During the month of August, over a dozen Australian organisations are set to begin trialing a 4 day work week as part of a pilot program. It is a co-ordinated 6-month trial in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific running alongside similar pilot schemes taking place in Ireland, the USA, Canada and the UK.

The pilot trial will consider that despite only working 80% of their usual hours, for the same pay, employees will maintain 100% productivity during this time.

5 day work weeks were introduced over 100 years ago, originally for Jewish factory workers to observe the sabbath. One former World Bank policy expert told CNN two theories were key to his 20-hour work week: “Parkinson’s law:- that work expands to fill the time available, and the ‘80/20’ principle, that says 80% of productivity is achieved in 20% of our time”. Is it time for a change?

The trial research was conducted in association with Coulthard Barnes, Perpetual Guardian, the University of Auckland, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and MinterEllisonRuddWatts. Andrew Barnes, founder of Perpetual Guardian states: “It’s not just having a day off a week – it’s delivering productivity, meeting customer service standards, meeting personal and team business goals and objectives”.

A four day week can deliver a lot of benefits, including a better work-life balance, lower staff turnover, lower stress and focused productivity. However, switching to a 4 day work week entails much more than just changing the week calendar and employers looking to implement this must be careful and consider not only the benefits but also the downsides.

What is a 4-Day Work Week?

It seems a simple question to ask, and there are ways to implement it; a shortened week, or a compressed week.

In a shortened week, the hours worked are reduced as one day of the week is simply cut out of the schedule. The belief in the pilot is that productivity will remain the same despite 20% fewer hours worked.

In a compressed week, employees do the same amount of hours as they normally do, compressed into fewer days. Instead of five x 8 hour days, they work 4 x 10 hour days, which allows for longer spans of deep work.

The advantages of a 4 Day Work Week are proposed to be:-

1. A More Efficient Organisation
   
   Many organisations have reported productivity increases (2/3 of businesses in the UK who undertook the pilot reported an increase in productivity when switching to 4-day weeks). It seems that having less hours during the work to work trims out inefficient practices and provides an incentive to be productive.
   
   
2. Less Stressed, Happer, Productive Employees
   
   With the ‘Great Resignation’ and recent rise of hybrid work, it is clear to see how much flexibility and work-life balance offered by a 4-day work week is valued. A workforce that is less stressed and not burntout produces fewer sick days, time to rest and recover, and when returning to work, with a more productive mindset. 92% of employees said they would welcome a switch to a 4-day work week and would support their organisation in implementing it.
   
   
3. Better Recruitment and Retention
   Attracting top candidates is very important, and quite difficult at the moment. It goes without saying that this would be a strong incentive to attract candidates, and at the same time, open the opportunities to a wider range of candidates.

The disadvantages of a 4-Day Work Week can be:-

1. If a 4-day work week is not fully supported by leadership and management, employees may be willing to take advantage of a 4-day work week, but be seen as lazy to others, which could make this benefit look good on paper but doesn’t actually get used.
   
   
2. For customer-facing organisations and teams, new staff may need to be hired to cover all days of the week which may drive up costs;
   
   
3. Some organisations avoided a 4-day week and preferred to offer a flexible 5-day schedule instead. They found that the extra day off inevitably became a day employees managed their affairs, appointments, chores and the like on their day off, but it did not give them the flexibility needed to pick and choose when they worked to meet appointments that could not be scheduled in that fixed day for example. In these cases, a genuinely flexible 5-day schedule was preferable.

The way we work is changing. Organisations are beginning to emphasise the value of flexibility and a good work-life balance, as evidenced by the rise of hybrid teams. The 4-day work week may be the next step in this evolution of work. Ultimately, every organisation is different and have different customers and situations and would need to assess their own needs, advantages and disadvantages.

For organisations looking to get ahead of the curve, implementing a change like this can be a great strength for recruitment and retention.

If you would like to read more about the pilot go to: https://www.4dayweek.com/anzpilot

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