of offerings and high-quality customer service that our members rely on us for."

Other organizations in the health sector, including the Royal Society for Biology, Applied Microbiology International, and the British Society for Rheumatology, are moving towards a four-day-week too.

In a previous 4 Day Week Campaign trial last year, the vast majority of companies said that business performance and productivity were maintained. Revenue stayed much the same, rising by 1.4% on average.

Notably, employee stress and burnout plummeted, with 71% of employees reporting lower levels of burnout. Levels of anxiety, fatigue, and sleep issues also fell while mental and physical health both experienced improvements. Measures of work-life balance improved, and the number of sick days fell by two-thirds.

Meanwhile, there was a 57% fall in the likelihood that an employee would quit.

Around the UK, the 4 Day Week Campaign says around 200 organizations are now permanently operating a four-day week.

Four-day week practices gather momentum

The concept of a four-day working has been gathering momentum in a host of industries globally, but uptake is still limited.

Recent trials in Iceland’s public sector showed great promise, with more than six-in-ten workers being offered the option of shorter working hours.

Since the trials began in 2015, there’s been a boost to both economic and general workforce productivity, with the country’s economy outperforming most of the rest of Europe.

The success of the scheme has prompted calls for the private sector to also consider adopting a four-day week.

Similar trials involving 45 companies in Germany found that three-quarters of workers preferred the four-day week, and that seven-in-ten companies said it was easier to recruit new employees.